'Battle of the Atlantic' Comes to the Palm Beaches

By Bob Davidsson
        U.S. Navy historians call it a "Second Pearl Harbor." To the German Kriegsmarine, it was the "Second Happy Time" for submariners. It was the Battle of the Atlantic along the U.S. East Coast, and between January and August 1942 the battle line was just offshore of Palm Beach County.
        German Admiral Karl Donitz unleashed "Untermehmen Parkenschlag" (Operation Drumbeat) just five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The total number and tonnage of allied ships lost in this eight-month operation far surpassed the Japanese raid on the Seventh Fleet in Honolulu.
        The first wave of Operation Drumbeat consisted of five Type IX long-range undersea boats, U-123, U-130, U-66, U-105 and U-125. Each submarine was commanded by a U-boat "Ace" with at least five allied shipping kills to his credit. In the first month of their patrol, the five U-boats sank 25 tankers and merchant ships along the East Coast without a loss.
        The British "Y" intelligence service intercepted and decoded U-boat messages and warned both the Canadian and U.S. Navy commands of "a heavy concentration of U-boats off the North American Seaboard" in late December 1941. Admiral Ernest King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet, disregarded the Royal Navy report and ignored British requests for immediate coastal ship convoys and the blackout of cities along the East Coast.
        With a similar spirit of naval inertia, Admiral Adolphus Andrews, the Eastern Sea Frontier commander responsible for the defense of Florida and the East Coast, did not organize the Navy's first coastal convoy until May 1942. About 5,000 merchant seamen, passengers and sailors would lose their lives due to this delay in defensive measures.
        An "Official Blackout Order" was not issued for Palm Beach until April 11, 1942. It was "requested" by Gov. Spessard L. Holland and the Key West Naval Commander. The order was implemented locally by the Palm Beach Civilian Defense Council and its volunteer Civilian Defense wardens.
        The state Blackout Order reads, "It is requested that you immediately take steps to have extinguished all street lights on the waterfront streets and highways at once, and those actually on the oceanfront, and not those on the west side..."
        A second wave of U-boats set sail for the U.S. coastline on Jan. 6, 1942. The early success of Operation Drumbeat persuaded the Kriegsmarine command to launch "Operation Neuland (New Land)," a third wave of U-boats sent throughout the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico just seven days later.
        Operation Neuland undersea boats U-156, U-67, U-502, U-161 and U-129, were joined by five long-range Italian submarines of the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) on patrol from the Florida Straits to the coast of South America during 1942.
        A total of 121 ships, including 42 vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, were sunk by U-boats along the U.S. coastline in 1942, according to the U.S. Merchant Marine and War Shipping Administration. Of the 24 ships sunk in Florida waters during the first six months of 1942, eight were in the vicinity of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
        Throughout its history, dating back to the time of the first voyage of Ponce de Leon, the Jupiter Inlet was used as a landmark by passing ships. During Operation Drumbeat, the Jupiter Lighthouse attracted U-boats like a magnet.
        Most of the carnage along the Palm Beaches can be traced to three U-boat Aces, Commanders Hans-Georg Friedrich Poske in U-504, Reinhard Suhren in U-564 and Peter-Erich Cremer's U-333. They were part of the second wave of U-boats sent to the southeastern coast of the U.S. to disrupt shipping off the coast of Florida.

U-504 Begins Its 'Happy Time' Off Palm Beach
        U-504 was a large Type IX-C submarine launched in April 1941. Commander Poske led the U-boat on four patrols between July 1941 and January 1943. He would sink 15 allied ships (78,123 tons of shipping) before being reassigned to shore duty.
        While on patrol off the coast of Palm Beach County, Poske sighted the U.S. steam tanker "Republic" (5,287 tons) 3.5 miles northeast of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and slammed two torpedoes into its port side. The tanker listed to starboard and settled by its stern on a reef five miles southeast of Hobe Sound.
        Master Alfred Anderson and 21 survivors rowed a lifeboat to shore and were transported by truck to Palm Beach. A second lifeboat was picked up by a passing tanker and its merchant seamen were dropped off at Port Everglades.
        The next day the U.S. tanker "W.D. Anderson," carrying 133,360 barrels of crude oil, was torpedoed 12 miles northeast of the Jupiter Light. Witnesses would later claim the resulting explosion could be heard as far south as Boca Raton. Only one of 35 crew members survived as the tanker burst into flames and sank.
        Commander Poske briefly turned his U-boat away from the coast to elude pursuers. His next victim was the Dutch motor tanker "Mamura" which carried a cargo of refined gasoline. The tanker was torpedoed off the coast of the Palm Beaches on Feb. 26. The Dutch ship caught fire and broke into two. Master Rink Dobbinga and his entire crew of 48 died at sea.
        After sinking three ships in four days off the southeast coast of Florida, U-504 slipped into the Caribbean where it would claim the merchant ships "Stangarth," "Allister," "Tela," "Rosenberg," "Crijnssen," "American" and "Regent". Mercifully, Commander Poske ran out of torpedoes before he could inflict further damages to allied shipping.
        It would take the combined efforts of four British sloops to sink U-504 July 30, 1943 during a running fight off the coast of Spain.

U-564: The Slaughter at Sea Continues
        Commander Suhren led U-564, a smaller Type VII-C submarine launched on Feb. 7, 1941, on six patrols at sea, resulting in the sinking of 18 allied ships. Suhren was on his sixth and final patrol with U-564 when he entered the coastal waters of Palm Beach County.
        His first victim was the British steam merchant ship "Ocean Venus," torpedoed and sunk 12 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral on May 3. Master John Park and 42 crew members were able to row to shore and the safety of the cape.
        The next day, the British steam tanker "Eclipse" was torpedoed near Fort Lauderdale. The tanker settled to the bottom in shallow water. The ship was later salvaged and towed into Port Everglades for repairs. Two members of its crew died in the attack by U-564.
        The third target was the American merchant steam ship "Delisle" (3,478 tons), hit by one torpedo 15 miles offshore of the Jupiter Inlet on May 5. The explosion opened a 20-by-30 foot hole by the engine room.
        The crew abandoned ship and rowed to shore near Stuart. When they found their ship still floating the next day, the crew boarded the "Delisle" and assisted a Navy tug sent to tow the stricken vessel to Miami. The "Delisle's" reprieve was short-lived. She struck a mine planted by U-220 and sank Oct. 19, 1943 near St. Johns, Canada.
        The American steam merchant ship "Ohioan" (6,078 tons) was hit by one torpedo May 8 while steering an evasive course 10 miles off the coast of Boynton Beach. The ship rolled over and sank in three minutes, killing 15 of 27 crew members.
        The suction from the sinking ship caused most of the deaths. The survivors were rescued from their six rafts by the U.S. Coast Guard and transported to West Palm Beach for medical care.
        The next day, the Panamanian motor tanker "Lubrafal," carrying a cargo of 67,000 barrels of heating oil, was torpedoed 3.5 miles east of the Hillsboro Inlet. The crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats.
        One lifeboat caught fire and sank, causing 13 deaths. The two surviving boats were towed free of the stricken ship and came ashore at Boynton Beach. The "Lubrafal" drifted north for two days and sank May 11 in shallow water.
       U-564 ended its patrol by sinking the Mexican steam tanker "Potrero del Llano" May 14 off the coast of Cape Florida. The attack on a neutral vessel was used as justification for the Republic of Mexico's declaration of war on Germany June 1, 1942.
        The U-boat ended its successful sixth patrol and returned to the submarine pens in France. She was bombed by British aircraft June 14, 1943 while on its ninth patrol in the Bay of Biscay.

U-333: A Triple Threat on the Treasure Coast
        Like its sister ship, U-333 was a fast Type VII-C submarine launched by the Kriegsmarine on June 14, 1941. Commander Cremer would sink six allied ships as the skipper of U-333 between August 1941 and October 1942. His second patrol in U-333 lasted 58 days and included an unwanted visit to the Palm Beaches.
        Three allied ships fell victim to U-boat on May 6, 1942. The American tanker "Halsey" (7,188 tons), carrying 40,000 barrels of heating oil and a cargo of unstable naphtha, was spotted by U-333 off Jupiter Inlet, hit by two torpedoes and sank just south of St. Lucie Inlet. Exploding naphtha ripped a 60-foot hole in the port side and the ship split in two.
        Surviving crew refused rescue from U-333, when Commander Cremer surfaced his submarine. Fishing boats took the lifeboats in tow and brought them to the Gilberts Bar Coast Guard Rescue Station.
        U-333 followed the currents north to Fort Pierce, where the Dutch steam merchant ship "Amazone" was torpedoed 16 miles southeast of the inlet. The submarine's two 67-e torpedoes sank the ship in two minutes with the loss of 14 of 20 crew members.
        The third vessel to cross the path of U-333 on May 6 was the American tanker "Jane Arrow" east of Vero Beach. The ship was torpedoed and abandoned by its crew. The Coast Guard boarded the vessel and decided it could be salvaged. Master Sigvard Hennichen and 14 merchantmen returned to their vessel and worked as a repair party as two tugs slowly pulled the tanker to Port Everglades.
        On its next patrol, U-333 was badly damaged in a battle with the corvette "HMS Crocus" on Oct. 6, 1942. Commander Cremer was injured in the struggle and hospitalized in France. All three U-boat Aces survived the war, but their submarines were destroyed.

