It was quite dark when we woke up this morning. We have a 6 am deadline for getting to the pier. Fortunately, we will get breakfast on the boat.
We did not see much except water during the two and a half hour ride to Dry Tortugas. When we finally entered the national park, we could see the fort. As we got closer, we could see the current light house. When we were close to the dock, we had our best view of the fort.
While we waited to depart from the boat, the crew announced that there was a free guided tour of the fort that would start about 30 minutes after we got off of the boat. That gave us a few minutes to survey the perimeter of the fort.
Our tour guide was amazing. He brought the fort back to life with his description of history and purpose of the fort. Plans for the fort began shortly after the War of 1812. The United States realized that the Gulf Coast was exposed to attack by ship. The key that the fort is built on is the last key before open water. By controlling this key, the US could control access to the Gulf. It was built with lots of new technology and with very large canons.
It is a huge fort. Its shape and technology provided the capability to fire multiple canons continuously on a single ship. It could also fire accurately over twice as far as any ship of the day. Its walls are so thick, they could withstand any assault by a ship outside of the forts range of fire. Someone designed a cover for each canon window that was opened by the air pressure of the firing canon. Springs would then close the cover back over the window while the men reloaded the canon.
All of that firepower, and there was only one attack. It was shortly after the fort was opened. It was at the beginning of the civil war. After the battle at Fort Sumter, the Northern Navy sailed ships to the incomplete fort. They arrived just 24 hours before a Confederate Navy ship sailed in and demanded the fort’s surrender. The commander of the fort informed the Capitan of the ship that they had permitted him to sail up to the fort so that he could sail back out with a message. The message was the Captain could sail out unharmed if he told the Confederates never to show up again.
The Captain left unaware that the fort did not yet have any ammunition. The commander had pulled off the biggest bluff of the new war.
The last two pictures above show one of the canon bays up close by the window and from a distance to show the loading and storage area.
After the tour of the inside of the fort, we headed up to the top level. The pictures below are from the top of the fort. You can see to the horizon in all directions. You can also see a small part of the key that exists outside of the fort.
The last story of the tour concerned Dr. Mudd. He was convicted of aiding and abetting John Wilkes Booth because he fixed his broken leg. He was sentenced to life in prison at Dry Tortugas. While serving time there, he helped the men stationed there through a yellow fever outbreak. The men asked for him to be pardoned and he was.
We had planned to do some snorkeling after the tour. However, a sudden thunderstorm cut those plans short. We swam less than ten yards before we had to turn around and go ashore.
The storm passed fairly quickly, but we didn’t have enough time left to try snorkeling again. So we walked around the island for a time, took a selfie with the boat, and then sailed back to Key West.
After we got back at 5 pm, we still had to drive back to the mainland of Florida. This was our longest day of the trip so far. Up before sunrise and back to a hotel after dark. It was still a fun and educational day.