April 28, 2010

• Treasure Ship Burns

  One of the iconic places on Panama City Beach was the Treasure Ship Restaurant.  It opened in 1977, and we have eaten there many times through the years.  Like thousands of other local high school students, our daughter, Catherine, worked there during the summers when she was in high school and college, and that place no doubt contributed to what is today her career as a restauranteur.  Here’s a picture of the fire:

  

  The restaurant was built on dry land, but the design gave the impression that it was asail on Grand Lagoon just off St. Andrew Bay.  The building was actually a scale replica of The Golden Hind, which was the ship of Sir Francis Drake in the Elizabethan era.  As I recall, the “ship” was three stories tall, and the Top of the Ship was a fine dining restaurant where we celebrated New Year’s Eve on several occasions.  The main dining room was enormous.  At the peak of the summer season they employed 200 people, and many of them had worked there for over 20 years.  As of tonight all of those people are out of work.  Fortunately the fire started between the lunch and dinner rush, so very few people were in the building.  Nobody was injured, thank God.

  ED

  • 11:26 pm
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