The 'End of the Beginning' at Sea
        Operation Neuland also was the high point of effectiveness for the large Calvi-class Italian Regia Marina submarines that harassed allied shipping from the Florida Straits south to the coast of Brazil in 1942. While U-504, U-564 and U-333 attacked shipping along the southeast coast of Florida, the "Enrico Tazzoli (TZ)," commanded by Count Carlo Fecia di Cassato, sank allied ships attempting to slip past their east flank in the Bahamas Islands.
        In February 1942, the "Tazzoli" sailed from Bordeaux, France, with the planned destination of Florida. Count Cossato used the numerous channels and harbors in the Bahamas as a hideout during his 58-day eighth patrol. The submarine sank the "Montevideo," "Cygnet," the British tanker "Daytonian" and the tanker "Athelqueen" in succession between Feb. 8 and March 15 in Bahamian waters.
        The "Tazzoli" was damaged by wreckage from the "Athelqueen" and forced to return to its base in France for repairs. Before Italy's surrender in 1943, Count Cossato would be credited with sinking 18 allied vessels. The "Tazzoli" was sunk in the Bay of Biscay May 23, 1943 while en route to Japan on a courier mission.
        One final disaster is associated with the U-boat campaign off Palm Beach County. On Oct. 21, 1943, the tankers "Gulfland" and "Gulf Belle" collided, burned and ran aground near Jupiter Inlet. Both vessels were running without lights to avoid attacks by U-boats when the prow of the "Gulf Belle" smashed into the "Gulfland" near the Lake Worth Inlet.
        The "Gulf Belle" drifted north and grounded near Jupiter Inlet, but was salvaged and towed to port. The "Gulfland," carrying a cargo of aviation fuel, struck the sunken wreck "Republic" and burned for 52 days off Jupiter Island. A section of the wreck remains a popular dive site today.
        The scheduling of regular coastal convoys, guarded by Navy ships, in the summer of 1942 marked the beginning of the end of the Kriegmarine's "Second Happy Time" along the Atlantic coastline. Blackouts were enforced along the coast. Coast watchers and Civil Air Patrol squadrons reported the surface movements of U-boats which were then attacked by air and sea.
        After the war, several reports circulated of U-boat crew members landing along the 41-mile coastline of Palm Beach County in 1942-43. None are verified by the FBI or military documents.
        Admiral Donitz canceled Operation Drumbeat in August 1942, with U-boat squadrons along the eastern seaboard pulled back to attack convoys in the North Atlantic. Individual U-boats continued to harass the East Coast but their success rate rapidly declined.
        Only 22 ships were sunk in 1943 and a mere 11 kills were reported in 1944, according to U.S. Merchant Marine statistics. The final tally for Operations Drumbeat and Neuland were 609 ships destroyed (3.1 million tons), about one-third of all allied vessels lost in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Kriegsmarine lost 22 U-boats along America's eastern coastline.
(c.) 2015.

*NOTE: Additional full-text articles are found below and under "Older Posts".

'Muck Monster' Legend Becomes Part of Our History

By Bob Davidsson
        Although the Lake Worth Lagoon's mysterious "Muck Monster" has never been identified, the legend is worth its weight in gold to the local tourism industry in Palm Beach County.
        The Muck Monster is everywhere. It has a Facebook page. Its video is on YouTube. You can find it on Twitter. It has a Wiki. There is even a Muck Monster impersonator in the Palm Beaches.
        The popularity of the Muck Monster rivals the elusive "Everglades Skunk Ape" as the favorite Florida research topic of crypto-scientists worldwide.
        It was marketed on Palm Beach County's official "Discover the Palm Beaches" promotional advertisements with a provocative and alluring slogan daring visitors "to conduct their own search" for the legendary monster. Viewing stations were actually set up for tourists along the Lake Worth Lagoon to search for the beast.
        The sea monster has the unusual distinction of honorary citizenship in the City of West Palm Beach. This official action was taken by the City Commission in September 2009.
        The "AmericanMonsters.com" website  reported, "A mysterious serpentine creature was captured by shocked eyewitnesses on videotape as it slithered just beneath the surface in Florida's Lake Worth Lagoon. Once the (video) footage was released, it created one of most intense 'monster frenzies' in U.S. history."

Fact Check:
        A team from Lagoon Keepers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cleaning and maintaining the quality of the Lake Worth Lagoon, responded to a report of a log floating in the waterway's channel. As Greg Reynolds and Dan Serrano approached Channel Marker 10 in August 2009, they observed unusual rippling and a wake created by a shadowy 10-foot long animal of unknown origin.
        The event was recorded on a video camera which briefly revealed the tail fin of the creature. The video was uploaded onto the Internet, and in a matter of days, the Muck Monster went "viral" with more than four million views. A legend was born.
        The Muck Monster became a reality TV star when the History Channel featured the creature in an episode of its "Monster Quest" series. The producers of the show hired a diving team to hunt for the monster. Their murky underwater video revealed nothing more than a few fish in the silt-filled waters of the Lake Worth Lagoon.
        Crypto-scientists and wildlife officials interviewed for the "Monster Quest" episode suggested the monster could be a lost harbor seal from the northeast, or a Caribbean monk seal, also known as a "sea wolf". Another popular theory is the Muck Monster is actually a Florida manatee with a cut in its tail fin caused by a boat propeller.

Fact Check:
        The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was 1952 off the coast of Jamaica. The species was declared extinct in 2008 by the National Marine Fisheries Service after an extensive five-year search. The most recent Florida sighting was 1922, when a seal was killed near Key West.
        Caribbean monk seals obtained a length of eight feet with males weighing up to 600 pounds. Algae growth on the fur of the seals often gave them an eerie greenish appearance.
        Monk seals were once found throughout the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Atlantic coast. They occasionally visited the coast of Florida to hunt for mollusks in lagoons and shallow reefs.
        Today, the Muck Monster is part of a strange fraternity of aquatic creatures. "SeaMonsters.org: A Who's Who of Lake and Sea Monsters" features the Muck Monster video in its index, where it joins such aquatic celebrities as the "Loch Ness Monster" and "Champ," a monster lurking in New York's Lake Champlain.
        Legendary movie director John Ford once said, "When the truth conflicts with the myth, film the legend." The legend of the Muck Monster lives, and Palm Beach County profits from it.
(c.) Revised 2015.

NOTE: See additional articles archived in Older Posts.

'USS Jupiter' Became America's First Aircraft Carrier

By Bob Davidsson
        Four ships sharing the names of cities in Palm Beach County - the first USS Jupiter (Langley), USS Lake Worth, USS Palm Beach and a second USS Jupiter - were commissioned by the U.S. Navy and served the nation in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, as well as the Cold War.
        Under Navy ship naming conventions established during the early 20th century, combat stores ships and auxiliary vessels, commissioned prior to the end of World War II, were named for U.S. cities. If a warship was sunk in combat or decommissioned, as in the case of the first USS Jupiter, the vessel's moniker was transferred to a replacement ship.
       Two of the combat auxiliary vessels bearing local names were sunk by German Luftwaffe and Imperial Japanese Navy dive bombers during World War II, a third became an artificial reef, and the fourth received six battle stars in World War II and seven battle stars during the Korean conflict.

USS Jupiter (Langley)
        The first USS Jupiter (AC-3) was a Navy collier during World War I. After decommissioning at the war's end, it was rebuilt and converted to become America's first aircraft carrier under a new name of USS Langley (CV-1).
        The USS Jupiter was launched on Aug. 14, 1912. The Jupiter was the first electronically-propelled ship in the U.S. Navy. It also holds the distinction of being the first vessel to steam through the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean Sea soon after the opening the new waterway.
        The USS Jupiter was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division during World War I. After the war, her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized by the Navy on July 11, 1919. The ship's name was changed to Langley, an aviation pioneer, in 1920 and recommissioned as "Carrier Vessel One (CV-1)" March 22, 1922 at the Norfolk, Va. Navy Yard.
        As the first Navy vessel fitted with a flight deck, the USS Langley conducted experiments in the new area of military seaborne aviation during the 1920s. America's first successful carrier plane take offs and landings were conducted on the Langley.
        In 1924 the USS Langley joined the Pacific Battle Fleet and for the next 12 years conducted flight training for aviators in California and Hawaii. With the launching of two new fleet carriers, USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, the Langley was overhauled a second time. It became a seaplane tender in 1937.
        At the outbreak of World War II, the Langley was stationed in the Philippines. She became a scouting vessel and aircraft transport for the combined American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) fleet, assembled to defend the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) from Japanese invasion.
        On the morning of Feb. 27, 1942, three waves of Japanese VAL dive bombers attacked the Langley and its two escorting destroyers near Tjilatjap Harbor. The seaplane tender avoided hits during the first two air strikes, but was rocked by five explosions sustained from the third wave of bombers.
        The Langley went dead in the water but refused to sink. To avoid capture by the Japanese, the tender was dispatched and sent to the bottom of the Java Sea by two torpedoes and nine 4-inch shells fired from its escorting destroyers.

