The history of the Skrmetta family mirrors the Mississippi Coast’s evolution since the turn of the 20th century — the good, the bad and the “wide open and wicked,” as The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger once described the atmosphere.

This season, the Skrmettas are celebrating the 100th anniversary of what is now Ship Island Excursions, a seasonal ferry service to one of four unspoiled barrier islands off the state’s coastline. Three generations of Skrmettas, with a fourth following, have brought more than 1 million visitors to Harrison County’s shores and islands since 1926.

The “wide open and wicked” slice of Coast history started it all. During Prohibition, Capt. Pete Skrmetta, who immigrated from Croatia to pilot fishing schooners, started ferrying passengers to the Isle of Caprice. There, bootleg liquor flowed and dice rolled.

When the Isle of Caprice sank into the sea, he moved on to Ship Island. Capt. Louis Skrmetta, his grandson, followed his father Capt. Peter into the pilot’s chair. During Biloxi’s lawless days, slot machines were everywhere, including in grocery stores and on the Skrmetta ferries and Ship Island.

Louis Skrmetta’s grandparents were among many Croatian families who settled on the eastern tip of Biloxi’s peninsula, known as The Point, to form a tight-knit fishing community in the early 1900s, back when Biloxi was known as “the seafood capital of the world.”

Louis Skrmetta has boarded his family’s ferries to Ship Island since he was a baby, as have his brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and sons. He used to sit on his grandfather’s lap in the pilot’s chair.

His entry into the business seemed inevitable. His mother and father had four sons, “a ready-made workforce,” he laughed, adding, “I didn’t have any choice, I mean, I went to work in that station wagon with my dad at 10 years old and did it every summer I can remember. I remember the first time I soloed to the island. That was a big deal, you know?”

He was 19 years old. Now 70, Louis Skrmetta plans to retire after the season. He and wife Tina are off in January for an extended jaunt through Europe, where they will visit her family in Germany and his in Croatia. He feels so tied to the country of his ancestors that he has applied for dual citizenship.

Hurricanes make for risky business

Ship Island, only 12 miles offshore, is a world apart from the mainland. No gas stations, condominiums, hotels or houses mar the island’s beauty. Most days, the green waters are calm and crystal clear on the north side, where the Mississippi Sound laps at the sand. On the southern beach, visitors relax to the constant cadence of Gulf surf.

Wildlife abounds. Dolphins break the water’s surface in the Sound, catching the ferry’s draft. Pelicans, least terns, sandpipers, hermit crabs and other creatures line the shores, while fish slip like shadows across the sea floor and vegetation fills the island’s interior. The relentless flow of the sea constantly reshapes the barrier islands. Tropical storms and hurricanes rearrange the landscape.

It takes a special kind of courage to start and continue a business operating at the whim of Gulf weather. The sinking of the Isle of Caprice was only the beginning. Thunderstorms, tropical storms and hurricanes have all bedeviled the ferry service. The BP oil spill hit in 2010 and COVID in 2020.

After the 1947 hurricane and 1969’s Camille, the Skrmettas had to pick up the pieces, rebuilding concession stands, piers and docks.

“During the twenty-four years from 1947 to 1971, the Skrmetta family provided all the labor, equipment, infrastructure and financing to build and maintain several 300-foot docks, beach pavilions, and bathhouses on the island,” says a family history on the Ship Island Excursions website. “They were the sole providers of food service, trash collection, security service, fort maintenance, and all infrastructure and utilities needed to operate the island facilities. Many times the family paid for dock and building repairs after storms and hurricanes.”

After Camille, historic Fort Massachusetts, completed in 1868, was about to collapse into the Mississippi Sound on the island’s north side. The original Capt. Pete spent $4,000 to save it. In 1971, Gulf Islands National Seashore was established and the National Park Service assumed management of the barrier islands.

Ship Island Excursions was caught off guard when Hurricane Katrina shifted and barreled toward the Mississippi Coast in 2005. The monster hurricane hit Aug. 29, 2005, a Monday.

The preceding Saturday, the ferry service operated to Ship Island. By Sunday, the ferry crew was scrambling to secure three vessels in Bayou Bernard. During the storm, the boats rose like an elevator when Katrina’s surge rolled in. Four mooring lines snapped, with the boats dangling from one safety line.

