Blessing the Shrimp Fleet

The town of D’Iberville was once a part of un-incorporated North Biloxi. The city of nearly 7,000, won incorporation in February of 1988. As Croatian immigrants were ushered in, D’Iberville fishing and boat building industry grew and helped with Biloxi’s rise as the "Seafood Capital of the World." The first coastal "Blessing the Shrimp Fleet" was held in the waters adjacent to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in D’Iberville in 1920, at the request of the Croatian fishermen living in the area. Linked by their common heritage and industry, the cities of Biloxi and D’Iberville were also linked by ferries and boats. Later a bridge, which entered D’Iberville on Central Avenue, was completed and thus commercial development grew in this area, complimenting existing development along D’Iberville’s waterfront on the back Bay of Biloxi.

(St. Martin Chamber 1999)