By Jaden Miller

I knew from the moment I learned of the Key West wrecking industry that there doubtless existed countless stories of daring and wealth connected to it, stories that I felt certain could illuminate the cultural and material history of the city. This quest began in service to compiling and obtaining physical sources that cannot be acquired elsewhere to support my thesis project studying Key West wreckers and their monetary and material culture in the nineteenth century. To start, wrecking was, in theory, a simple job. If you saved a boat and its cargo from a watery doom, or you were able to dive and retrieve such treasure, it was legally yours if you brought it back to shore. Further, anyone with a boat and enough bravado could attempt to partake. The frequent southern storms, characteristic of the Florida straits, that doomed ships proved to be the fortune makers of many a lucky Key Western resident, and the fortunes they amassed from these pursuits were often considerable. With all this in mind, I seek to explore not just the wrecking industry itself but the nature of wealth in this unique setting. Too often the story of wealth in the nineteenth-century U.S. is considered as solely within the context, or as simply part of the Gilded Age, a term with a heavy historiographical focus on the elites of the Northeastern cities like New York. Yet for decades, no city in the nation was wealthier than Key West and its successful wreckers. I wished to explore the lifestyles of these wreckers and their conception of wealth, as well as how it tied into the American ideas of capitalism and self-made men.

So, going into the trip to Key West there were three prominent objectives. The first was to visit the Monroe County Library for archival work, the second was to visit the Key West Shipwreck Museum, and the third and final objective was to visit the Oldest House Museum. With these goals in mind, the trip must be rated a complete success. I acquired more primary, and secondary source data than I may be able to use, almost all of which I could never have acquired without (physically)visiting. In fact, almost everywhere I went I was reassured by members of the Key West academic community that my trip was not only necessary, but critical in order to undertake a serious research project, and indeed I must agree with this assessment as the sources that I found, especially the most valuable ones, could only have been obtained in person.

Beginning with the Monroe County library, where I spent the most time, my purpose there was to meet with Dr. Corey Malcom, the Monroe County historian. Dr. Malcom was extremely helpful, and not only connected me with numerous sources personally but enabled me to look closely at the archive, as well as his own secondary source collection. This archival work offered me additional primary sources that I subsequently digitized myself, including unique reports from the 1840 and 1850 US censuses, and indispensable primary and secondary sources that would have been almost impossible to find otherwise, as they are either very obscure texts, such as the 1961 gem Lore of the Wreckers by Birse Shephard, or they are simply no longer in print or available online.

Of all the sources obtained, special attention must be given to two particular primary sources. The first is the diary kept by Henry A. Patterson, and the subject of much intellectual labor on the part of Dr. Malcom who had spent years previous to my visit working closely on this source, not only transcribing it digitally but heavily annotating it with relevant footnotes and even inserting illustrations where relevant. As far as the diary itself, Patterson was a clerk from New York who visited Key West in 1843 through much of the early-mid nineteenth century. His first-hand account of his time there, and the variety of rich experiences he records are a veritable historical treasure. The other exceptional source is a group of letters from Tift & Company, which span the period of 1859-1861 and deal with the business end of salvaged ships and cargo. This was the company of Mr. Asa Tift, one of Key West’s most prominent nineteenth-century figures and perhaps its richest man. Unfortunately, these letters are heavily damaged, and in many places, bordering on illegible to most eyes. But it is my hope that they may yet be deciphered, at least partially, opening the incredibly exciting prospect that I may offer them the historical attention they strike me as deserving. It would be utterly remiss of me not to thank Dr. Malcom and the Monroe County Public Library for a terrific experience that, on its own, made the trip indispensable to my project, and laid a foundation, almost single-handedly, for the thesis itself, as well as almost any future research I could hope to conduct on the subject of Florida Keys history.

The Shipwreck Museum was also very helpful. They specialize in showcasing the material and physical artifacts that were retrieved from shipwrecks, as well as helping non-specialists to understand the monetary and physical goods components of wrecking and the merchant industry in nineteenth-century Key West. They also have information laid out in a very digestible format at the museum, and working there helps me create a very clear, concise, and understandable timeline that makes navigating my research easier. Getting to see some of the valuable “rarities” obtained from wrecked ships up close helped me understand that while it was sometimes currency, gold, or luxury items, being salvaged, often times it was items like school supplies, cups, and silverware, some of which were considered to be equally valuable in a frontier town such as Key West.

At the Oldest House Museum, I met with and had a very productive conversation with their curator Thomas Greenwood. He, like Dr. Malcom, offered his in-depth knowledge about Key West history, and specifically material culture in the nineteenth century. His enthusiasm about my project and willingness to help me in my endeavor deserves thanks. He even waived the museum entry fee. Mr. Greenwood lamented that the collection of documents had not been digitized or made available online, and was extremely helpful in allowing me to obtain high-quality photographs of some of the important documents at that site, including but not limited to a rare copy of a nineteenth-century wrecking license, a copy of the maritime court issued “rules for wreckers,” and a writ signed the first Key West Harbor Master Francis Benjamin Watlinton authorizing the payment of revenue from wrecking. Further, that museum is perhaps the greatest time capsule in existence of nineteenth-century Key West living conditions and aesthetics. I photographed extensively, not just the documents at this museum, but the furniture, layout, and accessories themselves. Indeed, I was fascinated to learn that many of the decorations in the house are original to Watlinton’s time and that they had originally been obtained by the Harbormaster during his own time as a wrecker from a ship that wrecked carrying luxury furniture to the town hall of New Orleans, which was under renovation. That furniture never made it, and, by the nature of the wrecking industry, adorns Captain Watlinton’s house to this very day. On my way out, I was, perhaps jokingly, offered a job, and held to a promise that I would return and give a lecture on my thesis after its completion.

Beyond this, I was able to visit the Audubon House Museum, the frequently rebuilt nineteenth-century Church of Saint Paul, and the Key West Art And Historical Society. At the church, I obtained a history of the construction and effort that went into building the original church, the oldest such Protestant establishment in Florida. This history was illuminating in the way it illustrated the dynamics and large resources of the Key West elite’s patronage, as well as how omnipresent the wrecking industry and the money it brought in was to building up the city. For example, it offered confirmation that the city of Key West in these early days relied upon the wealth of wreckers not only to build its churches but house its clergy.

The Audubon House, named such as it was eventually inherited by the Audubon Society, was originally the house of the rich wrecker John Huling Geiger and contains numerous fascinating display panels that provided a veritable treasure trove of, not only quotes and information but names of secondary and primary sources. These are invaluable findings and will undoubtedly contribute immensely to any subsequent research. The final bonus museum I visited, the Key West Art And Historical Society, I visited with some of the money I saved from(not having to pay for admission to) the Oldest House Museum, was a very fun and well-organized museum, but it only offered a rather generalized historical overview. It did offer a few pieces of information relevant to my project, however, as I was able to obtain even more high-quality photographs of some nineteenth-century Key West artifacts, like portraits, that could very easily have relevance to the thesis going forward.

On the whole, I would describe all three of these supplemental visits as valuable, and seeing as how I managed to make my visits there work within the allocated budget, I would say they offered nothing but added value to my trip. With all this in mind, I would reiterate that I would find the trip to be a total success, with a scope of both primary and secondary sources obtained for exceeding my original expectations, in both quality and quantity. Further, the trip was completed on budget, in the allocated three-day time span. Ultimately, I would add the trip was a great experience, and will undoubtedly contribute to not only a significantly better thesis than any that might have been obtained without the Evelyn Clark funding but in many ways made the topic of wrecks and Key West possible to pursue at all.