Florida's Underwater Archaeological Preserves: History Beneath the Waves by Franklin H . Price
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n twenty-five feet of water, near the entrance to Port Sr. Joe in Florida, wreckage covers nearly 200 feet of the seafloor. A steam engine, hull plates, connecting rods, hull beams, and a rudder are all recognizable amid the chaotic jumble of what had decades ago been the tramp steamer Vtimar. The freighter has an interesting history, complete with numerous name changes, storied exploration, and a demise clouded in intrigue. C hristened Kilmarnock in Ireland in 1904, she was confiscated by the US government as the rum runner Chelsea during prohibition . Admiral Richard Byrd purchased the vessel at auction and renam ed her Eleanor Bolling. The freighter hauled supplies and airplanes to Antarctica as part of Byrd's successful expeditio n as rhe first person to fly over the South Pole. Changing hands and nam es again, in March of 1942 she steamed our of Po rt Sr. Joe as Vtimar, bound for H avana, C uba. The freighter's deck load of lumber made the ship top-heavy and she was listing to po rt, far enough to be overcom e by the waves just a few miles outside the harbor. She sank, stern first.
Vtimar
by state decree. Local groups nominate each sire to the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research and have to demonstrate that public interest exists, no r only in creating a preserve bu r also in their willingness to rake an active role visiting and m ai ntaining it. These sites often have a non-profit organization affiliated with them (think "friends of" organizations), which are tasked with moni to ring the sire. Local involvement is a viral par t of the success of the program, but allowing unlimited access to the public at large is also a key elem ent. The state recognizes that these sires are, after all, public pro perty, and th at making them available furth ers our collective knowledge and helps engage the publi c in learning m ore about maritime heritage. The Florida Keys attract both local and visiting divers, who com e to experience the clear wa rm water and abundant tropical sea life. Some of the spectacular coral reefs rhar divers like to visi t have g rown up aro und shipwrecks, wh ich become home to a wide va riety of marine life, from sponges and corals to reef fish and invertebrates. The w reck of rhe San Pedro, just south of Indian Key, is a great example. Divers can swim along rhe 90-foor-long mound of river cobbles circled by schools of striped snapper. These are the ballas t stones from the San Pedro, a galleon that was lost in a tempest in the Straits of Florida, along with twenty other Spanish ships that were broken up and scattered along eighty miles of the Florida Keys in 1733 . Concerns regarding the permanent loss of artifacts to looters are in ev idence at this site: the m assive cannons from the 2 87-ton vessel were removed long The San Ped ro was two days out from Havana when she sailed into the path of a hurricane and wrecked in the Florida Keys. Reproductions of contemporary guns (p. 37, upper Left) have been p laced in the vicinity to enhance the divers' experience at the site. The archaeological site p lan (below) reveals the ship's massive ballast pile.
America had entered World War II a few months before, and the ocean had become dangerous for m erchant m ariners. German U -Boars prowled the seas, wreaking havoc on allied shipping. Vtimar's international crew of Yugoslavs, Spaniards, and C ubans survived the loss of their ship and spent the next two weeks in Port Sr. Joe. Suspicions arose among the townsfolk, who thought that the fo reigners must have been involved in sinking Vtimar as an ac t of Nazi espionage. An official inves tigation found that the fre ighter san k because she was overloaded and top-heavy. No netheless, suspicions remained, including reports of the captai n's repeated m eetings with a m ys terious woman in a local bar and their hushed conspi rato rial tones. The story of Vtimar is just o ne am o ng Flo rida's eleven Underwater Archaeological Preserves . The program i$ a partnership between the public and state resource managers, which began in 1987 with rhe designation of a 1715 Spanish shipwreck, Urea de Lima. The program was born out of public desire to preserve their maritime heritage. Looting of the historic vessel raised concerns am ong the citizens of Fort Pierce, who asked the stare to create a preserve to protect it from further disturbance. ~es tate's positive response to public concern led to a unique fearurq of the preserves program, one that has continued since its inception . Sires are selected fo r the Preserves program by the communi ty, not dictated
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~eplica cannon
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plaque
SE;A HISTORY 138, SPRING 2012