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from Gainesville, Florida Yeah, hello, I'm Mike Cannon, and this is conversation flying over Florida in a light plane. As I have done many times, one is impressed by the amount of water that makes up the features seen below the ocean and gulf waters stretch east and west as far as the eye can see now blue now green with flashes of white foam.

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Behind the miles of sandy beaches, which form the eastern shoreline, are narrow ribbons of blue, where the Intracoastal Waterway runs parallel to the shore and inland, of course, are scores of lakes, some huge, like Okeechobee and Apopka, some so small they resemble scattered coins and graceful bays and wonderful meandering rivers.

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The Saint John's, the Swanee the with the coochie, to name only three. Nor should one omit mentioning our state's most famous body of water, the shallow river of grass called the Everglades. Taken together, Florida's multifaceted water systems have provided us who live here with beauty, recreation and, for many, a livelihood.

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The history of our water uses what scholars call a maritime heritage. We'll meet one such scholar and, with the help of pictures, discuss Florida's maritime heritage. When I return in a moment, okay? Mm hmm. My guest on this conversation is Dr Barbara A. Purdy, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the University of Florida.

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Barbara, welcome to conversation. We're going to talk about a maritime heritage, and one would not normally associate the term maritime with Florida. I wouldn't have done it until I met you and started hearing about this part of Florida's past. I would associate the term maritime with the great Seaport states of New York and Boston and perhaps the maritime provinces New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and so on.

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But the term is applied to Florida. And why, just very briefly, uh, the maritime program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation has used a much broader definition of maritime heritage, and we are using it in this sense for several categories, like prehistory, maritime use of the waterways in prehistory and the early Europeans, and trade and fisheries and all manner of applications rather than sailing ships and shipwrecks.

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And I think this gives us a good opportunity to see a broader application of maritime heritage. Well, we're going to see a very broad application and an entirely fascinating one. Now, with the help of pictures and you're running narrative, we'll take a look at Florida's maritime heritage.

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So let's begin. People have been using the waterways of Florida for at least 10,000 years. Evidence for this antiquity consists of a diagnostic, stone spearhead and other tools found in and along the rivers and its sights now buried by a rise of sea level off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

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These early Florida inhabitants were probably hunting elephants and other extinct Ice Age animals. By 6500 years ago, there were large human populations in Florida that settled along rivers and coasts and used the water to conserve energy and to transport people, goods and ideas. The oldest canoe in the Western Hemisphere was found in Florida.

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People have been constructing may have been constructing pile dwellings at this time. To exploit the aquatic resources must much like the famous Swiss lake dwellings of approximately the same age. Stone weapons and other manufactured items now differed from those of their predecessors. Along the coast of Florida, the identification of approximately 100 different species of shore and marsh birds, marine fishes, marine reptiles, and marine mammals from archaeological sites demonstrates that maritime resources were vital to the existence of people living there in prehistoric times.

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Interestingly, the most important species in prehistoric fisheries are not all those that are most popular today. The mainstay of prehistoric fishing included sea catfish is Jack drum, sheep head bull and tiger shark and sea turtle Shell. Garbage mounds composed of oyster, clam, conch and welk began to appear and sad, and settlements became larger along the coasts and inland waterways.

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A new kind of technology was used to make tools out of large welk and conch shells. Sometimes objects and ornaments are found that are made from materials that do not occur naturally in Florida, and thus we learned that trade was established with areas throughout the Southeast and perhaps the Caribbean.

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Florida has a large collection of prehistoric canoes and other wooden objects fashioned by prehistoric people that have survived because they became buried in oxygen free organic deposits. Canoes and other prehistoric wooden items desperately need to be recovered, preserved, studied and exhibited before the information is gone forever.

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Ironically, present day Floridians desire to live in many of the same areas as a prehistoric populations. But they do not rely on the resources of the environment, so they often destroy it. When Europeans first came to Florida in the 15 hundreds, they settled along the coast.

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ST. Augustine became the earliest continuous European settlement in the United States. Pensacola was another early settlement. The European soon learned that it was easier and faster to travel along the coasts and inland waterways rather than go overland. They maintain their link to the homeland and other areas in the New World by establishing sea lanes.

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In fact, ships became their lifeline and many people died when foodstuffs, weapons and other manufactured goods did not arrive. Returning ships were often overloaded with treasure and all manner of other products destined for the markets of Europe. All of the cargo from the East Indies in the Americas was placed aboard at ports in South America.

