Shipwrecks near Egmont Key - articles and other info

Egmont Key

Egmont Key is another of several unspoiled islands located in Central West Florida along the Gulf Coast . A small 2-mile island, north of Sarasota , it sits smack dab in the mouth of Tampa Bay . Like Honeymoon Island , Egmont Key is a State park. It is also a national wildlife refuge center and a bird sanctuary. In addition, the presence of the ruins of Fort Dade , grant Egmont Key the status of national historic site.

The walls of Fort Dade rose during the Spanish-American War. The intent of Fort Dade was to protect the vulnerable and valuable Tampa Bay . Completed in 1906, Fort Dade provides home and amenities to some 300 residents until its deactivation in 1923.The ruins now sit on Egmont Key, a national historic site and part of Egmont Key State Park .

Part of the heritage of this park is a lighthouse. The Egmont Key lighthouse is a central figure in much of the island’s history. The lighthouse made its first appearance as a preventive measure against the rise in shipwrecks on Egmont Island ’s sandbars. Construction began in 1847 and concluded with the opening of the new lighthouse, the only one between Key West and St. Marks, in May 1948.

The celebration was short lived. The lighthouse felt the wrath of the Great Hurricane of 1848 and a smaller storm in 1852. Finally, in 1858, the money allotted by congress created a lighthouse meant to withstand whatever the elements could throw at it. It withstood the confederate occupation at the beginning of the American Civil War. Under Union troops, it also helped to ensure the embargo remained in place, finally, in 168 things began to return to normal. A family occupied the lighthouse and continued to run it.

In 1939, the Lighthouse services under the Coast ran the Lighthouse. Now, it sits as part of the Egmont Key State Park . Egmont Key State Park is a joint venture of the Florida State Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Services. It is reached only by the Egmont Key ferry or any other boat transportation.

The main purpose of Egmont Key State Park is to preserve wildlife. Individuals come to the island to spend time with nature, walk the nature trails and bird watch. Yet, one of the major pastimes is collecting shells. It is the reason why Egmont Key or Shell Island is a popular spot for shell collectors.

A few blogs regarding Egmont Key:

Egmont Key - this 440-acre island at the southernmost tip of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area is the home of the last government-manned lighthouse (built in 1858) in the United States . Now a wildlife refuge, Egmont Key was a camp for captured Seminole Indians during the Third Seminole war and was a Union Navy base during the Civil War. Several boats offer snorkeling excursions to this island which is accessible only by boat. Visitors can snorkel over grass beds and ruins of two gun batteries from the fort, or enjoy the unspoiled beach. And there are a lot of those Gopher Tortoises.
Anyway a lot of sunbathers go out there in the hotter months.

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I think Egmont Key has one of the most pristine beaches I have ever seen.
Used to fish right at the old gun turret bases, along the underwater walls.
When my father was alive, he pulled up the anchor and there was an encrusted rifle hooked to it. He threw the relic back in before I could stop him.

Note: you can take the tropical-island-getaway boat trip – call 727-345-4500 for reservations for Egmont Key day trips.

A Civil War era ship that sank off Egmont Key

The U.S.S. Narcissus, a tug that served in the Union Navy during the Civil War sank in 1866, off Egmont Key Tampa, Florida with the loss of all hands. At the time, this was one of the single worst disasters in U.S. naval history.

The U.S.S. Narcissus Launched in New York the Narcissus was steam powered by an overhead cylinder steam engine driving a single screw propeller. The ship was capable of 14 knots per hour. At 115-tons, the Narcissus was 82-feet long, 19-feet beam, and had a draft of 9-feet. She was armed with one 20-pound muzzle loading rifle and a 12-pound smooth bore gun.

Serving the Union

The 82-foot Union tug Narcissus participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay, where Admiral David Glasgow Farragut is said to have exclaimed “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!”

The Fateful Trip - On December 7, 1864, the Narcissus struck a torpedo (mine) in Mobile Bay. She sank and was refloated and to Pensacola for repair. On January 1, 1866 (after the war), the Narcissus left Pensacola bound for New York for decommissioning and return to civilian service.