USS Palm Beach
        Before its sailing days ended, the USS Palm Beach served as a U.S. Army transport, a Navy spy ship and a drug smuggling vessel, then became an artificial reef still viewed today as a tourism attraction in the Cayman Islands.
        The USS Palm Beach began its career as a U.S. Army Camano class light cargo ship named the "Armond Peterson (FS 217)". It was delivered to the Army Transportation Service in December 1944, and used as a supply ship and troop transport during the final months of World War II.
        The U.S. Navy acquired the "Armond Peterson" and renamed it the USS Palm Beach (AKL-45) on June 18, 1966. It was converted to a Banner class "environmental research ship (AGER-3)" at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and commissioned into service on May 13, 1967.
        The USS Palm Beach was deployed to the North Sea and also toured the Mediterranean during its two-year career with the U.S. Navy. Technical research ships were used by the Navy to gather intelligence and intercept wireless communications from hostile nations during the height of the Cold War in the 1960s.
        The USS Palm Beach was the sister ship of the USS Pueblo, which was captured by North Korea while spying off its coast on Jan. 23, 1968, and remains a captive vessel today. The capture of the "Pueblo" compromised the missions and technical equipment used by other AGER "research ships" such as the USS Palm Beach.
        The Palm Beach was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register Dec. 1, 1969. The vessel was sold and resold in 1969-70, eventually acquired by a Panamanian company and renamed the "M/V Oro Verde".
        The "Oro Verde" became involved in drug smuggling activity in the Caribbean. It ran aground in the Cayman Islands. Instead of salvaging the vessel, the Cayman government sank it as an artificial reef for scuba divers.

USS Lake Worth
        The USS Lake Worth was a born-again vessel given a second life after sinking in a Baltic Sea storm. Like many resurrected ships, it bore a sailor's superstition of a bad luck vessel, which became reality during World War II when it was sunk a second time by a Stuka dive bomber.
        The freighter "War Banner" was built by the Detroit Drydock Company in 1917, but renamed the USS Lake Worth by the U.S. Navy before completion. It was commissioned on Feb. 26, 1918, and used as a supply ship during World War I.
        When the war ended, the USS Lake Worth was decommissioned Aug. 2, 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board for disposal. She was sold to Lloyd Royal Belge of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920 and renamed the "Phoenicier".
        While approaching the harbor of Memel, Germany, from Blyth, England, with a full load of coal, the "Phoenicier" grounded and sank during a gale. After resting on the bottom of sea for seven months, the freighter was raised and towed into the port of Memel.
        The ship was declared a "constructive total loss" and sold to Stelp and Leighton, Ltd. of London in July 1924. However, the vessel was repaired, brought back to life, and renamed the "Amberstone".
        The former USS Lake Worth was sold again in 1928 to J.A. Haarberg of Bergen, Norway, and received yet another identity as the "Orland". After sailing 12 years as a Norwegian merchant ship, the vessel met its demise a second and final time on April 29, 1940.
        During the German invasion of Norway, a Luftwaffe air raid off Midsund, Norway, claimed the "Orland" as one of it victims. Today, the vessel rests at the bottom of a Norwegian fjord.

The Second 'USS Jupiter'
        The second Navy ship named the USS Jupiter (AK-43) more than made up for the loss of the original USS Jupiter/Langley with a distinguished war record as an auxiliary military cargo ship in both World War II and the Korean conflict.
        It was built in 1939 under a Maritime Commission contract and christened the "Flying Cloud". The Aldebaran class cargo ship was acquired by the Navy June 19, 1941 and commissioned as the second USS Jupiter on Aug. 22, 1942.
        During World War II, the USS Jupiter was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated as a Navy support vessel in six campaigns: the Gilbert Islands (Tarawa) operation in 1943, the capture of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, the occupation of Caroline Islands in 1944, the Leyte landings in the Philippines, the Iwo Jima assault in February 1945, and the capture and occupation of Okinawa in June 1945.
        The ship was designated as a "Jupiter Class Aviation Stores Issue Ship (AVS-8)" on July 31, 1945, becoming the model for  a new class of munitions vessels for the Navy. Following World War II, the USS Jupiter joined the "Occupation and China Service" in the Far East for two years before it was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet in San Diego.
        With the outbreak of the Korean War, the USS Jupiter was recommissioned Oct 10, 1950 and served as a Naval support vessel throughout the conflict. It would win seven battle stars while stationed off the coast of Korea. When peace accords were signed in 1953, the Jupiter once again joined the Occupation Service in the Far East.
        The ship was decommissioned in June 1964 and mothballed with the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia, WA. The second USS Jupiter was struck from the Naval Register on Aug. 1, 1965.
(c.)  2015.
NOTE: See additional articles archived in Older Posts.

The Jeaga Indians of 'Abaioa' (Palm Beach) in 1513

By Bob Davidsson       
        On May 8, 1513, two sturdy U-shaped Spanish naos (ships), the flagship "Santa Maria de la Consolacion" and the "Santiago," with their accompanying shallow-draft brigantine, the "Cristobal," briefly anchored at the "Cabo de Corrientes" (Cape of Currents) near an island which nearly 400 years later would be called Palm Beach.
        Juan Ponce de Leon, the new adelantado or proprietary governor of "Bimini and the Northern Isles," was making his fourth landing along the east coast of what he had recently christened as the island of "La Florida" on April 3. The voyage of discovery was hard on both ships and men.
       After making an initial landfall on an uninhabited beach somewhere between modern Daytona and St. Augustine, he sailed north to the mouth of the St John's River, then reversed course and battled the contrary currents of the Gulf Stream for nearly three weeks.
        His landing parties were attacked by hostile Ais Indians north of the St. Lucie Inlet on April 21, and again by the Jeaga Indians when the Spanish attempted to force a landfall near their main village of Hobe at Jupiter Inlet. In his "General History," the 16th century Spanish court historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesilla recorded an earlier account of the voyage of Ponce de Leon and his encounters with the native peoples of Palm Beach County.
        "He went out from there to a river (the Loxahatchee) where they gathered water and firewood," Herrera reported, "waiting for the brigantine 'Cristobal'. Sixty Indians  (Jeaga) went there to hinder him. One of them was taken for a pilot so he might learn their language."
        "He (Ponce de Leon) gave to this river the name 'La Cruz' (the cross); and he left by it a cross of stone with an inscription on it; and they left off taking on water because it was brackish."
         Ponce de Leon was forced to anchor the naos "Santa Maria and "Santiago" at Jupiter Inlet for nearly a week as he waited for the missing brigantine "Cristobal" to join his fleet. The small lateen-rigged vessel was swept north by contrary currents and wind prior to reaching the inlet.
         The total complement of his fleet consisted of 64 men and one woman, Juana Jimenez (Ruiz), the sister-in-law of one of the admiral's gentlemen-soldiers, Francisco de Ortega. She became the first European woman to explore North America since of demise of the ill-fated Norse colony of Freydis Ericsdottir in Newfoundland (circa 1013).
         Ponce de Leon's crew included only 25 "gente de tierra" (gentlemen-of-the-land) who were trained soldiers. Of this small military force, 20 were stationed on "Santa Maria," a ship under the ownership and command of the notorious Basque mariner Juan Bono de Quejo.
         Juan Bono was a maritime trader who like a bad penny always seemed to appear and profit from new Spanish colonization ventures in Hispanola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Florida, Cuba and Mexico. Prior to Ponce de Leon's expedition, Bono raided the Bahamas in search of human cargo - Taino Indian slaves.
        Later in his career, Bono would earn the epitaph of "Juan the Bad" from the Catholic Church for engaging in slave raids on the island of Trinidad. Aware of his reputation, conquistador Hernando Cortes once locked him chains in 1520 and sent him back to Cuba as a "troublemaker" in his own ship.
        With his knowledge of these "Northern Islands," it was probably Bono, with master pilot Anton de Alaminos on the flagship "Santa Maria," that guided the fleet to the coast of Florida. By most 16th century accounts, Ponce de Leon had an affable, noble character, which won the loyalty of Bono, who by nature was the complete opposite.
        Following the long-delayed rendezvous with the "Cristobal," the fleet set sail from the Jupiter Inlet on May 8. The three ships followed the coast of Singer Island and the island of Palm Beach. The two islands were not separated by an inlet in the early 1500's.
        The Spanish historian Herrera reported, "They came upon and anchored behind a cape, close to a village named 'Abaioa'. All this coast from Punta de Arrafices until this Cabo de Corrientes, runs north-south to the southeast and the water is clear with a depth of six fathoms."
        Ponce de Leon's "Cabo de Corrientes" (Cape of Currents) has been interpreted by many historians as the place where the Gulf Stream is closest to coast of Florida. The cape also was the easternmost point of the Florida peninsula. In both cases, this is the island of Palm Beach.
        The expedition noted there were villages along the island and anchored for a short period to investigate before continuing south. The village of "Abaioa," like similar place names of Abacoa and Abaco Island, may be rooted in the Taino Indian dialect.
        Some historians theorize the Jeaga, Ais and Tekesta tribes were at one time seafaring cultures, similar to the Taino. They crossed the Caribbean from South America and settled in southeast Florida about 5,000 B.C. During the early Spanish colonial period, Florida Indians were still making journeys to Cuba in large dugout canoes.
        There were no reports of conflicts with the native Jeaga inhabitants of "Abaioa" during Ponce de Leon's short visit to Palm Beach. The villagers were certainly aware of the battle at the Jupiter Inlet with the strange iron-clad visitors and may have withdrew into the interior of the island. By the next day, the three ships had set sail and life returned to normal at "Abaioa."

