1806 – The schooner Sea Flower, sailing from Havana to New York, wrecked “a little northward of Key Largo.” The crew and cargo were saved.
1827 – The Havana-based pirate slave ship Guerrero, carrying 561 captive African people, wrecked off North Key Largo, while being chased by the British Royal Nay schooner Nimble. Forty-one of the Africans drowned when Guerrero sank.
1850 – The brig Francis Lord ran aground on Loggerhead Reef in the Dry Tortugas. Wrecking crew divers inspected the bottom of the hull, and they found some of the copper sheathing rumpled or missing and the keel “bruised.” The cargo was removed, and the vessel towed to Key West for repair.
1862 – The Pennsylvania 47th regiment landed at Key West after having been in Hilton Head. Cpl. George Nichols wrote, “Since we was away the 90 and 91st New York Redgements Suffered very Bad. They have lost almost half their Redgements with yellow fever. I tell you it is more deadly than the bullot.”
1887 – Robert Thompson of Key West sued the streetcar company for $25,000 for injuries sustained by his son. He received a favorable verdict and was awarded $10,000.
1969 – John Lehman of the Southernmost Coffee Shop concession on Key West’s South Beach was called to task by the mayor’s Human Relations Committee for refusing service to people he deemed undesirable, particularly hippies. Lehman’s conduct had earlier embroiled the city in litigation.
1998 – Mel Fisher, renowned treasure hunter and Florida Keys icon, died in his Key Haven home at age 76. He searched for 16 years – overcoming government regulations, lawsuits, weather, and the loss of his son and other crew – to find the “mother lode” of the Spanish galleon Atocha in 1985.
Information compiled by the late Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Southernmost Coffee Shop at 1405 Duval Street in 1962. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center