On January 3, the Narcissus ran aground 1-1/2 miles west of Egmont Key off Tampa Bay during one of the severe winter storms during a cold front moving through the area. When the cold seawater came in contact with the hot steam boiler, she exploded, killing the entire crew of 29. News of the disaster spread slowly. National newspapers made no mention of the incident until February 3, when the New York Times carried the following account on Page 8. Nothing official has been received by the Navy-yard in relation to the United States steamer Narcissus reported to have lost on Egmont Key, Florida. It is stated that the Narcissus was wrecked nearly a year ago in Tampa Bay. The United State tug Jessamine left Pensacola Fla. about the same time that the Narcissus left, and it is probable that the Jessamine is the unfortunate vessel. Nothing definite is, however, known in relation to the matter.

Authorities would later learn that the vessel lost off Egmont Key was indeed the Narcissus. Federal troops from nearby Egmont Key salvaged the ship's guns, but no signs of survivors were ever found.

USS Narcissus (1863)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other ships of the same name, see USS Narcissus.


Career
Name:	USS Narcissus
Launched:	July 1863
Acquired:	by purchase, 23 September 1863
Commissioned:	2 February 1864
Fate:	Sank, 4 January 1866
General characteristics
Type:	Steam gunboat
Displacement:	101 long tons (103 t)
Length:	81 ft 6 in (24.8 m)
Beam:	18 ft 9 in (5.7 m)
Draft:	6 ft (1.8 m)
Depth of hold:	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:	19 officers and enlisted
Armament:	• 1 × 20-pounder Parrott rifle • 1 × heavy 12-pounder

USS Narcissus, a screw steamer launched in July 1863 as Mary Cook at East Albany, N.Y., was purchased by the Union Navy at New York City on 23 September 1863 from James D. Stevenson; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 2 February 1864, Acting Ensign William G. Jones in command.

Service history

The new tug soon got underway south; and touched at Port Royal, South Carolina for fuel on 14 February, before pushing on to the Gulf of Mexico. She joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at New Orleans late in the month and was assigned to patrol and blockade duty in Mississippi Sound. On the morning of 24 August, she captured sloop Oregon in Biloxi Bay , Mississippi Sound, and took the prize to New Orleans for adjudication.

Subsequently ordered to Mobile Bay, Narcissus supported clean-up operations following the great Union naval victory there on 5 August. She struck a Confederate torpedo off Mobile in a heavy storm on 7 December and sank within 15 minutes without loss of life.

Raised in the closing days of 1864, Narcissus was repaired at Pensacola early in 1865 and served in the gulf as a dispatch boat through the end of the war. She departed Pensacola on New Year's Day 1866, was wrecked, and sank at Egmont Key, Florida on 4 January with loss of all on board.

Images of America : Florida ’s Shipwrecks
By Staff Writer - 09/01/2008

Advanced Diver Magazine

The Sunshine State has a rich maritime history spanning more than five centuries. Tragically, part of that history includes thousands of ships that have met their fates in Florida waters. Potentially more than 5,000 shipwrecks reside off Florida ’s 1,200 miles of coastline, with hundreds more lost in the state’s interior rivers. In and of itself, the Florida Keys archipelago, consisting of approximately 1,700 islands stretching 200 miles, is littered with the remains of close to 1,000 shipwrecks. In fact, many features of the Florida Keys were named after various shipwreck events, such as Fowey Rocks, which earned its name after the 1748 wrecking of the British warship HMS Fowey, and Alligator Reef, where the schooner USS Alligator met her demise in 1822. Florida ’s Shipwrecks utilizes captivating images to illustrate dramatic stories of danger and peril at sea, introducing readers to a fascinating cross-section of Florida ’s shipwreck history.

Author Michael Barnette has been actively researching and exploring shipwrecks for almost 20 years, resulting in the identification of more than 17 shipwrecks. He has dived on numerous historic shipwrecks, including the ironclad USS Monitor, the liner Andrea Doria, the battleship USS Virginia, and the HMHS Britannic, a sister ship of the fabled RMS Titanic.
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Regina was a steel steamer built in 1904 in Belfast , Ireland , by the Workman, Clark & Co. shipyard for the Cuban Molasses Transportation Co., based in Havana . She was 247 ft. in length, with a 36 ft. beam, a 14 ft. draft, and was rated at 1,155 gross tons with a net tonnage of 669. Designed with a single deck and a single propeller powered by a triple-expansion steam engine producing 850 hp., the steamer also was rigged as a schooner for auxiliary power, and fitted with electric lighting.

