There is little doubt about the Miami-Nassau packet boat Bellamena's history and when she took on her new colours, only the 'why.' Politics, camouflage, hide the rust stains, nobody really knows.

Given her designer was none other than Nathanael Greene Herreshoff Bellamena was a bit of East Coast yachty royalty and she had carried bright white topsides since her 1888 launch at the Herreshoff Yard. Small wonder the change up caused such a local stir. The Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI is a treasure trove of info on her.

And no doubt she eventually turned to bootlegging in her 'twilight years' but at 130 steam-powered tonnes she was anything but stealthy. All reports reflect her as a stationary mother ship not a 'runner':

“Gun Cay. We found six or seven small schooners lying in the harbor and also the old steam yacht 'Bellamena' and a U.S. Coast Guard motor launch. Almost immediately two negroes put off in a dinghy from the schooner nearest to us and on coming alongside asked us if we wanted to buy any whiskey. ... We then enggaed [sic] the older man in converse about the way to cross the Bank, which is not very obvious from the large scale chart. ... He said he was in charge of the little schooner and the steam yacht, which, as well as all the other schooners, were loaded with whiskey, waiting to be sold to small rum runners from Florida. [Accompanied by photo of Ballymena at anchor, captioned: 'Old Yacht Ballymena Loaded with Rum Anchored in Gun Cay Harbor'."

[Greenough, William. The Log of the Ventura in the Bahamas, (New York: Privately printed, New York Yacht Club, 1925.)]

She was almost certainly still at it when she foundered there in the 1926 hurricane. The wreck site remained visible above high water until 1965's hurricane Betsy. By the 1990s she wasn't much more than a rusty sand bar. Haven't been back since.