Barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and site of Fort Massachusetts (built 1859-66), serves as a tourist destination with activities including fishing, swimming, and tours of Fort Massachusetts

How to Get There

Overview

Ship Island is a barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, one of the Mississippi-Alabama barrier islands. Hurricane Camille split the island into two separate islands (West Ship Island and East Ship Island) in 1969. In early 2019, the US Army Corps of Engineers completed the first stage of a project rejoining the two islands and recreating one Ship Island. Ship Island is the site of Fort Massachusetts (built 1859-66), as a Third System fortification. Part of the island is included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Activities

Today, Ship Island serves as a tourist destination. Activities include fishing, swimming, and tours of Fort Massachusetts.

Access

Ship Island is accessible through private or chartered boat. It is also accessible by a privately owned ferry boat company, Ship Island Excursions, running from Gulfport, Mississippi 12 miles (19 km) out to the island for a fee. Ship Island Excursions has been running boats to the island since before the National Park Service acquired the island. Today, they are an official Park Service Concession.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ship Island (Mississippi)", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0