Regina joined a growing fleet of large and small tankers carrying a specific liquid cargo: molasses. Shipped from several locations in Cuba , the Dominican Republic , and Puerto Rico to ports on the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States , molasses was used primarily by rum distilleries, and also by animal feed manufacturers. New Orleans was a principal port of the world’s molasses trade; cargoes were transferred to river barges for distribution inland to feed producers in the Midwest . Compared with other liquid cargoes carried by tankers at sea, such as oil, chemicals, or fresh water, molasses is much heavier. In cold weather it thickens, becoming difficult to pump during transfer and requiring a longer time in port. Various tank-heating methods were used to make the cargo more fluid and easier to pump.

Converted to a tanker barge, Regina left Havana on March 5, 1940, under tow by the tugboat Minima, bound for New Orleans with a cargo of more than 300,000 gallons of molasses. Two days later, a cold front swept across the Gulf of Mexico from the northwest, accompanied by 8 to 12-foot seas, gale force winds, and freezing temperatures. The tugboat altered course toward the shelter of Tampa Bay , but before she could reach safety, her tow lines parted near Egmont Key and Regina drifted helplessly toward Anna Maria Island. In the late afternoon on Friday, March 8, the converted tanker grounded in heavy seas on a sand bar off Bradenton Beach. Pounded by the surf and wind, the vessel began to crack and break apart as nighttime approached. Regina’s crew of eight stayed aboard the stranded tanker, afraid to abandon ship in such turbulent conditions. As word of the disaster spread, local residents gathered on the darkened beach, where they built fires to reassure the crewmen that they had been seen.

Diving into history

The Florida Aquarium and a team of archaeologists are exploring Tampa Bay, not for aquatic life, but for secrets.

By JOHN BARRY
Published August 8, 2006

Nicole Tumbleson, a graduate student at the University of West Florida , dives in to observe a shipwreck off Egmont Key, where a Union tugboat sank in January 1866. The dives are part of a Florida Aquarium project to explore the bottom of Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough River , seeking historic wrecks.


	Gordon Watts, a retired professor from Eastern Carolina University , uses an anchor line to pull himself down to a shipwreck off Ft. Desoto Park on Friday.

	Watts uses a tablet to sketch part of the engine of a shipwreck.



	One of the drawings by Gordon Watts.

Times Staff Writer

ABOARD THE MISS BEE GEE

The sketch pads show the outlines of an 82-foot tugboat that had rolled over on a shoal and died violently, boiler exploding, killing some 30 Union sailors on a stormy Jan. 3, 1866. In the sketches, you can see a long, splintered hull, the massive hulk of a steam engine and drive shaft, a shattered propeller.

Three divers sketch while kneeling, lying and sitting in blue-green murk on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in a nest of stone crabs. Every hour they rise 12 feet to the surface to show what they've drawn. These are the first images of the doomed Narcissus in 140 years.

"There will be no recovery whatsoever," declares Billy Ray Morris, one of three marine archaeologists holding those plastic sketch pads. He pictures the day the sailors died. It was a cold, windy January day. The crew had likely huddled in a cabin next to the boiler to stay warm. Their tug struck the shoals off Egmont Key and flipped on its side, and cold seawater flooded the boiler. The crew never had a chance. They will rest in peace, Morris says.

"Nothing is coming up."

Tampa Bay 's Shipwrecks

The Florida Aquarium is charting new territory. Literally. With a grant from the state, Aquarium researches are taking a look at what is on the bottom of the bay. What lies beneath? That's exactly what Billy Rae Morris, primary investigator and marine archeologist, wants to know.

"People will be shocked to find out what's under the water," said Morris. "We know there are several Civil War era shipwrecks in the waters around Tampa so we'll be looking for those first."

One of these shipwrecks, the U.S.S. Narcissus, sank off the coast of Egmont Key on January 3, 1866. All 30 Union soldiers on board went down with the ship when the boiler exploded after the ship rolled on a shoal.

The program's goal is a three-part project that encompasses the search and discovery of what lies along the bottom of the bay, building an educational curriculum around the discoveries and using the discoveries to recreate shipwreck exhibits at The Aquarium.

Morris is an expert in the field with more than 20 years experience of underwater archeology in the waters off the Southeast United States and the Caribbean .

"First we'll use a magnetometer to look for deposits of metal," said Morris. "If we get a 'ping' we'll use side scan sonar to paint a picture of what's down there."