Villages Along the Rio Jeaga
        At the time of Ponce de Leon's voyage of discovery, the Jeaga tribe occupied villages from Jupiter Island in the north, west along the Loxahatchee River, and south on both shores of the Lake Worth Lagoon (called the "Rio Jeaga" on 17th century Spanish maps). The Boca Raton Inlet served as a natural dividing line between the Jeaga and the larger Tekesta (Tequesta) tribe centered in what is today Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
        The Rio Jeaga, a freshwater lake during the Spanish colonial period, was vital to the scattered Jeaga villages as a food source, communications and transportation network. Heavy rains and hurricanes occasionally created lake flooding which breached the barrier island of Palm Beach with temporary inlets until new sandbars would close these outlets to the ocean.
         Prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists at Jupiter Inlet (Rio Jobe), the Jeaga villages were decentralized with local towns ruled by their caciques or chieftains. The introduction of European trade goods and plunder from shipwrecks changed the dynamics of tribal alliances, with the caciques of Hobe gaining in stature.
        The village of Hobe became the primary Jeaga center of trade due to its access to the Jupiter Inlet. The Jeaga in turn shared trade goods, captives and ship plunder with the more powerful Calusa tribe in the 16th century, and the neighboring Ais Indians to the north during the 17th century.
        The town of Hobe, located on the south side of the inlet, was in the heart of what archaeologists call the Jupiter Mound Complex. Middens, ceremonial mounds and village sites were found along both sides of the inlet, as well as in the nearby Loxahatchee estuary.
         South of Jupiter Inlet were several small villages collectively called the Singer Island Sites on the barrier island.  Villages on both Singer Island and Palm Beach were built on the coastal ridge of the two islands. Both islands rest on a foundation of Anastasia rock and coquina limestone.
        Southwest of Singer Island, on the mainland side of the Rio Jeaga, were three mound sites called the Riviera Complex by archaeologists. The village site was located near what is today the Port of Palm Beach.
        The Riviera Complex consisted of the Palm Beach Inlet Midden and adjacent Palm Beach Inlet Burial Mound, as well the principal village site along the Rio Jeaga. Some documents even refer to the Riviera Complex as the town of "Jeaga"- the namesake for the entire tribe.
         The Nebot Site was located southeast of the Riviera Complex on the Palm Beach barrier island. It was discovered in the 1980's at the 100 block of Everglades Avenue. The site included a sand burial mound and perhaps a small village along the lake. Skeletal remains were excavated from the site, as well as tool artifacts of bone and even European brass.
        The Palm Beach Complex, located north of Sloan's Curve, once included both a burial mound and village midden, both destroyed by development, as is most the Patrician Site along the 3000 block of South Ocean Blvd.

'Abaioa' - The Guest Mound Complex
        The Palm Beach "Guest Mound Complex" was by far the largest coastal village site on the island at the time of Ponce de Leon's voyage. The mound village was 18 feet high and extended 100-feet in width from north to south. The village's midden was immediately south of the mound.
        A village on an 18-foot mound with 10-foot high bohio-style structures was clearly visible to the three ships anchored a short distance from shore in 1513. The town complex meets all the criteria of the "Abaioa" recorded in Spanish journals. What is less certain is if "Abaioa" is actually the native Jeaga name for their village.
        The Guest Mound Complex, located at the 600 block of North County Road, was once part of the Otto Kahn estate. It was sold in 1941 and became the Graham-Eckes Academy. Expansion of the school resulted in the destruction of part of the burial mound. The site is named for Frederick Guest, the owner of property south the Graham-Eckes school.
         Archeologists estimate between 100 and 150 Jeaga villagers were interred within the Guest Mound. Artifacts at the Guest Mound Complex and other sites on the island of Palm Beach predate 500 B.C.
        Jeaga villages in Palm Beach County were destroyed or abandoned during the colonial Queen Anne's War (1702-13) between England and Spain. English slave traders from South Carolina, with Yemassee and Yuchi Indian allies armed with British muskets, began their South Florida raids in 1703.
        By 1711, the last "Cacique of Jove (Jeaga)" and other surviving South Florida native leaders were seeking sanctuary in Cuba for the remnants of their tribes. Captain Luis Perdomo arrived with two ships on a rescue mission. He found nearly 2,000 desperate Indians in the Florida Keys, but was only able to transport 270 refugees. About 200 died of diseases in Cuba within a few years.
      One of the early mysteries of Palm Beach is the unknown identity of a European buried among the native Jeaga Indians at the Waldron Site near Wideners Curve. The grave of the colonial period man, buried in a traditional Christian manner, was recovered in the Indian burial site. He was about 35 years of age, a pipe smoker, and apparently in good health prior to his death.
        If one believes in the Fountain of Youth, then it is not a leap of faith to suggest perhaps the deceased man was a member of Ponce de Leon's crew, interred during their brief visit to the village of "Abaioa". Some mysteries and legends are best left unsolved.
(c.) 2015

NOTE: View additional articles archived in Older Posts.    

Civil War Blockade-Running at Jupiter Inlet: 1861-65

By Bob Davidsson       
        While there were no land battles fought in Palm Beaches during the Civil War, for nearly four years a deadly game of hide and seek, pitting Confederate and British blockade runners against U.S. Navy coastal patrol boats, was waged near the Jupiter Inlet and Narrows.
        Navy "Official Records" list 47 blockade runners - schooners, sloops and steam-powered vessels - as captured or destroyed between Cape Canaveral and Jupiter Inlet. A small flotilla of six Union gunboats on patrol along the southeast coast of Florida captured 24 vessels in the vicinity of the Jupiter Inlet.
       Soon after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the Navy imposed a total blockade of warships and merchant vessels leaving or entering the Confederacy. The blockade extended from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Key West on the Atlantic coast, and westward from the Florida Keys to Brownsville, Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico.
        The sparsely populated east coast of Florida, with its many inlets and a natural coastal transportation network along the interconnected Indian River, St. Lucie River and Jupiter Narrows, provided many hideouts for shallow-draft blockade runners shipping supplies into or out of Florida.
        To enforce the blockade of the Confederacy, the Union Navy established the "East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron" in 1861. The headquarters of the small fleet was Fort Zachary Taylor at Key West. Flag Officer William McKeon was assigned the daunting task of patrolling coastal waters south of Cape Canaveral on the east coast, and north to Apalachicola Bay along the Gulf coast of Florida.
        During the 1860s, there were no ports between St. Augustine and Key West. Union gunboats faced long patrols in dangerous coastal waters with frequent storms, the powerful currents of the Gulf Stream, and poorly mapped inlet shoals and reefs.
        The blockade runners they pursued not only displayed the "Stars and Bars"of the Confederacy, but about 40 percent of the captured vessels flew the "Union Jack" of Great Britain. Sloops and schooners often used the Bahamas and occasionally Spanish Cuba as bases to smuggle supplies into Florida.
        While Britain and Spain remained neutral during the American Civil War, the Royal Navy did little to interfere with British flagged ships attempting to break the Union blockade. Union captains readily captured British vessels violating the blockade in Florida coastal waters, but took care not to kill or injure English crewmen in order to avoid international incidents.
        The Confederacy did not station any heavily armed commerce raiders, such as the CSA "Florida" or CSA "Tallahassee," along the southeastern coast of Florida. Blockade runners were lightly armed, usually manned by civilian crews, and opted to either flee or ground their vessels when confronted by Union gunboats. There was little loss of life in these encounters.
        Salt was a Florida resource in high demand by both Confederate armies and the civilian population. Union patrol boats were on constant alert for smoke plumes which indicated salt boilers were in use. Cotton bales and turpentine were the main exports from Florida for markets in Europe. There were profits to be made by daring merchant captains who avoided the blockade.
        Profit also was an incentive for Union gunboats. Under existing rules of the U.S. Navy, captured Confederate vessels (prizes) were sold at auction in Key West with Union officers and crew recovering most of the proceeds from the sales.
        Following reports that the Jupiter Inlet was a hideout for Confederate shipping, the Union intensified its blockade off the coast in January 1862. The task was shared by six small warships based in Key West - the  USS "Sagamore," "Gem of the Sea," "Roebuck," "Honeysuckle," "Beauregard," and "Union."

