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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> 1970 to 1999 Miami Area Historical Photos Gallery - click on image to view > 1975 - the Goodyear Blimp Mayflower N1A in between flights on Watson Island
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SEP-1975 Don Boyd

1975 - the Goodyear Blimp Mayflower N1A in between flights on Watson Island

Watson Island, Miami, Florida


It's a shame that the City of Miami and Goodyear couldn't come to terms to keep the blimp in Miami instead of moving to Pompano Air Park via Opa-locka Airport for a couple of years.


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michael 23-Jan-2010 04:12
One of my favorite photos of the entire memories collection. Guest who wrote about Brette and Bert, I knew them well, as I was one of their regular customers for bait and fuel. Perhaps you remember me as well, a small rowboat/fishing guy who later got an outboard for it, and came across from Miamarina.

After Miamarina was closed in late 1985 to remodel for Bayside, we (fishing fleet) was chased to the marina on Watson Island, where I rented one of the boatslips for my 12 foot boat. I was in slip 8 (north end). Mom and dad sold fish there for the Reward as well as Sea Boots , Blue Sea 2, and several others. I have many photos of this place, especially from 1985-1990, when we moved to Stuart (up the coast).
Guest 06-Mar-2009 16:15
MY MOM AND DAD BETTE AND BERT RAN THE FUEL DOCK ON WATSON ISLAND FOR MANY OF YEARS . MY BROTHER AND I WOULD BE THERE ALMOST EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL AND HAD MANY RIDES ON THE BLIMP WE WOULD PLAY SOFTBALL WITH MOST OF THE CREW OF THE BLIMP WHEN THEY WERE SLOW
GREAT MEMORYS .THANKS MARK TUMPSON LIVING IN GEORGIA
John Yellen 30-Dec-2008 23:45
At age ten, (1971) we moved from San Diego to Miami Beach, where we lived on Palm Island for five years, on the Mac Arthur Causeway, when it was still lined with Australian Pines. Later I lived on my dad's schooner which we berthed variously at the Miamarina outer wharf, Watson island next to Pappy Chalks' airline, ( a couple of slips down from the hydrofoil portion of the yacht from the 007 movie, Thunderball, (which actually sank at the dock while I was there, and was pulled out in pieces by a crane and carted off ) and got to fly on the Mayflower, the Goodyear blimp. The captain actually offered to let me handle the helm! Dummy me turned him down, but I was only 14 at the time. Thank you Very much for this trip down memory lane and back into time before memory!
Don Boyd30-May-2008 16:13
Great memories Carl! Thank you for sharing them with us. I hope Bill someday sees your comment about saving your life. Goodyear is alive and well at Pompano Air Park and I have a variety of fairly current blimp shots athttp://www.pbase.com/airlinerphotos/blimps_n2a . It's a shame Miami lost them but at least they're still in South Florida.

Don
CCxCCCC 30-May-2008 13:51
I worked as Ground crew on the Miami blimp in the early 1960's. Like a lot of young guys, I was 17 years old and had travelled down to Miami from New York to hang out for awhile. The Blimp's Captain was Lee Cermak. I worked there for about three or four months.
I contacted Goodyear a few years ago to ask about Captain Cermak. They wrote back to say he had recently died.
After the daytime rides were iver, we would load all the computer equipment for pumping out the messages in lights on the blimps sides as it flew over Miami Beach at night.
One night as we were loading the equipment, I felt a hand on my shoulder violently jerking me backwards. It was a fellow ground crewman called Bill. His face was ashen white. He had just pulled me away from the invisible giant whirling propeller that I was slowly walking towards and only two feet away from. The fast spinning props are virtually impossible to see at night. He saved me from becoming minced meat. I owe the guy my life, and have always remembered him. Thank you Bill.
Years later in 1967, I happened to riding a motorcycle across Canada, and stopped in at a World's Fair show in Montreal called Expo 67 . And there was the Goodyear Blimp. They had flown it all the way up from Miami. Bill wasn't there. But Captain Lee Cermak was, plus some of the old officers. We had a pleasant chat, and then I left. That was the last time I ever saw the blimp or Lee Cermak.
Thanks for the nice site and memories.
I tried to add my name in the place below this slot, but it doesn't want to take it.
I currently live in London England. Best wishes Carl,
email "plumedenom'at'hotmail.com
Bill Simons 15-Apr-2008 00:55
I can't believe I found this website. I was born in 1951 at St. Francis hospital. My grandfather would take me every birthday as far back as I could remember to Watson Island. I would have the option of a ride on either the blimp or the helicopter that was based there. What great memories! I think it only cost 7.00 to ride the blimp back then. My friend Seth Bramson has provided me with some good pictures of the blimp when it was based there. I grew up on Sunset Island # 3 and my dad owned Long's Office Supply in Miami.
George 06-Mar-2008 20:38
I guess my attention was always on the blimp. Plus I wasn't very familiar with Thunderball at the time. I was about 5 during this time.
Are they finally going to build that resort on the remaining land of the old blimp base?
Parks 02-Mar-2008 02:32
The hydrofoil from Thunderball was indeed tied up at Watson Island for a few years. Several of the underwater vehicles from the movie ended up at Allied Marine on the Miami River near 22nd Avenue.
Parks 01-Mar-2008 23:45
The hydrofoil from Thunderball was indeed tied up at Watson Island for a few years. Several of the underwater vehicles from the movie ended up at Allied Marine on the Miami River near 22nd Avenue.
Guest 22-Feb-2008 16:49
My brother was on the ground crew in the 70's for the mayflower there.Probably in the picture!
Carol 08-Feb-2008 16:04
In 1969 while working at Channel 7, I got two tickets to ride the blimp. It was great fun!
Don Boyd19-Jan-2008 01:06
They WERE on the left of this image. They've been shut down since their tragic accident where the wing fell off and they crashed in Government Cut.

