Lighting the Florida Keys

Many of the Spanish vessels returning home with treasures looted from the people of central and South America never made it back to Spain. Storms and hurricanes, uncharted reefs, poor or nonexisting charts, strong currents, and the low-lying keys and reefs of the southern Florida coast took their toll. The frequency of ship wrecks along the Florida Keys was so often that "wrecking" (plundering valuables from wrecked ships) was big business for many years. Pirates also lurked among the Keys, often displaying false lights to entice the passing ships onto a lee shore. Even New England fishermen ventured to the area to partake of the wrecking business after the United States acquired the Florida Territory in 1819.