key west history, part 4

Of course, no history of Key West would be complete without talking about. . .

THE WRECKERS  

In 1860, Key West was the richest city in the Union.

Not because of King Cotton or coal, but because
we were wreckers.

"Wrecking" refers to the salvaging of crews and cargo from distressed ships. And in the 1800’s, business was really,
really good.

In 1822, Key West was declared an official port of trade for the United States. During that time, about 100 ships passed the island’s shores every day. The waters were treacherous for passing vessels; the dangerous shoals and shallow waters were  made worse by the a lack of navigational information and unpredictable winds. All those conditions together led to, at least, one distressed ship a week.

Wrecking crews were strategically posted along the shores with all eyes on the horizon. When a vessel met trouble, the race was on. The first crew to get to the scene were the “wrecking masters”, allowing them the largest cut from the salvage and all control of delegating responsibilities.

  Once the initial wrecking excursions were complete, warehouses, ship yards and ship chandlers were employed to store cargo and repair the ships. The island’s economy thrived because much of the stranded cargo was sold locally. Those sales filled Key West’s houses and stores with a wealth of treasures from the sea.

 A few of the most successful wreckers were, Asa Tift, who also designed the "Hemingway House".
John H. Geiger, who made his home in the "Audubon House" and Francis B. Watlington who built the “Oldest House in Key West” in 1829.

Today The Oldest House is home to the "Key West Wrecking Museum", a great place for learning more about this chapter in Key West history.

The wrecking business began to decline in the late 19th century. With the building of lighthouses, improved navigational equipment and  steam-powered engines, the once treacherous waters surrounding the Key West seemed suddenly tame. 

By the 1920s, the wrecking industry was as gone as so many sunken ships.

the wreckers

This post hopefully compliments my last post "Mary" the salvage vessel.
(I seem to have wrecking and salvaging on the mind
this week)

Not far from where Mary is dry-docked, is "the Key West Historical Memorial Sculpture Garden".
(and isn't that a mouthful?)

It's a sculpture garden dedicated to people who have had the "greatest impact" on Key West.
It features 36 bronze busts depicting some of the men and women that made Key West a vibrant, colorful and important outpost of American culture and folklore.

I wrote about once before, in my post "Busted" a few years ago but this time I want to focus on these dudes.

This life size sculpture, "The Wreckers" is the centerpiece, more or less, of the sculpture garden.

I was on my way out of the newspaper office the other day, free from my comfortable desk and state-of the-art computer and took a few minutes to study the piece.

My thought was, for all our myths and romanticizing about wrecking and salvaging, just how tough that actual work must really have been. . .

mary

"Mary" is an old weather beaten and blistered replica of an 1850's era salvage vessel.
The wooden sailing ship has been run aground as decoration on Mallory Square since longer than I know.

Sadly, between the painted coconut and straw hat kiosks, the aquarium, shipwreck museum, conch trains and trolleys, hot dog vendors and the sponge warehouse (an overblown gift shop), not many people pay her much mind.

But me? I've got double trouble here. . .
I sail and, I aspire to be an historian if I ever grow up.
So Mary stands out for me.

Key West, of course, made it's bones on salvaging.
Ships sailing between Spain and Cuba would often run aground on the Florida reef.
Poor navigation, stormy seas and overloaded cargo ships, that were harder to control while tacking into the wind, were the main causes of the shipwrecks.


If the lookouts spotted a ship on the rocks, they'd holler " wreck ashore" and the salvage crews would man their boats, much like Mary, and race to the wreck.
The rule, as I understand it, was the first Captain to reach the wreck would be the"salvage master" and entitled to the lion's share of the plunder. Plunder which, after it was hauled back to town, could be either kept by the salvage master or
sold at auction.


In the early 1800s the Navy came to town and soon after that, Key West became an official U.S. port of entry. That drew more cargo ships directly here and more ships meant more wrecks and by about the time of the American Civil War the wrecking industry had made Key West the richest city in the United States.


Inevitably, with Yankee ingenuity being what it is, more lighthouses were built, nautical charts and navigation techniques were improved; and all that meant, less wrecks.


By and by, as the salvage industry faded, it was replaced by sponge harvesting and cigar making and those are stories for another time. But I can't imagine either was ever as lucrative as salvaging.
Key West's "golden age" was over.


Today Key West is a tourist economy (also not as lucrative as salvaging) and there sits Mary, weather beaten and blistered with chickens roosting in her hold; a strangely romantic reminder of a better time.

One last thing. . .

I've added a movie link; "Reap the Wild Wind" is all about Key West wreckers.
It stars Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland and John Wayne.
Released in 1942, it was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille (so you know the cinematography is first rate).
Some scenes get a little sappy (hell, it's an old movie) but you don't need to sit through all 2 hours of the story to get the overall flavor of Key West's golden age of salvaging.

salvage spoils

Here in Key West, on the corner of Fleming and Simonton, we've got an antique store with a kind of cool name. . .
"Duck & Dolphin"
Being an antique store, it makes sense that there'd be a lot of "old stuff" in there.
Some of the "old stuff" is just barely getting old and some of the "old stuff" has been old for so long it's used to it.
But then there's the "old stuff" that's so old, it could be the all the other old stuff's grandmother.

That's the stuff I imagine about.
The stuff that's so old, it could have been on a boat in 1823 sailing west for the Americas when it's ride got hung up on the reef and started taking on water.

That's when boatloads of folks, the likes of Ben Baker, Hog Johnson, John Geiger and Bull Weatherford would race against each other out to the site of the wreck for a
"winner take all" claim on the spoils.
Then they could either sell the stuff at auction or decorate their newly built and otherwise empty palatial mansions
with it.
Wreckers made pant-loads of money on the misfortunes of others. (like wall street bankers today?)

When Wreckers would salvage whatever they could from the shipwrecks on the reef, it was theirs to keep; Finders keepers was the "common law of the sea".
Then, when Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821 and Key West was declared an "official port of entry" a year later, the salvage spoils went overboard like rats jumping ship and Key West became the richest city in the United States.

. . .But what about the stuff?

Before the stuff found it's way to Duck & Dolphin,
before the stuff was salvaged from the briny deep,
before the stuff went down in the briny deep,
before the stuff was shipwrecked on the reef and,
before the stuff was even loaded on that ill-fated boat. . .

. . .Who's stuff was it?