Key West and the Shipwreck Museum

This picture shows some house boats at Key West.  Most of the activities in Key West include shopping, museums, or water activities.

 We did a tour through a ship wreck museum.  It was really interesting.  They had an actor tell about Key West and how it got to be where it is today.  There are some reefs of of the island that many ships have crashed on.  A long time ago, this is how people there made money.  They would watch for ships and when the crashed, they would all race out.  Who ever got there first was able to claim the goods as theirs.  They also saved lives and helped the crew back to safety.  At least that is how they justified their pirate like activities!  They had a court where things were recorded and taxes were paid on the goods recovered.  This man was one of the richest during that time.

Wes trying to lift the silver bar.  It was recovered three or four times.  Each time a ship would take it, the ship would go down.  It weighs 64 pounds.

It was interesting to learn about Cob coins.  They would take the silver block and just shave some off and then cut it into pieces for coins-pieces of eight. People starting shaving some of the edges and the pieces were no longer the proper weight or value.  That is when round, uniform coins came to be.

There once was a shipment of pianos that wrecked.  It seemed like the salvager couldn't pay the taxes, so every family in Key West was able to get one at auction.

This is the watch tower for the wreckers.  They would have one person stand watch and when a wreck happened, they would ring a bell and all would drop everything and rush to the ocean.

Kara is ringing the bell!

A beautiful view from the tower.

This is the view that greeted us on our journey back to Naples.

I thought the sunset was breathtaking.  Mix it with a little palm trees and there you have it.  I thought the picture turned out well--considering we were traveling more that 70 miles/hour!!!