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Dog Island, Franklin County, Florida
History of Dog Island
Fox and Le Tigre:
what were they like?
Read the eye-witness account of the wrecking of Le Tigre
DISS
1999 Field Season
DISS 2000 Field Season
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Dog Island has a rich maritime history. The
discovery of a 1,200-year-old canoe is a testament to
prehistoric mariners on the island, and the first European sailors traveled
these waters in the early 16th century. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries,
the region saw an increase in colonial shipping, and these barrier islands
became a haven for pirates and smugglers. In the American era, economic
shipping greatly increased as St. Marks, St. Josephs, and Apalachicola became
major ports on the Gulf Coast. Both sail and steam ships traveled to Dog Island
to exploit its resources of lumber and naval stores (turpentine and pitch
products). During the Civil War, Dog Island was used by the Union Navy as a
base for staging the blockade of Apalachicola. Almost a century later, it would
again serve as a military base during World War II. |
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Littered around the coves and waters of Dog Island are the remains of these
shipwrecks and other aspects of regional maritime culture. The purpose of
Florida State University's Dog Island Shipwreck Survey is to systematically
search these waters, using acoustic and electromagnetic devices, to locate
submerged cultural resources. The two most historically significant shipwrecks
in the area are Le Tigre, a French merchant brig lost in 1766, and HMS Fox,
a British war schooner wrecked in 1799. Archaeologists will also investigate
known shipwrecks in the area, including the remains of four merchant sailing
ships lost in 1899 and a fishing schooner lost after the turn of the century. |
Ship wrecked during the hurricane of 1899 on Dog
Island.
| By Chuck Meide and Melanie Damour |
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