With Skrmetta urging him on, William “Capt. Buck” Buckley snagged a jet ski bobbing past. The key was in the jet ski’s cupholder. Buckley cranked up the jet ski and managed to re-secure the mooring lines, saving the vessels from certain destruction.

It doesn’t take a major hurricane to dampen business.

“I mean, believe me, you make a living doing this, but you don’t get rich doing this, you really don’t,” Skrmetta said. “There’s so much risk involved . . . One summer, I remember it rained just about every day. It kills your business . . . The main thing is the weather. That’s our biggest fight.”

On a recent day, pilot William “Capt. Buck” Buckley, helmed the Capt. Pete, a 500-foot aluminum vessel that can carry 308 passengers, while Skrmetta visited with media crews from New Orleans television station WDSU and the Sun Herald.

Skrmettas befriend ferry passengers

The original Capt. Pete had two sons, Louis Skrmetta’s father Capt. Peter and his brother James Noel “Jimmie” Skrmetta, who also had his captain’s license. Jimmie Skrmetta, now deceased, offered Ship Island service from Biloxi, while Peter Skrmetta branched out to Gulfport. Other family members also have been part of the business.

Eventually, Jimmie Skrmetta devoted his full attention to landside business, including his waterfront restaurant in Biloxi called The Pier, while Peter continued with Ship Island Excursions. In addition to the oldest son Louis Skrmetta, Peter Skrmetta’s other two living sons, Steven and Kenny Skrmetta, also are owners and officers in the business. Steven Skrmetta handles maintenance operations, while Kenny works for E.N. Bisso & Son Inc. in Gulfport, a ship-assist and harbor tug service.

The brothers also have cousins who are involved in the business.

Louis Skrmetta and his first wife, Beth Hatch Skrmetta, had two sons. The youngest, Peter Joseph, earned his commercial captain’s license as a young man and fully intended to work in the business. He and brother Robert grew up on the island, spending summers there with their mother, who ran the concession stand.

But the family lost young Peter Skrmetta in 2019 to a fentanyl overdose. “It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me,” his father said, noting that mourners spilled out of St. James Catholic Church in Gulfport onto the roadside out front. Robert Skrmetta is a bank examiner for the state, but he also has his captain’s license. His father has encouraged him to pursue his career, reminding Robert that he can always join the family business.

Peter’s grandfather, the legendary Capt. Pete, lived to the age of 94, passing away in 2024.

After joining Ship Island Excursions, Louis Skrmetta persuaded his father to modernize the business. They adjusted the seasonal schedule and transitioned from smaller and slower wooden vessels to aluminum boats that held more passengers. One of their ferries would cost $5 million to replace, while the other would be $8 million.

Over the years, some passengers have become friends. A fellow lover of Corvettes died and left his prized 2014 model to Louis Skrmetta. Another passenger, Bessie Holland Heck, spent her 1966 trip to Ship Island talking to Louis’ father, Capt. Peter. She came away with an illustrated children’s novel, Capt. Pete, that is still available.

Taking an environmental stand

During his years at Ship Island Excursions, Louis Skrmetta has become an important voice and leading advocate for the environment, beginning in 1988.

“The National Park Service came to us one day and told me and my dad, ‘Look, we’ve got a problem.” The state wanted to allow three Norwegian fish farms in net pens off Horn Island. Not only would the fish draw birds off the island, park service rangers feared, their medicated fish food would pollute the water bottoms. Plus, all the fish and debris would wash up on the island in the next hurricane.

Skrmetta, who has a mild-mannered demeanor, researched the plan and helped gather opposition, including attorneys and environmental groups, to successfully oppose it. He’s also been involved in opposition to oil leases near the islands and other environmental issues. His voice is important because he is seen as a businessman, not a “granola cruncher,” as one environmentalist told him.

He doesn’t know for sure when his last official voyage as captain will be, but it will come as the current season wanes. He will take with him more fond memories than he can count.

He recalled spending the night on the island as a pre-teen.

“We would stay in the snack bar on that screen porch at night,” he said. “It was the eeriest thing. We would shut the generator down. It was so quiet, and all you could hear was the waves rolling in. It was so super with a full moon.

“It was just glorious, really.”

Uniquely Mississippi Coast

Bikin’ the Beach and Jeepin the Coast back in South MS. Both are in the same place

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