The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-03
PIRATES AND WRECKERS.
TRADITIONS OF THE BUCCANEERS
AND FREEBOOTERS OF FLORIDA.

Savage at Sea-Present Condition of
the Florida Keys.
From the Ne,C York Tribune
KEY WEST, FLA, May ia hundred
years ago, according TO tradition and the
sea-novelists, these waters were full of long.
low schooners that mounted ''long toms"
carried the black flag and sailed like the
wind. When steam came, as w. Clark
Russell would say, the romance of piracy
vanished. The certainty Of short shrift
and two fathoms of rope reduced "red
rovers' to the level of ordinary cutthroats.
So many of these gentry broke their
jeweled cutlasses, hauled down the skull
and crossbones and skunk ashore in this
state to live. Their manners at once changed
curiously. Afloat, as every small boy knows.
they were nautical Chesterfields, dressed
like Beau Brummell, and play ed the guitar.
Ashore, as people in Florida remember
them, they were ignorant, quarrelsome
ruffians, lazy dirty, drunken and cowardly.
Il don't remember any buccaneers" says
William Curry. an old Bshaman from
Green Turtle Key, who has grown rich here
as wrecker and grocer "When | came
to Key West fifty-four years ago there were
only 400 people here, and they were mighty
sight better than those we have now."
Nevertheless, old citizens recall at least
one reputed buccaneer, O little, peering old
man named Page, who was said to have
known the excitement of edging artfully
alongside peaceful merchantmen, with an
armed crew behind his bulwarks, and then
pouring them out with whoop. On the
mainland it is no wonder the pirates tenn
pers were spoiled. Phosphates were not
dreamed of, and only the wild orange grew.
In the southern part of the peninsula
the land is most too wet for folks
aud not wet enough for frogs" Only a
tenth of the state is tit for habitation. On
the Northern Gulf coast they made pre-
carious living by chopping cedar. The
Faber and Dixon and most other lead pen
CHS are still made from wood grown about
Cedar Keys. The companies own no tim
Der land, as they can't protect it, and the
descendants of reformed pirates cut great
RATS every year and swear they all come
from one tiny holding OF hummock-land in
a hidden forest recess.
An undoubted freebooter lived not many
years ago at Lady Lake, near Ocala. He
was profaue, bearded reprobate who liked
to be known as a bad man." One reputa-
bic citizen wore out two or three pairs of
trousers carrying pistol for him." But
Birchfield, as he called himself, never met
anybody in fair fight. He did one day
attack with a long knife the engl-
neer of new railroad crossing
his land. The engineer being I'm
armed, Birehfield deftly carved out his
liver. A doctor, however, replaced il,
sewed up the engineer, and told Birchfeld
he ought to be ashamed of himself. Some
time after Birohfield was out driving in a
buggy with his son, when the two quarreled.
The son shot him in the head. Birchfeld
fell out OF the buggy. Then he opened fire
on his son. But his daughter, who hated
mischief, Drained him with an axe as he
lay on the ground. Which shows that pi-
rates are sometimes unfortunate IN their
domestic relations.
On some Of these keys you can still see
the rusting sGanchions, fast in the rock,
where the buccaneers hauled up their light
vessels to scrape them. Old Tom Romer,
an aged negro who doZes in the shade with
a red handkerchief over his head tells some
thrilling yarns of Blackboard and his ex>
petitions to the Havana. But Tom is
known by family records to be ITO years
old, and mixes the war of 1912 with his
stories, as Mr.. Dick mixed King Charles.
The shallowness of the Bay of Florida gave
the pirates q tremendous advantage
over the deep-draught frigates and cor
vettes. The crescent line Of keys is pro-
tected to the seward by the in-reaching
Florida reef. Ma " of them are mere
clumps of green mangrove, growing out of
the water. Others have sandy beaches, and
in the sunshine seem to float in the air. By
planting margroves they could almost be
united in continuous line from Cape Flor
ida to Key West The bay within the keys
varies from five to fourteen feet in depth.
1t is like an incipient everglade. A thou
sand years from now the peninsula will
perhaps extend south to the reef.
The earliest settlers in Key West, the
biggest of all the keys dt is eight miles
long, were probably the Yemassee Indians,
mountain tribe, driven from the main
land as the whites advanced to the south
ward. Occasionally they returned TO the
mainland. At last they were forced to
battle with their Indian enemies here, and
left so many skeletons that the Spanish dis
coverers called the island Bone Key, or
Cayo Hueso, of which Key West is a oor-
-uption. Only few escaped in canoes.
Their descendants, say local antiquarians
like HoratiO Grain, have been identified in
Cuba. After them came the pirates, open
and undisguised, and the freebooters who
protected themselves with letters of
marque. The United States flag was
hosted here in 1925 Then Mr.. Curry's
four hundred embraced the agreeable pro-
fession of wreckiug. They built light and
swift schooners and took out licenses per-
hitting them to assist vessels in distress"
The United States established a court to
see fair play.
A merchant skipper who had run two
vessels ashore at Key West, was once taken
sick here.
''Send me priest" he commanded
"WhyW exclaimed his astonished crew.
because no man ought to 60 into a
strange port without pilot"
The Key Westers publish as fact the
story of a wrecker who doused his schoon-
er's topmasts. disguised his black hull with
a white canvas streak, and then invited a
rich-laden brig to follow him to safe
anchorage
For fifteen minutes" says the story,
''the brig walked the waters, and then a
heavy thump aud harsh, grating sound
announced that she had struck up helm
Halloo, pilot, we're on the reef Bear a
hand here A suppressed but distinct laugh
from the forecastle of the schooner was the
only reply
The wreckers themselves say this story Is
exaggerated. They also deny that they
built decoy fires. All the testimony in the
wrecking suits was burned in the fire of
1856, so there is no absolute proof to the
contrary. Yet sometimes there were
twenty wrecks in year. AS soon as a
vessel was seen on the reef dozen schoon-
ers swooped down upon her. Ii the captain
refused aid he was warned that his owners
could collect no insurance IN case of disas~
ter. If ne was wise he surrendered to the
''first boarder," who told him where to put
out anchors and hawsers and engaged the
necessary number of t'consorts - IL