The Fort Was Not a Happy Place…
Ft. Jefferson on Garden Key, The Dry Tortugas - Photo courtesy of Flickr
The dominating presence in the Dry Tortugas is Ft. Jefferson. The massive brick structure rises from the vibrant aquamarine waters of the Gulf as you approach, the sheer scale of it an overwhelming presence upon the sea. To say it is impressive is an understatement.
The islands were first ‘discovered’ by Spanish explorer Ponce De Leon in 1513. He christened them La Islas Tortugas – Islands of Turtles – due the large numbers of sea turtles he and his crews observed in the area. For early sailors, as well as the indigenous peoples of the region, sea turtles were an important food source. The islands are also home to large populations of seabirds – including the Magnificent Frigate Bird, Sooty Terns, Brown Pelicans, Ruddy Turnstones, and a variety of gulls. And of course, the coral reefs surrounding the islands create a natural, deep water harbor and support an abundance of marine life. Soon after the islands were charted, the word ‘Dry’ was added to warn mariners that there was no fresh water to be found in the island group.
Along the sea wall, on the western side of the fort
After the Louisiana purchase in 1803, the United States government became ever more concerned about the Spanish presence in Cuba and Mexico. In 1825, a lighthouse was built on Garden Key to warn mariners of the dangerous coral and rocky shoals around the Islands. Soon, however, it became clear the location of the Dry Tortugas made them strategically important to protect shipping that travelled from the ports in the Gulf of Mexico, specifically New Orleans, to ports on the American Atlantic coast and beyond. In 1846, construction began on Ft. Jefferson in order to defend the Gulf shipping routes. The fort was envisioned as a massive gun platform, purpose built and designed to defend the Gulf of Mexico shipping lanes, and was part of an ambitious effort undertaken to fortify the coastline of the United States following the War of 1812. Unique to Ft. Jefferson, was that while ships could easily sail around the fort’s ‘ring of fire,’ which extended approximately three miles, it would be much harder to avoid the fast and nimble American Navy frigates which would be stationed in the harbor. The fort was also planned to be a resupply depot for passing American Naval vessels.
Construction continued on the fort for over 30 years, and remarkably enough, it was never finished. The structure contains over 16 million bricks, each of which had to be brought by ship, along with all of the other necessary construction materials. In relative short order, the huge structure began to crumble under its own weight, and due to the forces of the hostile environment in which it had to exist, such as being battered by hurricanes and passing cold fronts, the entire enterprise was doomed to failure. Ironically enough, it was the invention of the rifled cannon which formally rendered the fort obsolete, as the thick brick walls could then be easily penetrated by the ‘modernized’ projectiles. The fort was formally abandoned by the United States Army in 1874. During the entirety of its time as a military fortification, not one single shot was ever fired at – or from – Ft. Jefferson.
At its peak, 1,729 soldiers were stationed at the fort. To put this in perspective, the entire island of Garden Key, where the fort is situated, is about 16 acres of dry land, and the fort covers 11 of those acres. Disease was rampant at times, particularly yellow fever, and fresh water storage was a significant challenge. Virtually all of the fresh water was captured from rainfall and stored in massive cisterns; however, during the Civil War, two steam condensers were installed which could distill 7,000 gallons of fresh water from seawater per day. Most of the rainwater cisterns were located below ground and eventually cracked, causing the water contained in them to be contaminated with salt water. One of these cisterns, which is approximately 96,000 gallons, remains intact and is in use today to provide fresh water for the park rangers and other staff who reside at the park in rotational shifts of 10 days on, 10 days off. A small section of the fort is converted to apartments for the staff. In addition to auxiliary diesel powered generators, there is also a solar array for electrical power generation. Communication with the outside world is through satellite telephones or UHF/VHF radio.
Gun port, Ft. Jefferson
During the fort’s heyday, many of the Army officers and other soldiers stationed at Ft. Jefferson brought their families with them. The Army also employed civilian machinists, blacksmiths, brick and stone masons, lighthouse keepers, and general laborers. There were also 22 African slaves at Ft. Jefferson. At its peak, there were nearly 2,000 people living within fort’s walls.
Perhaps Ft. Jefferson’s greatest claim to fame is its role as a prison for military deserters and the men charged with conspiracy or complicity in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Of these, the best known is Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated assassin John Wilkes Booth for a broken leg following the death of Lincoln. Dr. Mudd had been sentenced to life imprisonment at Ft. Jefferson, but eventually received a presidential pardon from President Andrew Johnson in 1869 for his role in treating the sick during multiple yellow fever epidemics which swept through the fort due to poor sanitation practices. Interestingly enough, Dr. Mudd tried, unsuccessfully, to escape the island on board a visiting supply ship early in his sentence.
Interior of Ft. Jefferson, ground level
Perhaps the most dangerous element with which the people at Ft. Jefferson had to contend with was boredom, which included a lack of variety in their meals. During one of our chats with the employee running the small gift shop, we were able to read excerpts from a few diaries kept by soldiers. “Nothing at all happening after nine-fifteen this morning;” and, “it is very warm again,” were common notations. Another was, “we spend our hours watching the prisoners work, as that is all there is to do.” Other diaries bemoaned the awful ‘salted beef and pork,’ and the insect ridden loaves of hard bread produced by the bakery. Rats and mice were a serious problem as well. The arrival of a ship from the mainland, bringing fresh fruits, vegetables, and mail, was a time of joy and celebration. Another common entry in soldier’s diaries was, “a mail ship came today, but I got nothing.”
John James Audubon visited the Dry Tortugas in 1832 and spent several weeks there sketching the amazing variety of bird life the islands supported. While there, Audubon and his colleagues encountered ‘eggers’ from Cuba; egg collectors who raided bird’s nests, particularly the Sooty Tern for eggs to sell in the Cuban capital of Havana. Audubon himself wrote, “the eggs are excellent eating, and our sailors seldom failed to collect bucketfuls of them during our stay at the Tortugas.” Ernest Hemingway also spent time in the islands, fishing and spearfishing.
In 1935, The Dry Tortugas and Ft. Jefferson were declared a National Monument by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in 1992, they were officially designated as a National Park.
Lighthouses of The Dry Tortugas
Not a lighthouse staircase, but one of the bastion stair cases at Ft. Jefferson; both used nearly identical construction methods, though lighthouse stairs were usually made from wood
The Garden Key Lighthouse was built in 1826, generally to warn mariners of the presence of the low lying islands and surrounding reefs. However, the lighthouse was too short and the light too dim, and when construction on Ft. Jefferson began, it was wholly incorporated in the fort structure. Still, it proved insufficient, largely due to the optics of the glass surrounding the light.
In 1856 a much taller lighthouse was built on Loggerhead Key, an island roughly three miles northwest of Garden Key. This new light was equipped with a ‘modern’ Fresnel Lens, which greatly amplified and concentrated the visible beam of light, making it visible for many dozens of miles in all directions.
A few of the original housing structures associated with the Loggerhead Key Lighthouse are still in use today, mostly by scientists and researchers. The first lighthouse keepers earned the princely sum of $600 per year for their life of solitude and isolation in the Dry Tortugas. The Loggerhead Key light was electrified in 1931 and became fully automated in 1988. The lighthouse was formally taken out of service in 2015, when newer navigational aids were placed around the islands. An interesting fact regarding the lighthouses of the Dry Tortugas is that they were the only American lighthouses to remain in operation for the entirety of the Civil War.
In Part three we’ll share our experinces visiting the Tortugas Islands