USS Sagamore
        The most successful of the Union gunboats on patrol off the Jupiter Inlet was the USS "Sagamore". The "Sagamore" was one of the massed-produced "90-day gunboats" built especially by the U.S. Navy for blockade duty. It was a two-masted schooner powered by a steam engine and armed with five rifled guns.
        The "Sagamore" was assigned to the East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron in November 1861. The commanding officer of the gunboat was Lt. Earl English, with Master Mate Henry Crane as the leader of a special landing force approved by the Navy to seek and destroy Confederate coastal installations. They were the Navy SEALS of the 19th century.
        Crane was a Floridian who enlisted in both the Second and Third Seminole Wars. He was familiar with the Jupiter Inlet and adjacent waterways. As a Tampa resident, he entered the Civil War as a Confederate colonel in the local Florida militia. However, when a pro-Union friend was murdered, he decided to change his allegiance and volunteered to serve with the U.S Navy.
        During its 1863 patrol near the Jupiter Inlet, the "Sagamore" raided Confederate commerce by both land and sea. Beginning on Jan. 8, the "Sagamore" seized the British ship "Julia" 10 miles north of Jupiter Inlet.
        Using one of the "Sagamore's" longboats while the ship was on patrol, Crane surprised the Confederate schooner "Pride" in the Jupiter Narrows. They dumped its cargo of 188 bushels of salt into the river. On Jan. 8, the unmanned schooner "Flying Cloud," registered in Nassau, was burned by the raiders.
        Four days later, Crane led his team to the inactive Jupiter Lighthouse, where they seized a catch of supplies including 150 gallons of whale oil and 200 bushels of salt. The crew of the "Sagamore" also rescued survivors of the Union troopships "Lucinda" and "Sparkling Sea" which were driven ashore south of Jupiter Inlet.
        On Jan. 16, a shore party from the "Sagamore" found 45 sacks of salt at "Couch's Bar" near Jupiter Inlet. Crane's raiders also seized seven bales of cotton Feb. 3 in the Jupiter Narrows, and an additional 58 sacks of salt with a catch of tools Feb. 5 during a return visit to the Jupiter Lighthouse.
       Crane's most successful raid was the destruction of a hidden Confederate shipyard located at Blue Hole Creek near the Indian River Inlet. During the Feb. 22 attack, ship repair facilities, supplies and docks were destroyed.
       Before completing his successful 1863 patrol, Lt. English and the "Sagamore" also would capture the blockade runner "East Yarmouth" off Jupiter Inlet on Jan. 25. The "Sagamore" caught the schooner "Agnes" and sloop "Ellen" making a dash out of the Jupiter Inlet on Feb. 28. They carried a cargo of cotton and turpentine.
        The same eventful day, the British sloop "Elizabeth," based in Nassau, was intercepted at the mouth of the inlet. The crew ran their ship aground before surrendering to the "Sagamore."

USS Gem of the Sea
        The USS "Gem of the Sea" was commissioned on Oct. 15, 1861. The gunboat, under the command of Lt. J.B. Baxter, was ordered to the East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron for a tour of duty off the southeast coast of Florida.
        The "Gem of the Sea" captured and scuttled the blockade-running sloop "Ann" six miles from the Jupiter Inlet. The Confederate cargo of 76 bags of salt was destroyed during a December 1862 patrol.
        During a second patrol, the "Gem of the Sea" intercepted the British schooner "Inez" north of the Jupiter Inlet April 18,1863 while it was sailing to a rendezvous with the Confederates within the Indian River Inlet. A load salt in its cargo hold was destroyed.

USS Beauregard
        Ironically, the USS "Beauregard" began its Civil War career as a privateer in the service of the Confederate Navy. It was commissioned as a CSA warship in October 1861. The gunboat was armed with one 24-pund rifled gun, and carried a crew of 40.
        The "Beauregard" was captured in the Florida Straits by the Union blockade squadron on Nov. 19, 1861 and taken to Key West as a prize. The gunboat was purchased by the U.S. Navy Feb. 24, 1862, and became part of the very same East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron that captured it from the Confederacy.
        The USS "Beauregard" was officially commissioned in Union Navy March 28, 1862, and while under the command of Acting Master David Stearns, the gunboat would capture 11 rebel blockade runners. Three of its prizes were seized near Jupiter Inlet.
        On Aug. 26, 1863, the "Beauregard" seized the Confederate schooner "Phoebe" outside the Jupiter Inlet. It was towed to Key West as a prize and sold. The "Beauregard" boarded two Confederate ships, the "Lydia" and "Hope," offshore of the Jupiter Narrows. They carrying cargos of cotton and turpentine for sale in Europe.

USS Honeysuckle
        Tropical storms, barrier reefs and enemy ships were not the only dangers encountered by the seamen of the East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron. The crew of USS "Honeysuckle" was decimated by outbreak of yellow fever while the ship was in use as the fleet's dispatch vessel.
        The "Honeysuckle" was a swift 240-ton steam-powered ship purchased by the Navy in 1863. It was armed with two 20-pound guns. After commissioning, it was ordered to Key West and joined the blockade squadron Jan. 8, 1864.
        The Union gunboat captured the British blockade runner "Fly" off Jupiter Inlet during a patrol along the east coast of Florida. After the crew recovered from the yellow fever epidemic at Key West, the "Honeysuckle" continued patrols along the west coast of Florida.

USS Union
        The USS "Union" was a large 1,114-ton steam-powered vessel first chartered by the Navy in April 1861, then outfitted as a warship and commissioned on Jan. 20, 1863. It carried one 12-inch rifled gun for armament. Due to its size the "Union"also was used a fleet gunboat tender.
        The first prize captured by the "Union" after joining the blockade squadron was the Confederate sloop "Caroline." The blockade runner was seized at the Jupiter Inlet on June 10, 1864.
        Seven days later, the "Union" experienced an unusual encounter with a blockade runner sailing under a Spanish flag. The crew of the "Union" boarded the Havana-based schooner "Emma" as it sailed 24 miles northwest of Jupiter Inlet. The ship was towed to Key West and impounded.

USS Roebuck
        During the winter of 1863-64, the USS "Roebuck" became the scourge of Confederate blockade runners operating out of Jupiter Inlet. The "Roebuck" was launched in 1856 as 455-ton sailing bark rigged as a clipper ship for additional speed.
        The warship was armed with four 32-pound guns, and manned by a crew of 69 seamen. The "Roebuck" joined the East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron in September 1862 with Acting Master Joseph Barclay in temporary command.
         After completed a patrol along the Gulf coast of Florida, the gunboat was reassigned to southeast Florida, under the command of Capt. John Sherrill.  The first ship captured by the "Roebuck" while on patrol outside the Jupiter Inlet was the British schooner "Ringdom," bound for the Bahamas with a cargo of coffee and salt.
        While continuing its patrol, the "Roebuck" seized the Confederate sloop "Maria Louise" Jan. 10, 1864 near Jupiter Inlet. The next day the British blockade runner "Susan (i.e. Suzan)" was captured in the Jupiter Inlet. The crew armed the "Susan" as a Union vessel and used it to patrol along Jupiter Island.
        On Jan. 14, the "Roebuck" chased the British sloop "Young Racer" ashore north of the inlet on Jupiter Island. The English ship was transporting sacks of Florida salt in its cargo compartment.
        Armed boats from the "Roebuck" chased and seized the Confederate sloop "Caroline" off Jupiter Inlet on Jan. 18. The next day, armed boats were once again used to capture the British blockade runner "Eliza" and Confederate sloop "Mary" inside the inlet. A total of 14 bales of cotton was impounded.
        During a  second patrol six months later in the Florida Straits, the "Roebuck" was credited with the capture of the Confederate schooners "Eliza" and "Rebel," the sloops "Two Brothers," "Nina" and "Last Resort," and the Nassau-registered schooner "Terrapis." The "Roebuck" ended the war as a supply ship stationed in Tampa.

