Dry Tortugas

“ E. C. W., Garden City, Kan.—The Dry Tortugas and several other islands off the Florida coast belong to the United States. The government has a military station, hospital, etc. on the Dry Tortugas, and sometimes sends convicts there.
A. V. Bacon, Lansing, Minn.—The principal reasons for outgoing trans-Atlantic steamers from the United States bearing north, are: the influence of the gulf stream running from the southern extremity of Florida up the American coast, making to northeastward between New Foundland and Ireland; the higher latitude of the British Isles ”

“ Or he may skirt the Floridas to look for Spanish prizes and put in at the Dry Tortugas which is a famous rendezvous for pirates of the Main. He will be hot to fit himself with a bigger ship, by capture or by some knavish trick such as he dealt Cap'n Bonnet. ”

“ This little sail was made, if made at all, in the direction of the Dry Tortugas, but so completely was all suspicion at rest in the minds of those on the quarter-deck of the Swash, that neither Spike nor the Mexican had the least idea what it was. When the circumstance was reported to the former, he answered that it was probably some small wrecker, of which many were hovering about the reef, and added, laughing, though in a way to prove how little he thought seriously on the subject at all, “who knows but the light-house boat has fallen into their hands, and that they’ve made sail on her ”

“ His solicitude, now, was confined to the probability of falling in with the Swash. As yet, nothing was visible, either in the shape of land or in that of a sail. Between the islets of the Dry Tortugas and the next nearest visible keys, there is a space of open water, of some forty miles in width. The reef extends across it, of course; but nowhere does the rock protrude itself above the surface of the sea. The depth of water on this reef varies essentially. In some places, a ship of size might pass on to it, if not across it; while in others a man could wade for miles. ”

“ His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were—about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. ”

“ Key West has a good harbor, and as it commands the gateway to and from the Gulf near the western extremity of the Florida coral reef, it is strongly defended, the prominent work being Fort Taylor, constructed on an artificial island within the main harbor entrance. The little Sand Key, seven miles to the southwest, is the southernmost point of the United States. Forty miles to the westward is the group of ten small, low and barren islands known as the Dry Tortugas, from the Spanish tortuga, a tortoise. ”

“ What say you, Rose? We have now reached the northern side of the reef, when it is time to haul close by the wind, if we wish to beat up to Key West. There is a moral certainty, however, that the sloop-of-war is somewhere in the neighborhood of the Dry Tortugas, which are much the most easily reached, being to leeward. We might run down to the light-house by mid-day, while it is doubtful if we could reach the town until to-morrow morning. I should like exceedingly to have five minutes conversation with the commander of the Poughkeepsie. ”

“ The Rodman smoothbore, founded in 8-, 10-, 15-, and 20-inch calibers, was the best cast-iron ordnance of its time (fig. 14f) . The 20-inch gun, produced in 1864, fired a 1,080-pound shot. The 15-incher was retained in service through the rest of the century, and these monsters are still to be seen at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine or on the ramparts of Fort Jefferson, in the national monument of that name, in the Dry Tortugas Islands. In later years, a number of 10-inch Rodmans were converted into 8-inch rifles by enlarging the bore and inserting a grooved steel tube. ”

“ These large turtles, which in other parts of South America are called “arraus,” or simply “tortugas,” assemble every year in large armies, from all parts of the river. Each one of these armies chooses for itself a place to breed—some sandy island, or great sand-bank. This they approach very cautiously—lying near it for some days, and reconnoitring it with only their heads above the water. They then crawl ashore at night in vast multitudes—just as the party saw them—and each turtle, with the strong crooked claws of her hind feet, digs a hole for herself in the sand. ”

“ The marine fauna of the Tortugas is greatly superior to that of the Florida mainland or Gulf Coast. Moreover, while the ocean water surrounding the Tortugas is of the purest the shore waters of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico are often charged with silt, and sullied with the drainage from mangrove swamps to such a degree as to be rapidly fatal to pelagic life. The littoral fauna of the mainland shores is
Beach Rock at Mastic Point, Andros Isd., Bahamas. ”

“ The Tortugas are a group of islands lying about eighty miles from Key West, and the last of those that seem to defend the peninsula of the Floridas. They consist of five or six extremely low, uninhabitable banks, formed of shelly sand, and are resorted to principally by that class of men called wreckers and turtlers. Between these islands are deep channels, which, although extremely intricate, are well known to those adventurers, as well as to the commanders of the revenue cutters, whose duties call them to that dangerous coast. ”

“ Blue-faced and brown boobies of the West Indies are year-round residents of Tortugas. Each summer a colony of a few hundred roseate terns, which normally inhabit the Atlantic seaboard north of Cape Hatteras, nest on Long Key. In season, a continuous procession of songbirds and other migrants fly over or drop off for rest at the islands, which lie across one of the principal flyways from the United States to Cuba and South America. Familiar gulls and terns of the north, as well as many migratory shore birds, spend the winter at Tortugas. ”

“ Every particle composing them was once part of a living creature in the ocean which surrounds them, and thus the islands are but the dead remains of living things that were. A stunted twisted growth of bay cedars and cactus clings to their sandy soil and defies the salt spray which in time of storm drives completely over the islands. Almost every plant surviving upon the Tortugas is tough-leaved and juicy inwardly, or it sends roots far down through the sand to the salt water, for the rain serves but poorly to moisten the loose sandy soil through which it filters rapidly. ”

“ In certain parts of the tropics tortoises protect themselves from the excessive heat by burrowing into the soil which afterwards becomes indurated. When drought sets in with the dry season and the tanks become exhausted and food unobtainable, crocodiles and alligators sometimes wander across country in search of water, but more commonly bury themselves in the mud and remain in a state of quiescence until the return of the rains ”

