Southward Ho!

Many travelers had talked about it. Last week a Jacksonville barge-line opera tor decided it could be done. Young, energetic Harold Gray Williams, 37, had the blueprints drawn and the cash in hand ($2,000,000) needed to build a super de luxe ferry for the 90 nautical-mile trip from Key West to Havana. It will carry 300 autos and 900 passengers. When the first ferry goes into service, probably some time next summer, U.S. autoists can cross the Straits of Florida in six hours, and at a tentative cost of only $20 a car.

Further auto ferry routes will be opened later, between Cuba and Haiti (fare: $40 a car), and between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico ($30 a car). Also a Cuba-Jamaica line is under consideration.

When a connecting road is constructed from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Pan American Highway running through Mexico, Williams will operate a ferry between Cuba and Puerto Morelos. U.S. motorists from the eastern seaboard who want to go to Mexico City would save 800 miles of driving by taking the Cuba-Mexico auto ferry (see map).

The ferry service and the Gulf Atlantic Transportation Co. are the logical outgrowth of a small coastal barge and towing service which Williams joined only three years ago. It has been so well managed and profitable (net profits last year: $100.000) that the Florida National Bank of Jacksonville lent him $1.5 million to help finance his ferry company. The Mills Industries Inc. (juke boxes, pinball machines, etc.) may put up $1 million in exchange for a stock interest and the amusement, bar and dining concessions on Williams' ferries. Once he has them built and operating, Hustler Williams has more plans. One of them: a chain of super-service stations along the drowsy highways of the islands.

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