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Since this was a time consuming task, fleet sometimes sailed late, often during the hurricane season. When ships went down. There often were attempts to salvage the cargo immediately. Because the loss was so financially devastating to the Spanish crown, the diving bill was sometimes used to facilitate the recovery of valuable cargo.

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Today, it is profitable and exciting to many people to try to recover treasure that still remains aboard the sunken ships. It also sparks a sense of adventure to dive down into the 17th century. Serious scholars, however, believe that there is much to learn by studying these old ships, how they were constructed, how well they are preserved after several centuries and all of the little bits and pieces of evidence that would tell a story of shipboard life at the time and how representative shipboard life was of the culture of the time.

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Inland waterways and coasts were used during wartime. During the American Revolution, the Florida's remain loyal to the British. The British governor realized the importance of naval power to the defense of Florida. From the base in Saint Augustine, the British Navy patrol to ST John's and ST Marys rivers and successfully resisted American invasion as a Spanish territory, Florida was supposedly neutral and not directly involved in the War of 18 12 between the British and the Americans.

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The British, however, wanted to use Pensacola Bay as Anchorage from which to maintain a tight blockade of the Mississippi. American troops moved in when the British evacuated from 18 35 to 18 42. The second Seminole War was fought in Florida. This was the first participation of our Navy and riverine warfare, a blend of naval and military combat conducted in a river in environment.

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These tactics began in force in 18 40. This type of warfare allowed for penetration into the Everglades. It turned out that these tactics had a profound impact upon the Seminole Nation. War parties can no longer safely hide in the Everglades, and the Seminoles were forced to break up into family units.

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Several Florida ports were utilized during the Civil War. Pensacola Bay was considered the best natural harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, and the South felt they had to have the bay. The first bloodshed of the war in Florida on September 14th, 18 61 was when the Federals attacked the schooner Judith in Pensacola Harbor.

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Naval vessels escorted supply ships between Fort Taylor at Key West and Fort Jefferson and the Tortugas. Fernandina became a rest center for federal troops and a base for expeditions along the east coast of Florida. The naval base at Key West was Florida's most important center of naval activity during the Spanish American War.

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The harbor was one of the largest in the United States and offered shelter from the C Key West served as a cooling station and supply base for the steam driven Navy 34. The captured Spanish vessels were brought to Key West. Port Tampa served as a point of departure for the projected campaign against Cuba at 3:30 a.m. June 14th.

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18 98 35 Transports four tenders. One hospital ship in 14 naval escorts began moving out of the harbor bound for Cuba. One vessel was a three friends built for governor Napoleon Bonaparte, Broward in 18 96. During the early part of World War, two German submarines off the east coast of Florida took one of the most devastating tolls of ships, supplies and men in the wars history.

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In May 1942 41 vessels were sunk, which was the greatest loss in any one month of the entire war. After steam began to be used for the propulsion of waterborne vessels. In the early 18 hundreds, steamboats gradually supplanted sailing vessels in the carrying of passengers in general cargo by bringing in goods and people and transporting out the produce of the land.

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Steamboats helped to establish the state in their day. Steamboats were centers of community activity and were symbolic of progress. Each arrival was longingly awaited by early Floridians. During the Civil War, some Florida bound steamships became blockade runners for the Confederacy, and many of them were lost or captured.

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In the upper ST John's, there were several different classes of steamships. Depending upon the function they served and their means of propulsion, The side wheeler was a tight most often seen on the Florida rivers. Steam vessels visited the Apalachicola, ST John's, Okla. Wahaha, Chattahoochee, Swanee, Qasimi, Caloosahatchee, Halifax and Indian rivers.

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Most of the vessels were built elsewhere since there was little shipbuilding in Florida until the mid 18 fifties. At the end of the 18 eighties, railroads freezes, changes in the harbor and the advent of large coastal steamships reduce the role of the steamship to one of catering to visitors and excursion travelers.

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A few were still to be found into the 19 twenties, but automobiles and trucks soon replace them. Most of these vessels no longer exist, but an effort should be made to preserve artifacts from those that lie as Rex in our waters. The first ship building in Florida, apart from emergency construction, was done by Rene La Derniere at Fort Caroline.

