Today in Keys History – May 12, 2023
- Keys History Center
- May 11, 2023
- 2 min read
1823 – The U.S. Navy schooners Weasel and Fox, accompanied by two barges, left Key West for a cruise against piracy around Cuba.
1860 – The U.S. Navy steamer Wyandotte arrived at Key West from the south side of Cuba with the captured slave ship William of Baltimore. The 560 Africans onboard William were all quite young, and many were very ill because of the cruel and unsanitary conditions on the slaver.
1866 – Edward Prest, stonemason of New London, Conn., was contracted to build a monument for Key West dedicated to those who died in service there during the Civil War. The monument was “to be of granite, appropriately inscribed, and tastefully decorated.” The builder’s fee was $1,500.
1898 – Four sailors were killed when the USS Winslow was hit by Spanish gunfire in a battle at Cardenas, Cuba. They were buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West Cemetery. The dead were oiler John Varveres, cook Josiah Tunnel, fireman George Burton and fireman John Dneefe.
1910 – The first spike was driven from the Key West end of the railroad at the railyard on Trumbo Island.
1915 – The tank steamship Standard was towed into Key West harbor with its bunkers burning. Fire engines were loaded onto barges and hauled alongside the steamer to extinguish the blaze.
1931 – The Port of Key West led Florida in exports. Tallies showed that in the month of March $985,228 worth of goods left the island for foreign ports, just under half the state’s total.
1959 – Gulf Oil Corporation was drilling an oil well at the Marquesas Keys 14 miles west of Key West. There was a 40-man force living on the work platform.
1966 – The shrimp boat New Hope sank in 60 feet of water northwest of Key West. The two crewmen onboard were rescued by another shrimp boat in the area.
1972 – An explosion from underwater weapons tests conducted by the Navy sank the cruiser Wilkes Barre off American Shoals. The ship was positioned so that it would create an artificial fishing reef along with the destroyer Fred T. Berry, which was sunk a week earlier.
1972 – The Mary Immaculate High School baseball team won the state Class A championship with a 12 to 4 victory over Clearwater Central Catholic High. 1989 – Frank Romano and Joe Liszka announced that Key West Aloe would move its cosmetics production to Florida City.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The EX USS Wilkes Barre CL 103 at the outer mole of the Naval Station before is was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West in April 1972. From the Ida Woodward Barron Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.