San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve State Park

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The San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve State Park is an underwater state park in Monroe County of the US state Florida . The state park is over 5 m deep in the Hawk Channel, 2.3 km southwest of Indian Key, and was named after the ship San Pedro that crashed here in 1733 .

history

The San Pedro was a 287 ts, originally built in the Netherlands ship of the Spanish Silver Fleet , which was caught in a hurricane off the coast of Florida on July 13, 1733 . The San Pedro sank on the coral reef between Lower Matecumbe and Indian Key, part of the crew was able to escape to the nearby islands. After the accident, the Spaniards sent more ships to rescue the survivors and to recover the treasures. The surviving crew and the salvage fleet were able to recover a large part of the cargo, which included 1,600 Mexican silver pesos and some boxes of Chinese porcelain, then the parts of the ship above the waterline were burned to give divers access to the lower area of ​​the wreck facilitate.

State park

The remains of the ship were discovered in the 1960s. Treasure divers recovered some silver coins, porcelain, the cannon barrels and other remains of the ship, so that today only the ballast stones , which are scattered over a 27 by 9 m field, are preserved from the wreck. The sinking site was examined in 1977 and again in 1988 by students and underwater archaeologists from Florida State University and Indiana University . Because of its easy accessibility and the rich marine fauna, the sinking place was declared as Florida's second Underwater Archaeological Preserve on April 1, 1989 as an example of the silver fleet sunk in 1733 . Cement replicas of seven cannons, an anchor from the 18th century and an information board were sunk around the ballast stones. In 2001 the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places .

Diving

The place where the wreck lies is marked with buoys and can only be visited by boat. The remains of the ship are considered to be one of the oldest artificial coral reefs in Florida and are overgrown with Acropora and other coral species. Numerous tropical fish species such as parrot fish or butterfly fish as well as lobsters, crabs and other marine animals can be observed while snorkeling and diving .

literature

  • Michael Strutin: Florida State Parks: A Complete Recreation Guide. Seattle, Mountaineers Books 2000, ISBN 0-89886-731-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eliot Kleinberg: Historical Traveler's Guide to Florida, 2nd edition, Pineapple Press, Sarasota, FL, 2006, ISBN 978-1-56164-375-2 , pp. 253f
  2. ^ National Register of Historic Places, Florida, Monroe County. Retrieved February 14, 2013 .

Coordinates: 24 ° 51 ′ 49.5 "  N , 80 ° 40 ′ 47.2"  W.