War at Sea Ends
        Several Confederate ships intercepted near the Jupiter Inlet were never identified in Navy logbooks. For example, two "unknown schooners" were encountered by the USS "Sagamore" on Dec. 5, 1862. One was boarded and captured by the crew. The second vessel was sunk.
        The East Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron ended the war with a tally of 300 Confederate-allied vessels captured or destroyed along both coasts of Florida. Maritime experts estimate more than 250 Florida blockade runners avoided detection or capture by the Union patrols.
         Both sides could claim minor victories in a nautical theater of war where the only true victors were the  seamen who escaped death in the tropical waters of Florida.*

*NOTE: This article was reprinted in the Fall 2015 edition (Vol. 6, No. 2) of the PBC Historical Society's "Tustenegee" journal. A digital version with art also is archived on the PBC History Online site. Address: http://www.pbchistoryonline.org . See additional articles archived in Older Posts.
(c.) 2015. 

Palm Beaches Used as Confederacy's Last Hideout

By Bob Davidsson
        Two months after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, the fugitive Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America (CSA) briefly used the island of Palm Beach as a refuge from pursuing Union forces before making his escape to Cuba.
        John Cabell Breckinridge refused to surrender at the war's end. He was the highest ranking official of the Confederacy still at large, when with the aid of five rebels, he paddled a captured Union lifeboat down the Jupiter Narrows and hid a few miles north of the Jupiter Inlet on June 3, 1865.
        Prior to the Civil War, Breckinridge was elected as the 14th Vice President of the of the United States, serving with President James Buchanan from 1857-61. When the Democratic Party divided into northern and southern branches in 1860, he was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Southern Democrats.
        Breckinridge finished second to Abraham Lincoln in Electoral College votes. Ironically, Breckinridge was the cousin of the new President's wife and First Lady - Mary Todd Lincoln. After the 1860 election, he continued to serve as a U.S. senator for his home state of Kentucky from March to December 1861.
       When Union troops occupied Kentucky, breaching its neutrality in the war, Breckinridge joined the Confederate army. He was expelled from the U.S. Senate, and as of today remains the only senator convicted of "treason" against the United States by Congress.
       Breckinridge served in the Confederate army for nearly four years, advancing to the rank of major general. CSA President Jefferson Davis appointed him as the Confederacy's Secretary War on Jan. 19, 1865. After the surrender of Lee's army, the CSA President and Cabinet fled to Abbeville, South Carolina, where it was finally decided the Confederate cause was lost.
        As Secretary of War, Breckinridge was assigned the task of escorting by rail the remaining Confederate treasury - $150,000 in gold specie - to Washington, Georgia. Upon reaching their destination on May 4, the rebel troops in his escort demanded that the gold be divided among the soldiers.
        Breckinridge paid the troops their back wages from the treasury, then discharged most of his escort the next day. The remaining Confederate gold was deposited within local banks in the town of Washington, with Breckinridge keeping just enough of the treasury to make good his escape. He then disbanded the Confederate War Department.
        A few days later, President Jefferson Davis was captured, making Breckinridge the highest ranking and most wanted ex-Confederate official in the South. He assumed a false identity as "Colonel Cabell" and fled to Florida.

Escape to Florida
        Breckinridge, with a small band of followers, crossed the George-Florida border and arrived in the town of Madison on May 15. He was joined by another Confederate fugitive, Colonel John Taylor Wood, the nephew and naval aide to Jefferson Davis. Wood escaped detention soon after he and his uncle were captured and fled to Florida.
        Wood had an unusual war record as a colonel in the Confederate army, as well as holding the rank of commander in the CSA Navy. He served as a officer aboard the ironclad "Virginia"  (Merrimac ) during its famous 1862 battle with the USN "Monitor" at Hampton Roads. Later in the war he would capture 35 Union vessels as captain of commerce raider CSN "Tallahassee" while stationed at Cape Fear.
        While in Madison, Breckinridge and Wood decided to flee to the Bahamas to escape their Union pursuers. Joining them were two discharged rebel soldiers, Sgt. Joseph J. O'Toole and Cpl. Richard Russell; Breckinridge's aide-de-camp, Col. James Wilson; and his personal servant and former African slave, Tom Ferguson.
        Traveling south to the City of Gainesville, the fugitives were aided by Confederate Col. J.J. Dickinson, who provided a captured Union lifeboat for their voyage up the St. Johns River. Wood assumed command during their voyage due to his naval experience.
        They reached the river community of Fort Butler on May 29. The lifeboat was loaded onto a wagon and transported by land 26 miles to the Indian River. After a two-day portage, the boat was launched on the coastal waterway.

A Palm Beach Hideout
        They paddled south on Indian River for two days, then encountered the sandbars and mangroves of  the Jupiter Narrows. In his autobiography, Col. Wood described their ordeal.
        "The channel is crooked, and often almost closed by dense growth of mangroves, junipers, saw grass - a jungle only a water snake could penetrate," he wrote. "Several times we lost our reckoning and had to retreat and take a fresh start; an entire day was lost in these everglades, which extend across the peninsula."
        "Finally, by good luck, we stumbled on a short 'haul over' to the sea," he continued, "and determined to at once to take advantage of it, and run our boat across, and launch her in the Atlantic."
        The fugitives crossed Jupiter Island and rowed their boat south, staying offshore of the Jupiter Inlet to avoid detection by Union troops and local residents. Wood reported, "We passed Jupiter Inlet with nothing in sight."
        They rowed until exhaustion, hunger and strong headwinds forced them to land June 4 on the deserted island of Palm Beach. After hauling the lifeboat onto the beach, they began scavenging for sea turtle eggs above the tide line. The Confederates stayed on the island for three days, gathering food and debating the best escape route. The short journey from Jupiter Inlet to Palm Beach proved their lifeboat was not seaworthy for a long voyage.
        On June 5, their beached lifeboat was spotted by a passing Union steam-driven gunboat. While Breckinridge hid in the interior of the island, Col. Wood and the two rebel soldiers, O'Toole and Russell, rowed their boat out to sea and greeted the Navy shore party.
        The two rebel soldiers handed over their army discharge papers to a Navy officer. Wood told the shore party his papers were lost in the surf, and that they were just three local fishermen searching the beach for turtle eggs.
        Wood exchanged their two buckets of turtle eggs for some bread and tobacco provided by the ship's crew. Deceived by their ruse, the Union gunboat continued its patrol along the Atlantic coast, and allowed the rebels to return to shore.
         The six Confederate fugitives avoided capture, but at the price of trading away their supply of food to the gunboat's crew. Their luck changed two days later when a single-masted coastal sailboat passed close to the island. They pursued the larger sailboat, disarming the crew at gunpoint.
        Breckinridge and Wood commandeered the sailboat, compensating the owner by giving him their lifeboat in exchange, $20 in gold from the Confederate treasury, as well as returning the crew's firearms prior to their departure from the island.
        The six fugitives set sail from the island of Palm Beach, continuing their voyage south to the community of Fort Dallas (Miami) for supplies. Now in possession of a seaworthy craft, Wood set a course for Cuba and exile from the United States.

Exile and Return
        After trading shots with ship wreckers in the Florida Keys, and surviving two storms at sea, the Confederates successfully completed their journey, arriving in Carevas, Cuba, on June 11, 1865. Confederate agents in Havana and London assisted the fugitives as they began a three-year exile from the United States.
        Breckinridge eventually joined his wife and family in Canada and spent much of his exile touring Europe. He moved his family to Niagara, Canada, directly across the river from the United States, and waited for an opportunity to return to his native Kentucky.
        President Andrew Johnson signed an executive order proclaiming amnesty for all former Confederates on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1868. Breckinridge moved his family back to Lexington, Kentucky, and remained there the remainder of his life.
        He resumed his law practice, and served as the Kentucky manager of an insurance company. He also invested in three regional railroad ventures. The former U.S. Vice President and Secretary of War for the Confederacy died May 17, 1875 at age 54.
 (c.) 2015.

NOTE: Additional articles are archived in Older Posts.