If the picture proves intriguing enough, divers will go down to get a better look.

The diving and project logistics will be coordinated by Dive Safety Officer, Casey Coy. "When we run across something the scanners find," said Coy, "we'll send a couple divers down to take a quick look. If there is something of interest, we'll document the location and return to create thorough plans of the sites. There is potential for some extremely interesting discoveries with this project. No one really knows for sure."

The high-tech endeavor will rely upon scientific divers from the Aquarium staff and volunteer team over the next few years as areas of "interest" will need a more thorough examination.

The next round of underwater archaeology will take place in May as divers continue to investigate the sites with the most potential for discovery.

Partnerships and Benefactors:

Southeastern Archaeological Services SRI International

Atlantic Research

People, Places, and Design Research

From the Library:

Morris, J.W., Watts , G., and Coy, C. 2007. Tampa Bay historical shipwreck survey: Final report. Submitted to the Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Dept. of State.

About Snorkeling in Tampa Bay, Florida

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Instructions

Geography

Step 1:

The Tampa Bay area provides two contrasting snorkeling opportunities--Gulf-front beaches and the freshwater bay. Unlike the Florida Keys, which offer snorkelers fascinating coral reefs, Southwest Florida 's Gulf-front beaches tend to be sandier, with a smaller variety of sea life to observe. Some of the more notable beaches to explore are Clearwater Beach , St. Pete Beach, Caladesi Island State Park in Dunedin and Egmont Key. Conveniently, all of these locations can be reached within half an hour if you're staying anywhere in the Tampa-St. Pete area.

Some of the best snorkeling in the Gulf near Tampa Bay is found around manmade reefs, which are teeming with fish. Check out the submerged remains of an old Spanish fort near Egmont Key or dozens of shipwrecks up and down the coast. Offshore you're likely to see a mix of colorful fish, sponges and during nesting season (May through September), a sea turtle or two.

The Facts

Step 1:

For equipment, you need a mask, a snorkel and a life jacket. The life jacket may seem like a pain at first, but it will actually keep you from tiring out swimming and treading water. It will also keep you steady at the surface of the water, meaning you can keep your arms and legs fairly still. This is key to keep from scaring off sea life with lots of commotion at the surface. Flippers are very helpful, but not essential.

You can take to the waters just offshore on your own, but to see the submerged sites around Tampa Bay, find a charter to take you offshore and a make a day, or half-day of it. For example, Windsong Boat Charter, which leaves from New Port Richey, a little north of Clearwater , will take you out for four hours for $275 and provide snorkel equipment for $7 a set. When you start shopping around for a charter, ask exactly what sites you'll be snorkeling in to make sure you see what you want.

Risk Factors

Step 1:

As with any snorkeling or scuba venture around Florida , the chances of running into sharks are always present. You can protect yourself by taking a charter boat captained by someone who knows local waters. Likewise, pay attention to the warning flags, not just for sharks, rays and other threatening sea life, but for water conditions as well. A red flag means high surf or dangerous currents, while two red flags mean the water is off limits to the public. A purple flag signifies dangerous marine life.

You certainly don't need to be a great athlete to snorkel, but the better the swimmer you are the more comfortable you'll be in the water. In addition, pay attention to your snorkel and remain close to the surface. The last thing you want to do is gulp down a mouthful of saltwater because you dove a little too deep.

Misconceptions

Step 1:

Many people unfamiliar with Florida 's coastline assume that there are coral reefs everywhere and that snorkeling will lead you to a colorful and amazing world of marine plant and animal life. The truth is, if you want coral reefs, head south to the Florida Keys . Tampa Bay still offers plenty to see beyond the fragile coral, with just a mask and a snorkel.

Step 1:

In addition to Windsong, dozens of charter snorkel and dive businesses thrive in the Tampa Bay area. Here are a few others to check out: Diving Tampa, 1-877-GO-DIVIN; Tropical Island Getaway, 1-866-624-4500; Bird's Underwater Manatee Tours in Crystal River (yes, snorkel with manatees about an hour from Tampa!), (800) 771-2763

Egmont Key State Park

The island of Egmont Key has unique natural and cultural histories, which have made it a valuable resource since the time settlers first arrived in Florida ...

Florida State Parks

Mission : To provide resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources...

