June 7, 2026 - South Florida and Bahamas Cruise
Dry Tortugas National Park
A look at our ferry boat. A lot of people were visiting the Dry Tortugas today.
We are riding the Yankee Freedom III, a high-speed Incat Crowther designed catamaran that takes visitors on the almost 70-mile trip out to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park. The Yankee Freedom III catamaran is powered by twin Caterpillar 3,412 horsepower engines that give the ferry a maximum speed of 30 knots. The Yankee Freedom III has a passenger capacity of 250 people
Inside the harbor is the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Ingram (WHEC-35) which is the most decorated vessel in the Coast Guard fleet and was the only cutter to ever be awarded two Presidential Unit Citations. It is now a museum ship.
Ingham was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and launched on 3 June 1936. Ingham served with distinction during World War II on convoy duty. On 15 December 1942, during one crossing, Ingham engaged and sank the enemy submarine U-626.[4] After 1944, Ingham served as an amphibious flagship and she would later take part in three campaigns in the Pacific Theater. Ingham earned two Presidential Unit Citations for her service in Operation SEA LORDS and Operation SWIFT RAIDER during the Vietnam War on a deployment from 3 August 1968 to 28 February 1969. On completion of her deployment to Vietnam, Ingham returned to regular Coast Guard duties, serving until 1988, when she was decommissioned. At that time, Ingham was the second oldest commissioned U.S. warship afloat, second only to USS Constitution in Boston.
Acquired by Patriot's Point (located near Charleston, South Carolina) in 1989, Ingham was displayed along with the aircraft carrier Yorktown, the destroyer Laffey, and the submarine Clamagore until 20 August 2009.
On 20 August 2009 Ingham was towed to the Coast Guard piers in North Charleston, South Carolina for minor repairs and to await dry docking. She underwent a short dry docking period at Detyen's Shipyard in North Charleston and was then towed to Key West, Florida arriving there on 24 November 2009. She is now a member of Key West Maritime Memorial Museum.
Our trip included a friendly and knowledgeable guide. Here we are getting ready to tour the fort.
The entire fort is made up of brick. Notice the upper windows were never finished. They discovered the structure couldn't support heavy guns there so they figured, and they really didn't need additional guns anyway, so why finish it?
The fort is surrounded by a moat.
When it was built in the early 1860s, Fort Jefferson was state of the art, and impregnable. But only 20 to 30 years later, advances in naval gunnery produced guns that could penetrate the thick brick walls and the fort became obsolete.
In 1829, under recommendations from Commodore John Rodgers, the survey ship Florida stopped at the Dry Tortugas to evaluate the anchorage. Contrary to Commodore Porter's experience, Josiah Tattnall III was delighted with what he found. The Dry Tortugas, he reported, consisted of 11 small keys and surrounding reefs and banks, over which the sea broke. There was an outer and an inner harbor. The former afforded a safe anchorage during all seasons and was large enough to let a large number of ships ride at anchor. Of more importance, the inner harbor combined a sufficient depth of water for ships-of-the-line, with a narrow entrance of not more than 120 yards. Tattnall noted that if a hostile power should occupy the Dry Tortugas, United States shipping in the Gulf would be in deadly peril, and nothing but absolute naval superiority could prevail. However, if occupied and fortified by the U.S., the Dry Tortugas would constitute the advance post for a defense of the Gulf Coast.
Construction of Fort Jefferson (named after the third U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson) began on Garden Key in December 1846. The Army employed civilian carpenters, masons, general laborers, and Key West slaves to help construct the fort. Work was half complete in 1860. At the onset of the Civil War (April 12, 1861), 62 men of the Second U.S. Artillery Regiment, under the command of Major Lewis Golding Arnold, were moved to the fort, preventing it from falling into the hands of rebel forces. They worked feverishly to improve the security and defenses so that the fort's heavy guns were first fired on 26 January 1861.
The Union also used the fort as a military prison during the war, with the convicts replacing the slaves for unskilled labor.
The seawall was finally completed in 1872 and six 15-inch Rodman guns were in place on barbette (third) tier. The total number of large-caliber guns was 243. The guns were never fired in anger.
Frequent hurricanes and yellow fever epidemics convinced the War Department to remove the garrison, leaving a small caretaker force for the armaments and ammunition in 1874. In 1889, the Army turned the fort over to the Marine Hospital Service to be operated as a quarantine station. The U.S. Navy used the Key as a coaling station.
Neglected, stripped by vandals, swept by repeated tropical storms that crushed brick and concrete and bent girders, Fort Jefferson deteriorated rapidly. It remained unoccupied until the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898. The American fleet was stationed there. One of the ships to load coal there was the USS Maine before her fateful trip to Havana.
In 1902, the property was transferred to the Navy Department, and coal rigs and water distilling plants were built. When these were destroyed by hurricanes in 1906, the fort was again abandoned. Two years later the entire group of islands was set aside as a federal bird reservation. Until 1934 Garden Key and the crumbling ruins were merely a rendezvous for fishermen and tourists.
On January 4, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, designated the area as Fort Jefferson National Monument. Between 1935 and 1938 the Works Progress Administration performed structural renovation and historic preservation work on site. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 1970. On October 26, 1992, the Dry Tortugas, including Fort Jefferson, was established as a National Park
Proof that I did go in the water. Very refreshing!
We had to drive to Miami after the Dry Tortugas tour, but before leaving Key West we had to check out the famous "Southernmost Point Buoy".
