Cemetery Discovered Underwater in Dry Tortugas
Some context before I begin. I lived out at the Dry Tortugas for several years. (School Holiday’s only,) way back at the end of the 90’s. I worked on the Yankee Freedom II for a summer, and worked as deckhand on the Motor Vessel Fort Jefferson another summer. (Thanks Cpt. Rick, and Cpt. Linda.) My dad literally wrote a book about the Dry Tortugas, Dad's book. (buy new and you get it from him direct.) I literally wrote a book on it too. His has more pictures and facts, mine is a fictitious mystery which does it’s best to communicate the awesome potential of the park. (You can find the links scattered about this website.)
Yellow Fever Memorial in the Parade Ground on Garden Key.
I have several Big announcements upcoming. One related to the Treasure off the Coast, (Said Dry Tortugas Mystery) and a few related to the upcoming release of The Specters of Mammoth Cave. So the plan, this week, was to stick with another article about Mammoth Cave.
And then: This was released on the Dry Tortugas National Park Government Website:
*1- Official Park Service Press Release - headline and first line below.
-“National Park archeologists find remains of an underwater hospital and cemetery at Dry Tortugas”
This press release circulated, spawning articles across the US about the underwater cemetery, and garnering the park a decent amount of publicity. Some of those articles include:
South Florida NBC, The American News, AP News, University of South Florida News, - And many more. Some of these will probably be dead links by the time you read this.
I’ll save you some time. Most of these, simply quote and summarize the official press release. Some do go on to give a generalized history of the Dry Tortugas. What they all have are 2 pictures I will not show here. The first is a picture of the archeologist doing his work, over a grave marker, and the second is “very scale accurate” - (sarcasm) - sketch of a hospital and cemetery on one of the Keys in the Dry Tortugas. The pictures are part of the press release too, so go there to see them and read more.
That being said, I will, like all of the above articles, quickly summarize the press release. - more quickly, because this is only a tangent to lead the rest of this blog.
My one paragraph summary:
An archeology student, assisted by several National Park Organizations, “found”* the remains of an old hospital and cemetery on “a submerged island near Garden Key.” The cemetery was identified as the Fort Jefferson Post Cemetery. And although the only identified grave, (the press release hints at others) belongs to a man named John Greer, who died in 1861 (it’s on the marker.) The press release also mentions the remains of a Quarantine Hospital located on the island in the 1890’s. (*1)
Look, read the press release, it’s interesting, does the job better than I could, and gives credit to the people who were working on this, saying what they want to say while playing coy with the name of the key. Probably, to protect the location og the findfind. My best guess, its probably around East West Artichoke Key, located in the southernmost tip of the northernmost part of the park located at latitude and longitude (100.123: 3.14159) - don’t quote this, it’s obviously not the real location.
Doxing the archeological site is not my intention. Re-writing a press release which has garnered some pretty awesome publicity for the park is also not my intention.
I want to provide a deeper look (pun intended) into the context surrounding this find. Not because the press release lapsed. But because I happen to know of a cool resource which can add context to the recent “discovery.” I believe this resource is publicly available, It’s just hard to find. There’s a pdf called: City on the Sea. Collected and annotated by an interpretive ranger in the early 2000’s. It’s a collection of old journal entries, letters from soldiers and prisoners, and photos, all related to Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas, which sheds a lot of light on conditions at the fort. Not just for the soldiers, or the most famous prisoners, but for everyone else working out there as well.
I’ve written about part of this collection before, providing links to the journal of Emily Holder, who lived out at the Dry Tortugas during and after the Civil War with her husband. I’ve mentioned a ghost story which may have roots in letters written by Dr. Samuel Mudd. (convicted Lincoln Assassination conspirator.- later pardoned) At least, I’ve maybe found the origin of Private Winters’ Ghost, or rather, a written account of his tragic end in Mudd’s letters to his wife. And with regards to this recent find in the Dry Tortugas, I’ve found that people living out at the Dry Tortugas during the the mid and late 1800’s had a lot to say…
Of sickness, and death in the Dry Tortugas:
At one time the Dry Tortugas was home to more than 2,000 laborers, soldiers, and enslaved people. It was mostly workers, but some family members moved out to the islands as well.
