'More fascinating by the day': Little-known history sails into Fort Myers

His name may be all but lost to Fort Myers history, but Medford Kellum's brief part in his childhood home's past was colorful, even if that hometown never quite got around to making up its mind about him. Was he a laudable city father? A con man? A legendary sailor and fish hunter? A bigamist? A restless adventurer? All of the above?

On Nov. 9, Miami creator Cesar Becerra will be at the Collaboratory to discuss Kellum's legacy and the project that aims to bring his tall ship, the Kaimiloa, back into the public eye.

As Becerra describes his subject (he's got a Kaimiloa book and art project, among other things, in the works), "He's kind of a mystery but a fascinating character and he’s becoming more fascinating by the day." Born in Indiana 1874, Kellum came to the City of Palms after his father died in 1881.

Here's how News-Press alum and Tennessee writer Tracy Owens opened "Invisible Rogue," in Islandia Journal: "In the early 1920s Medford Ross Kellum seemed like the ultimate Fort Myers boy-made-good. So why did the town's newspaper have to issue a front-page plea for its citizens to welcome him and his family? What was the petty gossip that the people of Fort Myers were urged to rise up against? And, was there truth in it?"

Becerra will illuminate the man, his life, and especially, his extraordinary vessel, the Kaimiloa at the free Collaboratory event.

Key to Becerra's research into Kellum's Fort Myers chapters has been the archives at the Southwest Florida Historical Society's "Little Yellow House," which yielded photos, clippings and information about Kellum's Whiskey Creek mansion, now owned by Pason Gaddis, CEO of Hoffmann Media Group.

One of the treasures the archives yielded was a photo of a 13-year-old Kellum. Society volunteer Nancy Kilmartin helped research some of Kellum's backstory, which incudes rumors of alcoholism and swindling, but makes for fascinating history, she says.

A century ago next year, Kellum set out from Hawai'i on the 230-foot diesel yacht, its "four masts shooting up into the sky 13 stories tall," Becarra says. Accompanying him were a group of scientists from Honolulu's Bishop Museum, some of his children and a crew of tutors for the kids. The Kaimiloa was equipped with a radio station, a laboratory, an ice plant and a printing press, Owens reports. Plus, says Becerra, it boasted a film lab capable of processing movies.

The voyages of the Kaimiloa came at the end of the age of exploration, Becerra says. "I feel it was the last of the great explorations," he says. By the 1920s, not many frontiers remained, but the yacht did hold the distinction of being the first ship to send a short-wave radio signal across the ocean.

Becerra is fascinated by sheer grandiosity the Kaimiloa, and wants to help make it real for a 21st century audience.

"One of the dreams I have is to understand its immensity of the ship," he says. He has several ideas, ranging from finding a 13-foot building onto which an image could be projected, to building a skeletal model outlined with electroluminescent wire. "One of the translations of the name Kaimiloa is 'distant search,' " he says, "and that's what this has been."

As for the end of the ship, that's taken a while to emerge from the mists if history. Becerra says he's about 80 percent clear about what happened. He knows it was sold, renamed the Shenandoah III, and re-fitted with Asian furnishings. "When Med had it, it was a regal American ship," Becerra said. After that, it "was in an Oriental motif."

When a hurricane hit the Hong Kong Harbor in 1937, the boat was there, possibly being taken apart for scrap, he says. Originally, it was believed sunk, but "We've since learned, thanks to research by Stephan Schonberg (of the Southwest Florida Historical Society) that the ship was pushed up against Kowloon Beach," but whether it was re-righted or ever sailed again remains a mystery ... at least for now.

If you go

Cesar Becerra will speak about Medford Kellum and the Kaimiloa at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9 at the Collaboratory, 2031 Jackson St, Fort Myers. Call 239-274-5900.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Treasure-hunting the truth about Medford Kellum and his fantastic voyages