1842 – The court in Key West settled the salvage case of the wrecked barque Alasco. It was determined the vessel and cargo were valued at $42,46.39, combined, and the wreckers were awarded 37% of that, after expenses, for saving it.
1860 – Fernando J. Moreno, the U.S. Marshal at Key West, submitted a report to the Secretary of the Interior about the Africans delivered to him by the U.S. Navy. He reported he had received a total of 1,432 Africans and that 294 had died and were buried in Key West. The remaining 1,138 Africans were taken to Liberia, West Africa, by the American Colonization Society. When rescued by the Navy, the Africans were being shipped to Cuba to be sold into slavery in violation of international law.
1900 – The schooner Golden Hind arrived at Key West with a load of turtles from the Mexican coast; some were large, over 350 pounds.
1902 – The electric and ice plant of William Curry & Sons on Front Street was destroyed when three boilers exploded. Thomas Webb and William H. Saunders were killed when the building collapsed. Pieces of boiler were thrown 10 blocks away, and the city was plunged into darkness. Damage to the plant was estimated at $75,000.
1923 – Work was suspended at the golf course as laborers went on strike, demanding their wages be increased from $2.50 to $3 per day.
1936 – A note in a bottle found at Haven Beach on mainland Florida read, “Plenty water. No grocery. Watson and Johnson. 6-21-36.” Key Wester George Watson and a man named Johnson had disappeared from the Keys in a boat in the previous year’s Labor Day hurricane, and relatives suspected the message was from them.
1960 – The Navy announced that the military personnel and dependents in Key West totaled 15,725.
1974 – The charter boat Spook, Captain Earl Widener, returned to Key West after it had been hijacked and forced to sail to Cuba by Clifford and Patricia McRary.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Wm. Curry & Sons Ice and Electric Plant destroyed by an explosion on July 26, 1902. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.