The Dry Tortugas is and was in a tropical climate. And this was a period before a many modern sanitation efforts, most modern vaccines, and many modern treatments. Yellow fever was a big killer not just on the isolated desert islands, but also on the mainland. And it wasn’t just yellow fever which plagued the fort, but also, Smallpox, Typhus, Tuberculosis (written often as consumption), and more mundane but serious ailments like sun stroke and seasickness.
As written by Calvin Shedd, a carpenter who turned soldier for the Union, in a letter to his Wife and Children
“There was a man on Guard a week ago last thursday was buried last Tuesday of Co I; another of Co G. was on Guard Tuesday & Buried thursday the men are dying this week fast of Typhoid Fever Congestion of Lungs & Sun Stroke.” - C. Shedd, June 1st 1862
Of course, Yellow Fever was an ominous presence written of by many. The word Fever appears more than 100 times in the records of City on the Sea, and in accounts by most of the people whose works have been collected therein.
Emily Holder wrote about several brushes with Fever in her: At the Dry Tortugas During the War, A Lady’s Journal.
Of course it wasn’t just the yellow fever, it was also another breakbone fever.
“Many of our people now came down with a sort of intermittent, or “breakbone” fever; rightly named for my own sensations were that the bones were being crushed. . .” - Emily Holder
And she writes about a desire to avoid yellow fever even as it rages in nearby communities (those connected to the Dry Tortugas by shipping lanes) like Key West and New Orleans.
“The one death at Tortugas, if it was genuine yellow fever, was a sporadic case, as there was no other until later in the season.” - Emily Holder
Until…
“…only the “break-bone” fever, seemingly in its first cousin, grew worse and worse until it finally merged into genuine yellow fever.” - Emily Holder.
Although in this instance. “There were five deaths only, in these sad days that oppressed us like a nightmare.”
And for a time, the Dry Tortugas weathered the outbreaks. (she writes little of how they managed to escape more dire consequences, instead focusing more on the toll on herself, her friends, and the fort’s rations.) But other writings hint that the reason they remained lesser scathed was due to quarantine efforts, which I will mention below. This was only the first outbreak she experienced, timed, if I am reading this right, in July or August of 1862.
Both fevers make their return, in the summer of 1863 as she writes first of the break bone fever spreading again. (speculated to be Dengue Fever.)
“The break-bone fever made it's appearance again with us. . . my son succumbed, then the Doctor. . . The heat was intense, the silence oppressive beyond description;. . . We were all ill at the same time with no physician, (the doctor was ill too) five hundred at one time would scarcely cover the list of those ill. . . “ - Emily Holder
And the fort barely escaped another bout with Yellow Fever, as it came close, breaking out in Key West, and killing some people associated with the fort in her time.
“The yellow fever was raging with great fatality in Key West even the old acclimated residents succumbed to it. . . . In the mids of all of this, news reached us that General Woodbury and Captain McFarland were ill with the fever… the mail boat came in with the heart rending news of the death of our dear friend, General Woodbury.” - Emily Holder
When Emily again writes again of fever in 1865, she cares no longer to describe which one it was, nor does she make note of any casualties. And she and her husband managed to escape the worst outbreak of Yellow Fever in 1867, which was noted by several others below, by leaving before it occured. She was, somewhat sheltered from the day to day toils at the fort, and she was also recounting her life at the fort long after she had left.
However, Harrison Burgess Herrick, was a union soldier stationed at Fort Jefferson during the American Civil War, and was part of the 110th New York Infantry there during Emily Holder’s time. His writings are a bit more spars, but he does mention yellow fever.
All quotes below attributable to Harrison Burgess’s notes:
Wednesday, [May, 1864] 18th:
“The schooner came in with Beef cattel. Also the matchless with the Nightengale. They brought the news that Gum Johnston had died in Key West of Yellow Fever.”
Wednesday, [June] 15th.
“Everything pretty dull. Jack Fargo came down with the fever.”
Until it seems that he came down with some kind of fever himself.
Thursday, [June] 23rd.
“Felt rather bad all day. . .”
And he wasn’t the only one.
Monday, [June] 27th
“I went out sailing with Kenney & Dump in the Irish Frigett in the P.M. No Officern on parade for they were all sick.”
Although he attibutes this to the ~lesser? fever
Saturday, August 13th,
“Was layd out flat with bone feavor by 9 A. M. Was allmighty sick all day.”
Sunday, 14th,
“Did not feal any better in the morning. Some better in the P.M. Had a might rest.”
