Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-05-16
FAMOUS DRY TORTUGAS.
A ONCE NOTED FORT IS BROUGHT
INTO PROMINENCE AGAIN.


and Its Remarkable History-A Prison
For Bounty Jumpers and Deserters
The rendezvous of the White
Squadron at the so-called Dry Tortu
gas, says the Detroit Free Press
brings this singular place into greater
prominence than it has had for {
quarter of century. From 1860 te
1866 the key and fort formed an i'm.
portant station-tbe key of the gulf
a coaling and supply station for the
famous Bouquet fleet and our cruisers,
which belonged to the gulf squadron.
The word Tortugas means turtle,
and refers to these animals which
frequent the keys in May to deposit
their eggs. The name applies to a
group of low-keys, which rest on the
water like emeralds on q sea of azure,
formed by the pure White coral sand.
The keys are nine in number, and
are called Garden key-on which is
situated the great Fort Jefferson
Bush, Bird, Middle, Long, Northwest,
Sand, Loggerhead and East. Logger
head key is long and slender and bears
the lighthouse one of the loftiest in
the United States. Sand key is to the
north, on line with East and Middle
keys. During the war it had battery
and was the smallpox station. East
key is famous for the Spanish gold
laden galleon which was WI recked here
in the eighteenth century. The light
house keeper at Garden key found, it
is said, $40, in gold.
In the center of this great reef,
whichrepresents possibly thirty square
miles, lies Garden key and Fort
Jefferson, surrounded by harbor as
perfect as can be imagined. Garden
key was we'll chosen as the foundation
of the fort, as it is like q spider in the
center of web, into and about which
the narrow yet deep channel winds
so narrow, that in all probability
none but the smallest of the fleet will
venture in, though during the war,
fairly large transports came up to the
little wharf.
To the east of the fort, beyond the
blue ribbon-like harbor, lies q white
sandy lagoon, once partly covered
with coral, and on it's extreme edge
the sea beats tiercely. To the south,
the great lagoon stretches away, while
to the west there is ship channel
with intervening reefs of greater or
less depth. To the north, the condi-
tions are similar, with three large keys
Sand, Middle and East and their
surrounding reefs.
1t was the original plan in 1S47,
when Fort Jefferson was begun, to
place on each of the surrounding
islands sand battery, thus making
the outlying islands part of the
plans of defense, but this was never
completed.
The fort, named after Thomas JEFF
ferson, gradually took form, and is
one of the remarkable structures of
masonry in this country, being of
brick, and half a mile around, in
closing thirteen acres, and having
three tiers of guns, numbering in all
over five hundred.
The fort was surrounded by q ditch
or moat, and this again by sea wall,
so that the fort virtually rose out of
the water, having upon the outside
hardly more than an acre of made
land which afforded room for the
quarantine wharf and several build
ings formerly used by the engineer
corps. When the war broke out the
fort was we'll on toward completion.
The walls were up and the process of
filling up with concrete and coral
taken from the reef was under way;
but there were no guns, and it was
some time before the fort was even
fairly we'll equipped.
The fort to-day is, literally, hol-
Tow mockery. One shot from any one
OF the white cruisers would, in all
probability, crush in an entire case
mate. 1t is splendid monument by
contrast of the advancement of mill
harry science, type of obsolete
methods, now of value only as a shell
which might be covered with bags of
sand or concrete of the dead coral
rock of which the great reef affords an
abundant supply.
AS the war progressed it became the
famous Dry Tortugas prison, where
bounty jumpers, deserters and war
time criminals of all kinds were sent.
The most notable were the conspira-
tors Spangler, Mudd, Mclaughlin
and others, sent in some instances for
life, but all finally pardoned out under
reconstruction.
At one time there were about 1000
prisoners and 1900 troops on this
sandbank of thirteen acres. In 1864
almost every month transport ar.
rived with prisoners-as motley q
crowd as one could wish to see, some
in old uniforms, some in citizens
clothes, some in rags, unwashed,
vermin-covered; despair and criminal
ity written on many faces, while here
and there were refned-looking, de-
spairing men, who had been unjustly
sentenced to the great prison.
The prisoners were marched up
| into the fort arronoa1 oa on drasc