Shipwrecks of the Florida Keys - April 18th

Quite a few shipwrecks happened on this day in history. The earliest happened in 1638 when the British ship Kinsdale wrecked in a storm on a sand bar near Cape Florida. The next shipwreck happened two-hundred and sixteen years later, in 1854. The ship Saxony was lost fifty miles north of Cape Florida with a cargo of white pine. Thirty-nine years later, in 1893, the British brig Arcadia was also carrying lumber as its cargo. The brig was on its way from Apalachicola to Cuba when it was stranded on North Flats in the Dry Tortugas. Some of the cargo was saved. Two years after that, the Norwegian bark Ingrid was bound for Rio from Pensacola carrying lumber as well. The bark was stranded on Fowey Rocks, north of the lighthouse there. The vessel was lost and out of the one-million feet of lumber she carried, 200,000 was salvaged soon after the wreck. The wreck was sold for $1 after that and the salvor was able to remove 75% of the remaning 800,000 feet of lumber. The next wreck is more recent, happening in the 20th Century. In 1943 the open lighter YC 891 sank off of Key West.