And while this was happening, it’s possible that there were also cases of Typhus going around. (I’m just sharing his journal, I cant qualify or source his diagnosis.)
Monday, 15th,
“Felt some better. Chas Boyington died of Typhoid Fever about 5 P.M.”
While sick, He also writes of General Woodbury’s death, giving us a better date as to when that happened. (or at least when the news made it to the Dry Tortugas.)
Tuesday, [August, 1864] 16th.
“A steemer came from Key West. She brought the news that Gen Woodbury was ded.”
These were not the only deaths by disease he witnessed.
Friday, 26th.
Geo Hoyt died in the hospital at 25 min. past 12 at night. I helped lay him out.
Saturday, 27th,
Was busy all the A.M. getting redy for the Funral. Had it at 2 P.M. Liet Bermus red the prar.
Harrison Herrick’s notes also bring us some evidence of a potential yellow fever outbreak back in the 1850’s but more on that later. Harrison is noted as having been a survivor of Yellow Fever, although the final cause of his death in the 1890’s was attributed to complications from this former infection.
Another contemporary of Herrick’s notes that it’s not just the soldiers and their family suffering, with this pretty abrupt entry in his own journal.
Saturday, [July 1864] 30
“…I have been taking care of W J Smith he is in here with a fever one of the prisnors died I am well O how I wish I could be at home.” - Private Leander Tuller. He was often stationed in the hospital in the fort during this period, and kept count of the patients, although not always of their illness or the duration of their stay.
Of course, probably the most in depth accounts of illness in the Dry Tortugas come from Dr. Samuel Mudd in letters to his wife.
He notes a difference of outcome based upon standing and stature.
“Not a single soldier or citizen laborer has died or suffered with any serious sickness; thereby showing something wrong, something unfair, and a distinction made between the two classes of individuals. Every case of acute dysentery or diarrhea among the prisoners, either dies in the onset or lingers on and terminates in the chronic, which eventually kills. “
Though in that same letter he also goes on to write. (in the very next paragraph)
“We have a disease here which is termed bone fever, or mild yellow jever which has attacked at least three-fourths of the inmates of the Fort. It last generally but two or three days… None had died with it.” - Samuel Mudd, September 30, 1865.
In April 8th, 1866, in another letter. While all is well at the fort. (disease wise) Samuel Mudd notes:
“Yellow fever and cholera are reported prevailing in Key West.” And he mentions “precautions have been taken to prevent introduction here.” - Samuel Mudd. But since he doesn’t note what these precautions are I’m keeping this out of the latter section about quarantine and burial.
In August 25th of 1867 he writes that
“We have had one case of yellow fever here since I last wrote which proved fatal.” Yet, he notes “I have no fears regarding it.” - Samuel Mudd.
however a day later
“Since I wrote yesterday, another case of fever has been admitted to the hospital, which from present symptoms, will likely prove fatal.” - Samuel Mudd.
And then 3 more written about in a letter on September 3rd.
by September 13th of 1867, things are on a quick downward slide, and prisoner Samuel Mudd becomes Dr. Samuel Mudd again after the “lamented death of Dr. Smith. “ He notes that “Every officer of the Post is down with the disease.” Unfortunately, soon after, in a letter written on September 16th he also writes that “Dr. Smith’s child, a boy about three years old, has the fever.” He would not recover either. - Dr. Samuel Mudd.
Mudd writes a lot more about the disease, with some positive notes mixed amongst the negative. “We have now over a hundred cases of fever in hospital, and the percentage of deaths is unprecedentedly small.” - Dr Samuel Mudd, but by September 21st, any optimism was gone. “"I told him [Major Stone, who was in charge of the fort at the time and who had just lost his wife] plainly there was no abatement in the disease; that, instead of becoming milder, it was evidently more malignant.” - Dr. Samuel Mudd.
Later writing that “We have, up to present, lost by the fever at this Post thirty-three in all, counting men, women, and children, which is a small mortality considering the number attacked…and the inadequate facilities for treatment.” - Dr. Samuel Mudd, October 1st, 1867
Until he caught it himself, followed in quick succession by the new doctor on post. The Yellow Fever outbreak of 1867 was winding on to it’s end. (as were Dr. Mudd’s wits and willpower judging by the tone of his October letters)
It’s interesting, because reading his letters, you can actually trace the entire outbreak and progression of the 1867 Yellow Fever Epidemic in the Dry Tortugas. If not from person to person, at least it’s movement through the population.