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Evidently, the French leader had a galley underway when the Spaniards struck in 15 65 This galley was completed and sailed to Cuba by the Spanish mutineers. Ships were built during both World wars at Jacksonville and Tampa. Shrimp trawlers, fishing boats, sailing sloops and sponge boats have been built at Fernandina, ST Augustine, Pinellas County and Tarpon Springs.

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History Books of Florida seldom mentioned maritime trade, but without ships and harbors, little growth could have occurred. Today, there are 27 seaports engaged in the shipping and reception of commercial merchandise. Pensacola is the only major port that played a meaningful part in the early history of Florida.

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Apalachicola ST Augustine, ST Mark's in Port ST Joe are still listed as ports but are of minor importance. Cedar Key and Jupiter Inlet, both of which formerly handled trade, are no longer of commercial consequence. In early times, there was no such place as Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami Port, Everglades, Palm Beach, Panama City, Fort Peers or Port Canaveral.

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In Spanish, English or territorial Florida. These are the major seaports today, but most of them have grown to majority during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Port Everglades, Miami and Palm Beach became important in the mid 20th century, and Port Manatee started operations in 1971.

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Some industries, such as cattle and wheat, grew during 17th century Spanish Florida after English setter settlers became established in 17 63 they produced for export turpentine and pine boards from the seemingly inexhaustible forces and indigo rice and hides. In 17 68 65,000 oranges and two casts of orange juice were shipped from ST Augustine.

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It was the beginning. The sparse records show that in 17, 71 goods valued at £67,000 were imported, but only £22,000 worth of merchandise were exported. During 17 81 a total of 69 vessels entered and cleared the Port of ST Augustine after 18 22 when Jacksonville was laid out as a city, its position on the ST Johns River assured its growth and importance as a seaport.

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Later, deep draft steamers unloaded passengers and freight from the north. One important item offloaded at Jacksonville was mosquito netting, oranges, lumber, kegs of oysters, honey, venison, turtles and pineapples were shipped north on the Gulf Coast. ST Mark's Port, ST Joe and Apalachicola gained prominence as cotton ports.

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Port ST Joe became a backwater when yellow fever and a hurricane, as well as a civil war, ended its prominence. In 18 23 Fort Brooke was established at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, and the town of Tampa was born. Tampa had its beginning as a seaport when it was used as a supply depot for the military.

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During the wars against the Seminole Indians, Tampa had only 700 inhabitants. In 18 84 when Mr Plants Railroad reached it, it began to boom and its growth intensified when phosphate was discovered in central Florida in 18 88 during 18 92 shipments of phosphate totaled 345,327 tons.

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At present, approximately 20 million tons of phosphate are shipped annually from the Port of Tampa. Tampa became a center of international trade, but it has not developed a bounteous trade with South and Central America, with one exception in 18 92 a scooter full of bananas arrived in Tampa and is now one of the principal reception ports for Central American bananas, averaging £300 million annually.

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While Henry B. Plant was constricting his railroad to Tampa, Henry Flagler was moving his rails down the Florida East Coast to Miami and eventually to Key West. Beyond any doubt, these railroad tycoons were responsible for the development of modern Florida seaports. In 1980 more than seven million tons of general cargo and 65 million tonnes of bolt cargo move through the ports of Florida individual ports, often neglected to keep adequate records of maritime trade.

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Record keeping is important so that we may know where we have been, where we are and where we are going in terms of the volume of Florida's maritime trade. As commerce grew, light houses or beacons were located around Florida's long coastline. There are 38 areas that have or once had a lighthouse from Fernandina in the northeastern part of Florida, down the Atlantic coast to the Dry Tortugas and up the Gulf Coast.

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Pensacola, Florida's early light houses in the 18 twenties at Cape, Florida, Key West and Pensacola were built a fired brick with massive thick walls. Others built later, including the first ST Augustine Light, a massive square Spanish tower of cocaine. A masonry toppled because of crumbling ground wave erosion and undermining of the heavy towers in the Florida Keys and elsewhere because of shifting sand, iron and steel skeleton towers were erected.

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Hurricane winds and high waves pass through the framework without heavy destruction. At comparatively sheltered locations like Gasparilla and Cedar Key, the lantern housing with its light was located atop the keeper's dwelling. All surviving light houses have been modernized and our automated. Some of the nearly forgotten light houses have been adopted by the local historical society.