Uncovering the History of the Santaluces Indians

By Bob Davidsson
        The long, mainly uncharted history of the Santaluces (Guacata) tribe of western Palm Beach and Martin counties, with its dual Okeechobee basin and marine coastal culture, ended with a brief journal entry written by a Dutch-born surveyor-cartographer employed by the British East Florida colony.
        In his "A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida," published in 1775, Bernard Romans reported an incident involving his pilot-guide several years prior to his 1769-70 expedition to the St. Lucie River. The Spanish fisherman was captured by lake Indians and taken to "Mayacco" (Lake Okeechobee).
        The Dutch geographer wrote, "This man told me he had been formerly taken by 'savages' and by them carried as a prisoner, in a canoe, by way of this river (i.e. Santa Lucia, St. Lucie) to their settlements on the banks of the lake."
       The fisherman was soon released by the lake tribe. With this passage, the recorded history of the Santaluces (Guacata) comes to an end. Romans concluded, "In my opinion, this tract (St. Lucie River) is scarcely ever invaded by hostile savages."
        The "Mayacco" village described by Romans' guide was likely the same one mentioned in 1743 by Spanish Jesuit missionaries Joseph Maria Monaco and Guiseppe Savara Alana during their unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission at Biscayne Bay.
        In his census of South Florida Indians, Father Alana wrote, "They all are remnants of three nations, Keys, Carlos (Calusa) and Bocaratone. We learned that from another three tribes in addition to these, the Maymies, 'Santaluzos' and Mayaca, which have united and are four days journey on the mainland, it will be possible to add another hundred souls or a few more."
        "These diminutive nations fight among themselves at every opportunity," Father Alana observed, "and they are shrinking as is indicated by the memory of the much greater number that were just 20 years ago."
        "So that if they continue on in their barbarous style," he wrote, "they will disappear within a few years either because of the skirmishes or because of the rum that they drink until they burst, or because of the children whom they kill, or because of those who smallpox carries off in absence of remedies, or because of those who perish in the hands of the Uchises (Indian slave raiders)."
        Father Alana accurately predicted the demise of these last remnants of Florida's native tribes in his journal. When the first Spanish colonial period ended in Florida, Spain transported the remaining mission Indians by ship to Cuba in 1763.

The Beginnings
        The true name of the tribe that once extended from the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee eastward to the St. Lucie River and Inlet is not known in their own language. "Guacata" was the name of one of their main villages in the 16th century. The place name was applied to the entire tribe during the early period of Spanish exploration and colonization.
        The alternate tribal name of "Santaluces" was widely used by Spanish officials beginning in the 17th century, with continued use even after the tribe's extinction in the 1700s. Santa Lucia was a Spanish outpost briefly established south of the St. Lucie Inlet in 1565-66. The tribe, inlet and river inherited the name from this failed military colony on its southern border.
        The ancestors of the Guacata Indians, like their Jeaga neighbors to the southeast, were part of the "East Okeechobee" culture that utilized both Atlantic coastal marine and interior freshwater resources. Archaeologists have identified 49 possible midden sites in Martin County, including five major mound concentrations, representing village complexes.
        Former village sites identified within the St. Lucie estuary are Rocky Point near the St. Lucie Inlet, the Hutchinson Island complex north of the inlet, the Peck Lake and Joseph Reed Shell Rises south of the inlet, and Mount Elizabeth along the St. Lucie River.
        Several interior village complexes also were occupied until the late Spanish colonial period by the Guacata tribe. Mound sites are located near Indiantown and Barley Barber in western Martin County, and include the Whitebelt sites, Pahokee Ridge, Bryant site, Big Gopher, and the largest mound complex in southeast Florida - Big Mound City - all within Palm Beach County.
        The East Okeechobee period, 750 B.C. until the tribe's demise about 1750, is the timeline when the Guacata Indians occupied the eastern and southern shores of Lake Okeechobee, with villages extending to the St. Lucie estuary. The neighboring Jeaga tribe was centered at the Jupiter Inlet, with village sites also located on Jupiter Island, the Loxahatchee River to the west and along the 20-mile length of Lake Worth to the south.
        The western neighbors of the Guacata were the Maymi Indians, a tribe often identified with the Calusa Mound Building culture along the west shore of Lake Okeechobee, as far south as Belle Glade, and the Caloosahatchee River. The tribe had close geographical and cultural ties with the more powerful Calusa Indians of the Gulf Coast throughout its history.
        Village mound complexes were used as burial sites, as ceremonial centers, and elevated towns to escape flooding due to heavy seasonal rains and hurricanes. Archaeologists believe many of the mounds used by the Guacata tribe and their ancestors date back to the late Archaic era (2,500 - 750 B.C.) with continued habitation into the Spanish colonial period.
        Big Mound City, for example, located today in the Corbett Wildlife Management Area, covered 14 acres and contains 23 mounds. It was inhabited between 500 B.C. and about 1650 by the Guacata. The unique cultural site is protected today on the National Register of Historic Places.

First Encounters
        Almost all we know about the Guacata Indians and their culture, during the period of Spanish exploration in the 16th century, comes from a single source - the "Memoir of Hernando D'Escalante Fontaneda" - written in 1575 and published two years later.
        Fontaneda's ship foundered along the coast of Florida in 1549. He was captured by the Calusa Indians at age 13, and lived with the tribe for 17 years until he was rescued in 1566. At the time of his captivity, the Calusa were the dominant tribal nation in South Florida, with trade goods and tribute received from tribes from Cape Canaveral to the Florida Keys.
        Fontaneda, who was familiar with the Okeechobee basin Indians, wrote, "They (the Calusa) are masters of a large district of this country, as far as a town called 'Guacata,' on the lake of Mayaimi (Okeechobee), which is called Mayaimi because it is very large."
        "Around it are many little villages," Fontaneda recalled, "which I will speak about hereafter. On this lake, which lies in the midst of the country, are many towns, of 30 or 40 inhabitants each; and as many more places there are in which people are not so numerous."
        In his description of the topography, he wrote, "These Indians occupy a very rocky and a very marshy country. They have no product of mines or thing that we have in this part of the world (Spain). The men go naked, and the women in a shawl made of a kind of palm leaf, split and woven."
        In addition to the town of  Guacata, Fontaneda counted 24 villages near Lake Okeechobee, of which four he remembered by name in his "Memoir". He wrote, "Besides, there are others inland on the lake of Mayaimi; and another town, and the first is Cutespa; another Tavagueme; another Tomsobe; another Enempa; and another 20 towns there are, of which I do not remember the names."
        Fontaneda described in great detail the diet of the Lake Okeechobee Indians. During his captivity, he shared their food and had first hand knowledge of what members of this hunter-gatherer culture ate.
        "They have bread of roots," he wrote, "which is their common food the greater part of the time; and because of the lake, which rises in some seasons so high that the roots cannot be reached in consequence of the water, they are for some time without eating this bread."
        "Fish is plenty and very good," he continues. "There is another root, like the truffle over here, which is sweet; and there are many different roots of many kinds; but when there is hunting, either deer or birds, they prefer to eat meat or fowl."
        "The Indians also eat lagartos (alligators)," he wrote of their diet, "and snakes, animals like rats, which live in the lake, freshwater tortoises, and many more disgusting reptiles which, if we were to continue enumerating, we would never be through."
        Fontaneda learned four native languages while captive, including the Calusa dialect. He could not speak the language common to the Atlantic coastal tribes, such as the Ais or Jeaga, which indicate the linguistic and cultural differences of the Calusa. Pedro Vizcaino (the "Biscayan") was a captive of the Ais Indians mentioned by Fontaneda in his "Memoir".
        Fontaneda wrote, "He (Vizcaino) understands well the language of the Ais, and the languages of other places mentioned (Guacata and Jeaga), which are spoken as far as Mayaca an Mayajuaca, places to the north (near Cape Canaveral)."
        During the 16th century, shipwrecks provided an unexpected source of wealth to the coastal tribes of South Florida. Fontaneda explained in his "Memoir" how salvaged cargo was divided between the Calusa and other tribes who were junior partners in their alliance.
        "I desire to speak of the riches found by the Indians of Ais, which perhaps were as much as a million dollars, or over in bars of silver, in gold, and articles of jewelry made by the hands of Mexican Indians," he wrote. "These things Carlos (the Calusa chief) divided with the caciques of Ais, Jeaga, Guacata, Mayajuaco and Mayaca, and he took what pleased him, or the best part."
        Fontaneda was rescued from his captivity in 1566 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the new adelantado or proprietary governor of Florida. He served the governor as an interpreter in Florida until 1569, when he returned to Spain and wrote his "Memoir.