Which brings us to the next and final section of this blog, which circles back to the topic at hand,
Burials and hospitals at the Dry Tortugas.
This whole thing began with an article about how archeologist have found* a cemetery and remains of a hospital underwater in the Dry Tortugas.
First. It should be noted that anything they found would have been above water when it was put in place. Storms, tide, and time shift the sands around the Dry Tortugas. At one point there were as many as 17 islands out there. When I lived out there, there were 6.5 as Middle Key was often below the sea even at low tide. Recently, when I revisited the park, Middle Key looked bigger than Hospital Key.
Hospital Key. It was, as the story goes, named for a hospital on the island. However, any hospital is long gone, and the island is now home to a colony of masked boobies. Perhaps this is where the archeologists found the cemetery, but I think not. The Dry Tortugas were used as a quarantine station during the 1890’s. And several different islands hosted hospitals.
Dr. Mudd writes a summary interview of the progression of the yellow fever, starting with his assumption of Dr. J. Sim Smiths duties after Dr. Smith died. I shall ignore his attempt at epidemiology tracing the outbreak to odorous air from the unfinished moat and the nearby Company K.
But, again, and for real this time, ignoring that: Here comes an assessment of the hospital situation in 1867.
“There were at this time two hospitals, the Post Hospital within the Fort, and Sand Key Hospital on an adjacent island about two miles and a half distant, which latter was fitted up as soon as the fever began to assume an epidemical form.”
The first people who were sick were taken to the Post Hospital in the fort, and then moved by boat to Sandy Key Hospital. (the inconsistent naming is consistent) Dr. Mudd does note that “…no effort or pains on the part of the surgeons to isolate the disease were taken, owing to the belief in its miasmatic character,”- Dr. Mudd
So the early patients were moved to Sands Key. Where it is noted that “the majority of the cases whom they (nurses) nursed on Sand Key died with the fever.” The Hospital there was broken down. Although Dr. Mudd also notes that the nurses treating patients on Sands Key did not get sick until they returned to the Fort. Where—
They had to expand the Post Hospital. From then on, they continued to house people until the outbreak was over. So… kind of the opposite of quarantine, although elsewhere, Dr. Mudd does note attempts to partition the fort, and keep the sick and healthy in separate sections.
This is all interesting, because the earlier outbreaks are treated with more attention to quarantine by island.
Emily Holder notes in 1862, that during the yellow fever outbreak in Key West, They would put the mail school (type of boat) Tortugas, quarantine for eight days before allowing it to dock.
Harrison Herrick, soldier and journaler of the 110th regiment also had notes about burial and quarantine during his earlier time in the Dry Tortugas.
Friday, [July 1864] 8th
“Felt prety sick all day. Dell Barrett came in the Matchless. (a ship) He was sent over to Sand Key to be quarentined.”
Sunday, 10th
“Felt some better. The boys went over and found Dell sick.” (so much for proper quarantine protocols. Avid readers would not that after this point several more people fall ill. Until)
Tuesday, [August, 1864] 16th,
{after dying the previous night of ~Typhoid Fever} Chas. Boyington was taken to Sand key in the P.M.
he never mentions where Geo Hoyt was buried, despite mentioning the funeral.
Herrick’s Journal Also suggests long periods of Quarantine. Since, at the time several of the ports which would be trading ships (which would stop for water, food, fuel, or passengers at the Dry Tortugas) were undergoing their own disead outbreaks throughout the 1860’s. Including Key West and New Orleans, because a break in quarantine is notable:
Saturday, April 8th,[1864]
“The Steamer Chose came in teh P.M. with a few prisners. She took away more than she fetched. Quarantine was down for the first time this year.” - All the quotes above with dates are attributable to H. Herrick.
So, between Emily Holder, and Herrick, we learn that infection was a consistent concern, but through either concerted effort or luck, they did encounter an outbreak as bad as would be encountered in 1867, when Yellow fever claimed 33 people, at the Fort, (and more if you count people who left only to be stricken with the disease on their way out.) Among the dead include Dr. Smith and his young son, the wife of the base commander, and prisoners and soldiers. However, thanks to the tireless effort of the nurses, and doctors, (all of whom eventually got the fever themselves, some of whom died.) The mortality rate was much lower than it could have been.
There are some positive notes to come out of this outbreak, potentially because some quarantine efforts and medical care.