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10 light houses are on the historic preservation list. Lighthouses are an important part of Florida's maritime heritage. Many have already vanished without documentation. Those that remain need to be studied and photographed. The earliest commercial fishing in Florida occurred when fishermen from Cuba and other Spanish colonial settlements recognized that the bays, inlets and rivers around Charlotte Harbor and Tampa abounded in edible fish and green turtle, which could be taken at minimal risk and substantial profit publications of 17, 65 17 72 mentioned that Spanish fishermen lived on mullet key near what is today Boca Grande and salted and dried fish that supplied Havana and other settlements in the West Indies during the Lent season.

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In 18 31 the occupation of Charlotte Harbor by Spanish fishermen was ended when pressures for direct control of the fisheries by the territorial government began to mount. Florida's modern fishing industry is 100 and 60 years old. Fishing became a principal industry in Key West soon after it was settled in 18 22.

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Most recorded documentation about Florida's fisheries concerned the last 100 years. The earliest sought seafood commodity was finfish these and other reef fishes, and some politics were taken with a hook and line before knitting technology reached the South. Since block ice was not usually available in the late 18 hundreds, most reef fishes were kept alive by placing them into a live will after netting practices were established in the early 19 hundreds.

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Spanish mackerel, king mackerel and mullet were produced in quality for the quantity. For the first time, mullet was the prime commercial seafood catch in Florida till the discovery of pink shrimp at one time mullet fisherman actually threw away shrimp caught in their nets. A small sponge industry began in Key West and by 18 90 held a monopoly in the United States.

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In 19 oh, five, the first Greek hard hat sponge drivers were established at Tarpon Springs and took the lead in sponge production over the depleted Key West. Beds 1947 a blight thought to be the result of a red tide outbreak, virtually wiped out the sponge beds.

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About this time, the synthetic sponge was introduced and Florida sponge industry declined. The red snapper and grouper fisheries started before the Civil War, and by the 18 nineties, vessels were fishing as far south as a company Banks of Mexico. The vessels used were smacks, and Ching's and hand lines were the primary gear employed until the 19 fifties.

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In 18 80 the earliest year that records were kept, £1.5 million of red snappers were landed. The majority of the fishermen were not native to Florida, being primarily from Scandinavia and from Italy, Germany, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Some teachings were operated entirely by black cruise clams were dug by hand from 18 82 19 oh five, when the mechanical dredges were introduced, an area of 100 and 50 square miles in the region of the 10,000 islands was described as the largest bit of hard clams in the United States.

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Canneries at Marco and Cox. Hamas had annual capacities of hundreds of thousands of cases of clam products until 1945 when a devastating red tide killed off the clam beds. The industry has been slow to revive early turtle ng utilizing small boats, and two man crews depreciated the turtle population in Florida.

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By 1947 Virtually no turtles were caught for market in Florida, but turtles from other areas unloaded. At Key West 1971 the animals were declared endangered. The last turtle schooner to unload at Key West was the A M. Adams that today lies sunk. It appear in San Lauren, French Guiana.

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Oysters were used long before the coming of the white man to Florida, and oystering has been a business in Appalachia Cola for more than 100 years. Many other oyster businesses exist around the state. Most oysters were collected by hand tongs that have changed little and are still used today.

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Small sloops about 40 to 50 ft were used for talking under sail power with a small auxiliary gasoline engine. The shrimp industry began in Florida in 19 oh two at for Nadine at Fernandina by a Sicilian immigrant. The industry expanded in 1912 with the introduction of the Otter trial, which enable fishing in deeper water and dragging over much wider areas.

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Appalachia Cola became the main shrimp producing center on Florida's Gulf Coast until pink gold was discovered accidentally at Key West. In 1950 In the first season, £15 million of pink gold shrimp were processed. The reputation of Florida as a sport fishermen's mecca goes back before the Civil War, coastal schooners and packet steamers trading between northern ports and southern destinations often stopped in Florida's uncharted inlets, caught fish and return north with tales of angling paradise.

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Between 18 73 and 18 75 sporting expeditions into Florida, sponsored by the weekly Forest and Stream, where the start of big game angling tarpon fishing, the international fame of big game fishing and its fishermen in Florida marked the beginning of the development of specialized saltwater tackle capable of handling all the larger sea fishes.