“ Reptiles are comparatively scarce on the table-land, but are abundant in the tierra templada and tierra caliente. Turtles (tortugas de mar) are common in the Gulf of Mexico, the chelonia imbricata, which furnishes the well-known tortoise-shell of commerce, occurring near the eastern coast.
Alligators (lagartos) live in the swamps of the southern States.
Lizards (lagartijas) are plentiful in the hot zone. The iguana (Lacerta iguana, Linnæus) sometimes grows to a length of three feet. ”

“ The Great White Heron is a constant resident on the Florida Keys, where it is found more abundant during the breeding season than anywhere else. They rarely go as far eastward as Cape Florida, and are not seen on the Tortugas, probably because these islands are destitute of mangroves. They begin to pair early in March, but many do not lay their eggs until the middle of April. ”

“ At Celebes, whence the finest tortoise-shell is exported to China, the natives kill the turtle by blows on the head, and immerse the shell in boiling water to detach the plates. Dry heat is only resorted to by the unskilful, who frequently destroy the tortoise-shell in the operation—Journal Indian Archipel. ”

“ There they lie in every variety of posture; some on their backs, with their white bellies uppermost, some suspended in midwater, some sculling gently along with a dreamy motion of the fins, and others quite active and wide awake,—a scene not unlike what the human city would present. Occasionally he will encounter a turtle selecting the choicest morsels, or a musk-rat resting on a tussuck. He may exercise his dexterity, if he sees fit, on the more distant and active fish, or fork the nearer into his boat, as potatoes out of a pot, or even take the sound sleepers with his hands. ”

“ When the young are strong enough for continuous flight, the colony again heads southeastward to tropical seas.
The presence of these tropical oceanic birds at Tortugas was recorded by Ponce de León (1513) , Capt. John Hawkins (1565) , John James Audubon (1832) , and Louis Agassiz (1858) . During the early 1900’s, commercial egg-raiding reduced the colony to only 4,000 birds, but careful protection restored the strength of the colony; 120,000 birds are now recorded at the rookery. Several hundred noddy terns, similar to the sooty in habit and size, nest in the low shrubbery of Bush Key. ”

“ The life of the turtles and fresh water tortoises is a lively one in comparison to that of the land species. Instead of the short and misshapen legs that serve the purposes of locomotion to the latter, they are furnished with paddles that enable them to swim with great rapidity, and were it not for their sleeping habits, and for the necessity for the females to go ashore to lay their eggs, man would have but few opportunities of enjoying turtle soup, for their speed is far greater than that at which any boat could be rowed. ”

“ In fact, the alligators and crocodiles not only eat the young of the turtles, but their own young as well. That is, the old males do; and it has been stated, that the males of some species of tortoises have a similar unnatural appetite.
The turtle of which we are speaking is one of the most carnivorous of the whole race, and one of the fiercest in its nature too; so much so, that it has earned the name of the “fierce tortoise.” It will eat fish and small crustacea, and almost any living thing it finds in the water, which is not too large for it. It is extremely expert in catching its prey. ”

“ The fiendish spirit, which, of old, animated the Buccaneers of the Tortugas, will probably never entirely die out from the heart of man, till the period of millennial purgation. It is impossible to conceive of anything, in a population of hyænas, more selfish, cold, and cruel, than the conduct of that abandoned class, of whose existence we have abundant evidence ”

“ Besides the arrau turtles, of which I have in a former place given a detailed account, an innumerable quantity of land tortoises also, called morocoi, are found on the banks of the Orinoco, between Uruana and Encaramada. During the great heats of summer, in the time of drought, these animals remain without taking food, hidden beneath stones, or in the holes they have dug. They issue from their shelter and begin to eat, only when the humidity of the first rains penetrates into the earth. The terekay, or tajelu turtle which lives in fresh water, has the same habits. ”

“ Lastly the Sea-tortoises or Turtles, which swim in the warm parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, have only an open flat shell under which they cannot draw their head and feet, for they strike out boldly into the open ocean, feeding on seaweed, jelly-fish, and cuttle-fish, rowing grandly along with their broad paddles which they feather like oars as they go. They have only one time of weakness—when they come on islands, such as Ascension and the Bahama Islands, which they choose probably because they find fewer large animals there. ”

“ On that portion bordering the Old Bahama Channel, and also opposite the Isle of Pines, which Columbus named Evangelista,—on this south shore, large numbers of turtles are taken annually, which produce the best quality of tortoise-shell. It is strange that the habits of these creatures down here in the Caribbean Sea should so closely resemble those of the tiny tortoises described by Thoreau as frequenting Walden Pond. The female turtle digs the hole in which to deposit her eggs on the sandy beach, just above the margin of high tide, generally choosing a moonlight night for the purpose. ”

“ The turning of a half-exhausted turtle on to his shell-armoured back; the noise of the heavy flapping of over two hundred fins stronger than a strong man’s arm; the pathos of continual sighing, uncanny, half human, wholly unnerving. The journey to the Jamaica jetty. The flopping of the catch into a deep-sea pool, boarded off from the open bay; the feeding of the brutes with curious grass which, seemingly ignored, somehow disappears gradually, when no one is by to witness. Then the romantic drudgery of turtle fishing ends, and the dangerous part begins. ”

“ From the serpents the visitor should turn to the families of the
Testudinata, or
TORTOISES. Tortoises are broadly divided into three species, namely, land tortoises; fresh water tortoises, of which there are no less than forty-six varieties; and marine tortoises, well known to the citizens of London, in the shape of turtle-soup. The land tortoises subsist on vegetables, and are said to live occasionally more than two hundred years. The two first cases devoted to Testudinata (18, 19) contain the American, Indian, and African varieties of the land tortoise. ”