“A little daughter (of Dr. Smith) remains exempt, having been sent to a different portion of the fort.” - Dr. Mudd writes of some success attempting to keep separate the healthy and those who were ill. And more, including Dr. Smith’s wife and Dr. Mudd himself recovered from the disease.
You can find a monument to Dr. Smith and his son in the Parade Ground on Garden Key.
Which brings me back to Harrison Herrick who also writes in his journal,
Saturday, January 21, [1865]
“… Over at Bastion D where they had just commenced to dig for the foundations of a new building, they came on to some boxes. Old man Phillios allowed that they were coffins that had been buried in yellow fever time some 10 or 11 years ago. But some of the men & prisoners sermised that it was something else.”
This brings us to intriguing questions: Where is Bastion D? Are there really 7 burials near it? Who were the people buried? Were they killed by an 1850’s outbreak of Yellow Fever or something else? What did the men & prisoners surmise? (the 1850’s would have been while the fort was still under construction.) - This is, perhaps the whole point of this incredibly long blog. There are, potentially, near Bastion D- 7 more burials related to an earlier outbreak of Yellow Fever, or perhaps related to something else entirely. While it’s not underwater, this might still be a ripe avenue for more research, to learn who these people were and give them the record due.
There’s a dearth of information even though there’s a surprising amount of records. I’ve only scratched the surface of what is in the 575 pg pdf, which gives much more insight into the lives of the people living in Fort Jefferson in teh 1800’s some of whom died out there. Some of whom may still be buried there, in graves above, or below the sea.
But the islands change, shifting sands with storms, tide and time. Some are probably lost forever. It’s good that they were able to recover the record of some. I wonder who was burried next to John Greer, who was burried near Bastion D. What were their stories? Is there any veracity to the rumor I heard that someone was burried on the roof of the fort?
There are other burials out there. The lighthouse keeper who operated Garden Key Light before the harbor light on the fort was built is buried on garden key. A scientist who drowned on Loggerhead is buried on that key, as is a sailor. There are hundreds of shipwrecks, and thus some, who did not survive were buried at sea. In the years, after the military abandoned Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas, the islands were used as a quarantine station in the 1890’s. And the records of that time are lacking. More probably died and were buried.
Today the Dry Tortugas is a tourist destination. It’s often forgotten that it is still inhabited. By park rangers, volunteers, and researchers like the ones who make this recent discovery. (During a recent Hurricane, I a former resident of Fort Jefferson, watched as a weather reporter noted the eye would pass right over the Dry Tortugas, but “no one lives out there so it’s not a big deal.” She was right about the not a big deal, 8ft thick brick walls go a long way to sheltering one from hurricane force winds, but wrong about them being uninhabited. But the population today is small compared to what it once was, and there are many stories of the place still to tell.
When I first read the original articles written about the press release. I wanted to nitpick. It’s challenging being an armchair expert on a place and knowing that you know things which are being left out or simplified. But there is always more to learn, (so only one small nitpick below.) There’s always an opportunity to look for more context. When you hear any story about a place with 2000 people, from only 3 points of view, you know you are missing out on 1997 others. That expounds as time moves on. I did not know of John Greer, and now I do.
I knew of several cemeteries, above ground, below the sea, and washed away in the Dry Tortugas, through research, word of mouth, and historical records. Without more detail, I’m not sure if this is one I have snorkeled in the past, but I never saw the grave marker. (I was often snorkeling over the archeologists studying these historical places, so I was fortunate enough to learn at an early age the reason and responsibility to preserve these artifacts, aka not mess with them without knowing what I was doing.) I never dug through the sand looking for it. Now this peace of our history, and I am sure more to come has been recovered, and a part of our past record has been restored.
Which brings me to my one and only nitpick.
which. . . I will save for another day, and another time.
I will leave you with a series of pictures from the City on the Sea. Unfortunately, I cannot attribute these photos, as the photographers are long gone, and un credited. If anyone happens to know their names, or the names of anyone in these photos, That would be awesome to know. Otherwise, Here is a look into the past
Also, my source for a lot of this are letters and journals and photos collected in City on the Sea. I have a copy of it, and am investigating a way to either make it public or to find a link to it. When I will do, I will let you know.
And a last last note! I have this now:
It’s a proof. Nothing is final.
so The Specters of Mammoth Cave is on it’s way, but more about that later. Including a better look at the cover!!!!