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Fishing tourists were not numerous in the late 18 hundreds, but publications listed fishing resorts, kinds of fish that could be caught gear and tackle used and names of available boarding houses. Since the modern fishing industry in Florida is relatively recent, most people do not realize that many traditional skills now replaced by new methods have not been recorded.

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Traditional techniques, oral histories and folklore associated with associated with maritime communities should be preserved because they represent a valuable intangible resource that records Florida's maritime heritage today for the generations of the future. For example, the city of Fernandina Beach is one of hundreds of Florida communities that retain Florida maritime traditions.

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Young people are the tradition bearers of the skills, stories, superstitions and other folklore that is part of for tardiness. Heritage. Third generation shrimpers in Fernandina use thoroughly modern boats and gear that many of the skills and common superstitions that have been passed down through families at the turn of the century, shrimp sold for a nickel a pound, and we're giving away free.

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In New York bars, prices have changed, but shrimp ng has a way of life is basically unchanged. Nets for instance, have been made by hand by the same family at Fernandina Beach since before 1915 superstitions are still common in Fernandina. Bananas are bad to have on a boat.

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Always put your left foot on shore first, and if the sun sets dark red, the weather will be bad. It is not superstition, however, that the shrimp disappeared at the wind blows from the South East. Folk knowledge such as this has been passed on for generations.

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A very different force has been a threat to Florida's maritime heritage and resources, the water highest sent in the late 18 eighties or early 18 nineties. People living along the ST Johns River were enthralled by the addition of a beautiful floating water plants to the river scenery.

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Steamboat operators were pleased when the tourists admired the drifting bouquets gliding by their vessels. Cattlemen along the river were enthused at the prospect of a new cheap fodder for their stock. One owner, who lives seven miles above Palatka, claim to have brought this beauty to the ST Johns River and believe that the people of Florida should thank him for putting the plants there.

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The proliferation of the water hyacinth borders on the fantastic. It's doubles its area every month of its growing season. By 18 93 where the Florida East Coast Railroad bridge across the ST Johns River at Palatka had planking extending from one piling to the next, the highest sent became so entangled that the ST Johns River was covered from bank to bank.

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The plant was no longer a picturesque floating garden, but a green and purple menace to navigation, mechanical, chemical and biological control. Measures have been used to control, if not eliminate, the plant. Some of the chemical control measures did more harm than good. An array of experiments was conducted to determine how to prevent the cattle from enjoying water hyacinth in order that the chemical control could be continued.

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Florida's maritime heritage has many ramifications. Florida's maritime history is the history of Florida and should be preserved. Barbara. That's just fascinating. And what a role water has had in the history and life of this state and its people. Its incredible That's a great collection of photographs.

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And while you are the principal investigator responsible for that wonderful presentation, there are others. I know you would like to acknowledge the the show, I hope will ultimately be film stripped and is narrated by Mike Doyle. Most of us know him. And, uh, an assistant to the compilation was Dr George Bucher from Jacksonville University.

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And then, uh, the filmstrip or the slideshow actually grew out of a conference that we held in Tampa almost three years ago now, and we just simply put pictures to people's contributions. Were you addressing this to a particular audience? Um, we hope that it will have broad appeal.

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I can think that it would have some appeal to tourism, for instance, but I think mostly the this aspect of Florida's history has been neglected, or at least not synthesized. And we hope that perhaps the teachers in that teach Florida history perhaps we use this for their classes eventually and libraries and port authorities and that kind of body and the presentation will be made commercially available soon.

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Um, that is our plan. Right now. We have it in slide tape form, and I hope that maybe by about March we will have the filmstrip will be available, and we estimate that the it'll probably sell for about $35. But that's just an estimate. Right at this moment, Robert, Uh, we only have a minute left, but I know that you'd like to put in a plea.

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If anybody finds a canoe in one of Florida's dried up lakes, please call you Dr Barbara Purdy at the Department of Anthropology, University of Florida. That's true. And we did a program on canoes several years ago, and and they're still showing up canoes from Indian Times.

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I would just like to say that we have now documented 138 canoes in the state of Florida, probably the largest collection of watercraft in the world and prehistoric watercraft in the world. And I mentioned in the in the script that the we have the oldest canoeing in the Western Hemisphere recorded its 3100 years old.

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And it's very fascinating. It surely is. And thank you very much for sharing it with me and with our audience on conversation. Mhm. Uh huh, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm.