RESOURCES

Sources

Index

Links

Historic Documents

SOURCES

December 2005

Christmas 2005

October 2005

August 2005

June 2005

April 2005

PREVIOUS YEARS

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

The Beginnings of Key West

The Key West Historeum, built on the site of Amos Tift’s warehouse overlooking Mallory Square—complete with a 65-foot spotting tower—offers a vivid display of the wreckers’ trade. Through the modern technology of multimedia video, computer graphics, and sound, visitors hear and see the wind and the fury of the angry sea, the whipping of torn sails, the rupturing of the ship’s keel, the tearing of timbers, and the screams of terrified passengers on the ill-fated night when the packet ship Isaac Allerton crashed on the reef not three miles from where they sit safely and comfortably.

On August 5, 1856, the Isaac Allerton foundered in a hurricane over 5-fathom-deep Hawk’s Channel and dashed up on Washerwoman Shoals. More than twenty wrecking sloops and four hundred men labored for three days to salvage the cargo before the ship went to the bottom. A bronze statue commemorating the intrepid daring and bravery of the wreckers stands in Founder’s Park.

In 1985, modern-day treasure hunters Ray and Steve Malloney, descendants of Walter Malloney, Asa Tift’s attorney in settling the salvage award 135 years earlier, found the remains of the Isaac Allerton and brought up those vestiges of another age. Part of what they retrieved fills the Historeum’s display cases: a gentleman’s top hat, a lady’s lace glove, and shoes; silverware, china by the barrel, and candlesticks; jewelry, buckles, buttons, and broaches; scales and telescopes; ivory and meerschaum; inkwells and paperweights—all things very ordinary. Viewing these bits and pieces of people’s lives and business in nineteenth century America, it’s easy to be transported back in time.


Key West Shipwreck Historeum and Museum
1 Whitehead Street
Key West, FL 33040
305.292.8990
www.shipwreckhistoreum.com