Don
Guest 19-Jan-2008 00:44
Lourdes - isn't this where the CHALKS -water planes are?
John 13-Jan-2008 22:28
There was also an abandoned blimp base off of SW 152nd St probably near where the Metro Zoo is. The USCG also had a small presence out that way. This abandoned blimp base served as a drag strip for us teens around 1970. It was huge, paved, but had some weeds growing out of the pavement due to lack of use.
George 04-Oct-2007 16:11
Pompano Beach stinks. It's so lifeless and boring. And that hangar, how I hate that hangar. The damn blimp is almost always hidden inside. Blimps had survived for 50 years on Watson without a hangar.

By the way, don't remember the Thunderball hydrofoil there. Like you I was at the Island alot. Was it really the Disco Volante?

Here's to all the Goodyear blimps that graced Watson Island: Puritan, Rainbow, Ranger and I guess the five or six Mayflowers that resided there!
Guest 30-Sep-2007 16:08
I miss those days.... My Dad was one of the blimp pilots from 1968 - 1982 and I spent a lot of time on Watson Island. They were great times. Fishing all over the island, getting free bait from Betty & Berts 66, watching the sea planes at Chalks. Cars would line up along McCarthur Causway just to watch the Blimp take of or land. I also remember the "Thunderball" hydrofoil docked there from the 007 movie. I knew that island like the back of my hand. I miss it much. Virginia Key would have been a way better place than Pompano Beach in my opinion. My Miami was the Mayflower's home..... RIP N1A.
Guest 29-Sep-2007 18:15
Don't forget the Japanese Gardens located behind the blimp. They were donated to the city by a group in Japan. They were there until sometime in the 2000's, I think.
George 10-Sep-2007 16:37
Good Ole Maurice Ferre, always sucking the life outta Miami. The blimp base was so much part of Miami and its history. You know one interesting thing is that the MaCarthur used to not cross the island midway as it does now. The original roadway is the one that is on the edge of the water where people park to look at the cruise ships. I have a coffee table book called Cities From The Sky, which shows aerial shots of cities taken by Fairchild from the 1920s through 40s. There's a 1947 photo of downtown and you can see Watson and the L-type class Mayflower hitched to its mast. There was plenty of room back then because the road didn't cut through the island. Wonder if GZ-20 could have fitted in there.
Guest 03-Aug-2007 17:42
INCREDIBLE! I was about 3 years old this year (1975) when my parents took me on a helicopter ride here at Watson Island. The Goodyear blimp was there as well. I must ask my parents for these pictures, this brings back too many memories. Thanks for the website.
Guest 21-Jul-2007 07:30
As a former Goodyear pilot, operating out of Watson Island in the 1970's, I was sent to the Carson, California base for training and was the first Miami based pilot trained on the GZ-20. Trust me, it would have never operated successfully out of Watson Island! The Watson Island base was only approximately 4 acres. California was about 36 acres and it was a problem at times with the GZ-20. Thank Mayor Maurice Ferre for driving the blimp out of Miami. Goodyear wanted to obtain 42 acres on Virginia Key and cover it with soil stabilizing sod and other grasses. Ferre wanted 42 acreas of concrete from his Lone Star Industries concrete plant. The city figured, since Goodyear had been a fixture since 1926, they would not leave. Pompano Beach bent over backwards to accommodate the company's needs, and a year later, Goodyear moved to Pompano.
George 10-Jul-2007 13:41
You know, looking at this photo, I believe Goodyear could have fitted the larger GZ-20A blimp on Watson Island. Was it because they wanted to build a hangar for the airship and that just couldn't be done on Watson? The blimp base in Carson, CA has never had a hangar and its been like that since the 1930s. GOSH DARN I miss the Watson Island blimp base!
Guest 26-Jun-2007 04:36
Right, the City of Miami Should never have let the blimp get away.
The one time we finally decided to step up to the plate and ride the blimp, we went to the blimp base only to be told that we had to have a reservation.