Photos

Egmont Key State Park

Island Intrigue

Some people like Florida’s islands for their characters – others for their lack thereof

By Doug Kelly November 2007

At one table sat a fellow with a pirate’s hat and – I kid you not – a peg leg. At another, a red macaw shifted from leg to leg on a woman’s shoulder. Then the waiter appeared, bushy beard down to his chest, with a mustache so long it double-curled.

Characters? You get them in spades on Cedar Key, an island on Florida ’s upper Gulf coast about 50 miles southwest of Gainesville . Sunsets provide the backdrop to tidal pools, oyster bars and boats of all sizes at finger piers and docks. I never miss the annual Seafood Festival in October or the Old Florida Celebration of the Arts in April. And I love to walk the quiet streets lined with taverns, clapboard cottages and tin-roofed huts, all reminders that – despite a bustling tourism crowd – this was, and still is, a commercial fishing village with a frontier persona.

Down the west coast from Cedar Key, huddled ironically at the mouth of busy Tampa Bay , lies Egmont Key State Park . This quiet 400-acre oasis is crisscrossed with shaded paths and paved roads that lead to reminders of Fort Dade , constructed during the Spanish-American War at the suggestion of Robert E. Lee.

While I don’t profess to know a semipalmated sandpiper from a short-billed dowitcher, I do recognize spoonbills, herons, egrets and wood storks. Egmont gives even the hardiest birdwatcher a sore neck. Most of the key is a National Wildlife Refuge, and this vibrancy, combined with a working lighthouse that dates to 1858, gives me the sensation of being lost in the 19th century.

Here too you can snorkel, comb long stretches of beach and, in late spring and summer, engage in world-class tarpon fishing (try the deep channel off Egmont’s northern end).

I love to walk the quiet streets lined with taverns, clapboard cottages and tin-roofed huts, all reminders that – despite a bustling tourism crowd – this was, and still is, a commercial fishing village with a frontier persona.

SOUTHERNMOST SECLUSION

Cape Sable ’s as far south as the mainland gets in the U.S. Birds never hear a car horn. Even on weekends, you might need binoculars to spot other humans strolling the shoreline.

On family jaunts here from the Florida Keys , the hull of our 20-foot boat skipping over the waves, we’d anticipate the moment when the bow would scrunch into the sand, liberating us. We’d anchor off of Middle Cape (one of three beach regions here), where currents often form a point that allows for anchoring in the lee of the wind. Then it would be time to cast into the surf, our toes mingling with coquinas in the wet sand. In fall and early spring, camping trips to the Cape meant beginning the day with fish-and-eggs for breakfast and ending it with sunset over the effervescent waters of the Gulf of Mexico .

ISLAND-HOPPING HINTS

1. Know before you go. While Cedar Key offers accommodations, seafood shacks and accessibility by car from S.R. 24, Cape Sable is truly remote with no amenities. Egmont’s amenities fall somewhere in the middle, with ferry service from nearby Fort Desoto Park and a snack bar.

2. When visiting remote spots such as Cape Sable , take more to drink than you think you’ll need. And don’t forget sunscreen, hats and umbrellas for sun protection. Avoid insects by moving to the upwind side of the island (and bring some repellent). Arrive early and leave mid-afternoon before most storms form.

3. If you’re accessing a remote island by private boat, use two anchors so the boat stays perpendicular to the shoreline. One should be embedded off the bow into the beach and the other astern in the water. If your boat’s big enough, bring a kayak or inflatable raft to access skinny waters where boats can’t go.

History is hiding beneath gulf sands

By TERRY TOMALIN, St. Petersburg Times Outdoors Editor
Published January 11, 2005

EGMONT KEY - Chad Carney studied his depth recorder and noticed a slight relief in the bottom contour.

"That could be it," he said. "But it looks like it is pretty well covered up."

The wreck, resting 15 feet below the surface a few hundred yards off one of the busiest shipping channels in the United States , has been periodically covered and uncovered by passing storms since it sank on a cold January day nearly 140 years ago.

The U.S.S. Narcissus, an armed tugboat that fought in the Civil War's most famous naval engagement, the Battle of Mobile Bay, was on its way to New York to be decommissioned on Jan. 3, 1866, when it struck a sandbar about 11/2 miles off Egmont Key.

"She got hit by one of those bad winter storms that we get this time of year," explained Mike Barnette, author of Shipwrecks of the Sunshine State . "The crew tried to keep it together, but then the cold seawater hit the boiler."