The Santaluces   
        Menendez attempted to establish a military outpost among the Ais Indians in the autumn of 1565. After he sailed to Cuba for supplies, about 100 soldiers deserted the camp and marched south to the St. Lucie River. They became stranded between the St. Lucie and Indian rivers until two Spanish ships rescued and transported them to a new colony site north of the Jupiter Inlet.
        The new outpost - Santa Lucia - only lasted four months. The garrison mutinied a second time in March 1566 and sailed away in a supply ship. While the outpost vanished, the name for the region remained. The Guacata Indians that harassed the Santa Lucia garrison from the north became known as the "Santaluces" tribe in future Spanish records.
        By the early 17th century, the foreign policy of the Calusa Indians changed from one of regional dominance and expansion, to a closed isolationist society. Two factors contributing to this policy shift were a sharp decline in population due to introduced European diseases, and distrust of the Spanish after a failed attempt to colonized their country in 1566-69.
        The Ais nation benefited from this policy reversal by becoming the senior partner of an alliance of southeastern Florida tribes extending from Cape Canaveral to the Jupiter Inlet. It would continue until the outbreak of Queen Anne's War in 1702. The Santaluces were part of this coalition with the Ais through common bonds of inter-marriage, a shared dialect and coastal trade.
        The Santaluces became involved in Spanish colonial governance during the administration of Gov. Pedro de Ybarra (1603-09). The St. Lucie River was considered the southern border of the "Province of Ais," officially proclaimed by Adelantado Menendez back in 1565. In fact, the only residents of the Spanish province were Ais and Santaluces Indians.
        Governor Ybarra began his term in October 1603 with the goal of improving relations with the coastal tribes of southeastern Florida. Increased trade would improve the economy of the impoverished City of St. Augustine, dependent on annual subsidy (situado) from Spain. The recovery of shipwrecked crews and cargos along the coast would be an added benefit of a peace policy.
        His negotiations with Capitan Grande, the cacique of Ais, his mandador (sub-chief) Chico of the Surruque tribe, and Don Luis, chief of the allied Santaluces Indians, required patience and diplomacy. However, his policy bore fruit in 1605 when Capitan Grande led a delegation of 20 coastal Indian leaders to St. Augustine for peace negotiations.
        A jubilant Governor Ybarra reported, "Since then the caciques come and go as they please, and our soldiers do the same, by the sea as well as by land, with greatest security."
        His statement proved overly optimistic, but relations with the coastal tribes slowly improved. In late 1605, a Captain Fernandez led an expedition to Lake Okeechobee using the Province of Ais as his departure point. Unfortunately, there are no records detailing the outcome of this journey or the reception received from Santaluces villages near the lake.
        The one member of the Santaluces tribe mentioned by name in colonial records during the early 1600s is its cacique (chieftain), called "Don Luis" by the Spanish. In 1607, he traveled to St. Augustine, in company with Capitan Chico, the Ais "Little Captain" or mandador. They observed the Easter Holy Week observances in the city.
        Governor Ybarra offered religious instruction to coastal chiefs and warriors visiting the city, personally leading the chieftains to the Franciscan friary (convento) in 1605. There were only a few conversions to the Catholic faith, and no Spanish missions were established in lands controlled by the Ais and Santaluces tribes.
        The governor did successfully use his influence with Don Luis to mediate an end to a dispute which had led to conflict between the Santaluces and Jeaga tribes in 1609. By the end of Ybarra's term, Spanish trade and rescue missions were allowed to enter the Province of Ais without fear of attack.
        However, conditions along the southern frontier remained tense. A letter from Franciscan missionaries to Spain in 1618 stated the Indians of Santa Lucia and Jeaga were "rebellious" against the Spanish. Indian trade with foreign vessels was an ongoing concern of Spain.
        Following reports that the galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha" grounded in southeast Florida, Gov. Juan de Salinas (1618-24) wrote, "About the month of September (1622) some remains of ships were found on this coast that indicated shipwreck and loss of same. And soon thereafter I had word from Indians of the coast of 'Jega' and Santa Lucia that many others had come to grief on their coast."
        "This caused me notable concern and grief because of its being time for the 'Galleons' and 'Fleet' (annual Galleones and Flota treasure convoys) to be coming through the channel," he reported. "I sent the sergeant-major, Gabira, to the point of Canaveral with 40 soldiers so that he might search along these (coasts) and collect whatever he might find."
        Unaware the "Atocha" sank in the Florida Keys, Governor Salinas led a second expedition in person. In his 1623 report to the king, he wrote, "It appeared to me appropriate that I should make this investigation in person as well. I did so. I reached as far as Santa Lucia, which is the farthest I was able to go, hunting all over of them without finding anything of importance, or anything else other than broken chests of rotting tobacco and three shallops (canoes)."
        It was a shipwreck in 1696 that would add valuable information about the Santaluces Indians and their neighbors. The "Reformation" foundered on the coast of Jupiter Island. The vessel's passenger list included Jamaican merchant Jonathan Dickinson and his family, en route to establish a new business venture in Philadelphia.
        The castaways were captured by the Jeaga Indians and taken to their village of Hobe at Jupiter Inlet. After the Jeaga divided the ship's cargo with the visiting cacique of the Ais Indians, Dickinson and his party were allowed to leave Hobe and begin the long journey north to St. Augustine.
        In his journal, published as "God's Protecting Providence..." in 1699, Dickinson said the Santaluces village of  "St. a Lucea was a town that lay about a degree to the northward" of Hobe. The Jeaga told him the town would be "about two or three days journey," and upon arrival expect "to have our throats and scalps cut and be shot, burnt and eaten."
        Despite the dire warning, the English castaways decided to walk to "St. a Lucea" under the false assumption that "this place having a Spanish name supposed to have found it under the government of that nation, whence we might expect relief."
        They encountered a peaceful Santaluces village on the north shore of the St. Lucie Inlet. Dickinson described the residence of the Santaluces cacique as "40-foot long, and 25-foot wide, covered with palmetto leaves both tops and sides." He wrote it contained a "barbecue" for cooking and a range of benches for leaders of the tribe to sit. The chieftain sat on a bench located at the upper end of the building's interior.
        While held at the village of "St. a Lucea," Dickinson observed, and provides us today, with a rare look at the ceremonial diplomatic protocol used by the coastal tribes during the late 17th century. The event was a delegation of Ais Indians sent to the Santaluces town to negotiate the release of the English captives.
        "About the tenth hour we observed the Indians (Santaluces) to be on a sudden motion," he observed, "most of the principal of themselves to their houses; the Casseekey went to dressing his head and painting himself, and so did the rest."
        "When they had done," Dickinson wrote, "they came to the Casseekey's house and seated themselves in order. In a small time after came an Indian with some small attendance (Ais Indian delegation) into the house, making a ceremonious motion, and seating himself by the Casseekey, persons that came with him seated themselves amongst the others."
        Dickinson's journal states, "After some small pause, the Casseekey began a discourse which held nigh an hour. After which the strange Indian and his companions (Ais) went forth to the waterside, unto their canoe lying in the sound, and returned with such presents as they brought, delivering them to the Casseekey, and those sitting giving applause."
        After receiving the ransom, the Santaluces chieftain allowed the English castaways to leave the village. They were escorted to the main Village of Ais (Jece) near Vero Beach, where they endured another month of captivity until a Spanish patrol secured their release. Dickinson learned there were 10 native towns between the St. Lucie Inlet and St. Augustine.
        While at the Village of Ais, Dickinson observed in addition to distributing loot from shipwrecked vessels, the coastal tribes shared resources from their environment. He wrote, "This week we observed that great baskets of dried berries were brought in from drivers towns and delivered to the king, which supposed to be a tribute to the king, who is chief of all towns from St. Lucie to the northward of this town of Jece."

Road to Oblivion
        Dickinson's journal provides a final look at the Santaluces Indians before their destruction. Less than seven years later, the tribe was shattered by slave raids led by the British and their Yemassee Indian allies during Queen Anne's War. The architect of these incursions was Captain Thomas Nairne, Indian Agent for the South Carolina colony.
        Nairne led a mixed force of English and Yemassee warriors to South Florida in 1702-03, attacking villages and carrying off inhabitants as slaves for the markets in Charleston. The raids into Florida continued throughout 11 years of colonial warfare, with Yemassee and Yuchi Indians often launching war parties independent of their British allies.
        In an appeal to the king of Spain written Jan. 14, 1708, Gov. Francisco de Corcoles y Martinez (1706-16) wrote, "Nothing of all this has sufficed to prevent the enemy from continuing his constant killings and hostilities, which since the siege (of St. Augustine) they are doing, departing from Indian villages bordering the Carolinas, being aided by the English with guns. ammunition, cutlasses and pistols, and even accompanied by some English, who urge, incite and encourage them to these assaults, until they have desolated the entire mainland, and the coast to the south, and Carlos (the Calusa)."
      An "Indios de la Costa" (Indians of the Coast) mission was established near St. Augustine as a refuge from the raids. A few members of the Santaluces tribe may have joined 137 other coastal Indians living at the Costa mission in 1711. A final Spanish census in 1759 revealed only "nine Costa in one household" remaining in the Nombre de Dios mission.  They were transported to Cuba in 1763.
        As stated at the beginning of this history, a few lake Indians, Santaluces and Maymies, merged with refugees from the Mayaca tribe who migrated south from the St. Johns River after their missions were destroyed in a second raid by Captain Nairne and his Indian allies. Their village of Mayacco may have been near the current community of Port Mayaca in Martin County.
        Soon this last village disappeared too. Perhaps a few surviving Santaluces joined the newly formed Seminole tribe, although there are no documents that support this view. The road to extinction is a one-way street, and the Santaluces (Guacata) tribe met its dead end in history as the result of a colonial war not of their making.
2015. (c.)

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