"The ship exploded and all 29 souls were lost," Barnette continued. "At the time, it was one of the worst single disasters in U.S. naval history."

Barnette, a founding member of the Association of Underwater Explorers, went to the wreck site on a sunny December morning in hopes of diving the 82-foot tugboat. He had hoped the series of summer tropical storms might have uncovered the tug's engine, the wreck's most prominent landmark.

"The last time anybody was on this site was in 1997," he said. "But a couple of years later, it had been completely sanded in."

Carney, an avid spear fisherman and frequent diving partner of Barnette, prides himself on his knowledge of local wrecks.

"But I would be willing to say that most people have no idea that this exists right off the Ship's Channel," he said.

As Carney and Barnette circled the rise in the sand that they thought marked the Narcissus, a fisherman heading offshore veered off course and came right up to their boat, hoping to get a new fishing spot for their GPS.

"You see what I mean," Carney said. "They have no idea what we are looking for."

The Narcissus Shipwreck near Egmont Key

The Narcissus never won any battles, or even fought to a stalemate like its contemporary, the Monitor. But it went down as one of the first casualties in the modern era of naval warfare.

At the start of the Civil War, the Confederate Navy was no match for that of the industrialized north. As a result, the rebels were forced to try to even the odds through unconventional methods such as privateers, submarines and torpedoes.

But the torpedoes in question in no way resembled those Americans have come to know through World War II submarine movies such as Run Silent, Run Deep. During the Civil War, torpedoes, dubbed "infernal machines," were actually mines.

On Dec.12, 1862, in the Yazoo River , the U.S.S. Cairo earned its spot in history when it sank after steaming by a five-gallon jug filled with gunpowder that was detonated through a wire by a soldier hiding onshore.

Two years later, mines would play a prominent role in the Battle of Mobile Bay, where Union Adm. David G. Farragut would a utter a command that would inspire generations.

Farragut's fleet, which consisted of 14 wooden ships and four ironclad Monitor-class vessels, attempted to shut down the blockade running that had helped keep the Confederate cause alive.

The Narcissus, a 115-ton tug that had been launched in New York a year earlier, had a single engine capable of producing 14 knots. Armed with two guns, a 20-pound muzzle loader and a 12-pound smooth-bore, the tug soon joined the blockade fleet.

While the Narcissus was patrolling the waters off Mississippi , Farragut and his ships pressed the fight in Mobile Bay further east. During the battle, a Union ironclad struck a mine and sank, but Farragut told his men, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead."

The Confederate forces surrendered, but the waters around Mobile remained littered with mines for months.

In December 1864, the Narcissus struck a derelict mine that lifted the hull out of the water. The ship was salvaged and sent to Pensacola for repairs, and on Jan. 1, 1866, it set sail for New York to return to civilian service.

But the normally placid Gulf of Mexico can turn deadly during the winter. The Narcissus got caught by a cold front and ran aground off Egmont Key.

News of the disaster spread slowly. National newspapers made no mention of the incident until Feb. 3, when the New York Times carried the following account on Page 8:

"Nothing official has been received by the Navy-yard in relation to the United States steamer Narcissus, reported to have lost on Egmont Key, Florida . It is stated that the Narcissus was wrecked nearly a year ago in Tampa Bay . The United States tug Jessamine left Pensacola , Fla. about the same time that the Narcissus left, and it is probable that the Jessamine is the unfortunate vessel. Nothing definite is, however, known in relation to the matter."

Authorities would later learn that the vessel lost off Egmont Key was indeed the Narcissus. Federal troops from nearby Egmont Key salvaged the ship's guns, but no signs of survivors were ever found.

Graduate students from Texas A&M did some work on the Narcissus in 1999, but other than that, little true research has been done on this historic shipwreck.

"As far as we are concerned, the fact that it is covered with sand is a good thing," said Della Scott-Ireton, an underwater archaeologist with the state's Bureau of Archaeological Research. "As long as it is covered, it is protected. That is our major concern."

To visit Egmont Key call 727-345-4500 or email info@tropical-island-getaway.com for more information

Also visit www.tropical-island-getaway.com www.CaptainsNow.com www.EgmontKeyFerry.com

www.EgmontKeyGhosts.com www.EgmontKeyLighthouse.com

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