Dry Tortugas home to an unadulterated Florida

By NANCY KLINGENER
Herald Staff Writer

The Dry Tortugas, 68 miles to the west, are really the outermost point of Florida.

Until recently, getting to the Tortugas meant taking a seaplane, chartering a boat or taking your own boat.

Now a ferry is running from Key West to the Tortugas four days a week, and the round trip fare is within reason -- $75 for adults, $65 for senior citizens, $45 for kids 16 and under.

It's worth the money. The Tortugas are a pristine national park with some of the best birdwatching, snorkeling and swimming in the country.

And the park has Fort Jefferson National Monument, a 19th Century brick outpost that stands in splendid isolation as a monument to national ambition and determination.

The 100-foot ferry is run by Yankee Freedom, a company that started with whale-watching trips out of Gloucester, Mass. Sometimes called a high-speed personnel boat, the ferry is the same type used for the New England trips.

The Yankee Freedom ferry has been busy since Christmas and will likely become even more popular with tourists wary of the seaplane.

Key West Seaplane Service, which runs only between Key West and the Tortugas, has had two accidents in the last two months. On March 17, a plane taking off from Key West crashed into the water, killing the pilot and four passengers. One passenger, a 10-year-old boy, survived.

Last Sunday, another plane was forced to land in the water 12 miles from Fort Jefferson as it was returning to Key West. The pilot and all five passengers emerged uninjured and bobbed in the water for several hours before they were spotted by search planes and picked up by the Coast Guard.

Taking the ferry

The ferry leaves from Key West on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Passengers should arrive at the Land's End Marina at the foot of Margaret Street by 7:30 a.m. Departure is 8 a.m.

During the crossing, passengers are served a complimentary breakfast of coffee, eggs, sausage and muffins. The trip takes about three hours and 15 minutes, sometimes a bit longer if the current is strong.

Along the way, a naturalist discusses local wildlife and maritime history, pointing out where treasure hunter Mel Fisher found the wreck of the Spanish ship Atocha and the best places to see dolphins. The first sightings of the massive hexagonal fort rising in the distance are awe-inspiring.

Thumbnail history

By late morning the boat has docked at Fort Jefferson. Built to protect the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, it is the first of America's East Coast defenses.

Rangers and ferry staff lead short tours of the fort. Construction of the fort started in 1846 and continued for 30 years. It was never finished, although it was active in guarding U.S. borders.

During the Civil War, the fort stayed in Union hands and helped enforce the blockade of Confederate shipping. It also was used as a military prison for Union deserters, who were put to work on fort construction.

At that time it was an isolated, hopeless outpost -- there was no escape and prisoners were subject to outbreaks of yellow fever. Many died.

After the war, the fort continued as a prison and received its most famous inmate -- Dr. Samuel Mudd, sentenced to life for setting the broken leg of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Mudd always maintained his innocence, but was convicted of conspiracy in the assassination. While at the fort, he helped treat inmates and staff struck by yellow fever. For those efforts, he was eventually pardoned and allowed to return home.

By 1874, the U.S. Army had abandoned Fort Jefferson and the island became a resting spot for Cuban revolutionaries, lost fishermen and other wanderers. In 1908, it was declared a wildlife refuge to help protect birds from egg collectors and plume hunters.

In 1935, the four islands that make up the Tortugas became Fort Jefferson National Monument. Four years ago it was renamed Dry Tortugas National Park to recognize the natural splendors that survive there.

Abundant wildlife

The Tortugas got their name from Spanish explorer Ponce De Leon. They're called Dry Tortugas on nautical charts to warn mariners that there is no natural source of freshwater there. Loggerhead Key has a lighthouse and Garden Key has the fort. Bush Key and Long Key are within swimming distance of Garden Key, but are sometimes closed to the public to protect nesting birds.

The islands are home to rookeries of magnificent frigate birds and sooty terns, birds rarely seen elsewhere in the United States. During the nesting seasons and migrations, birdwatchers from around the world flock to the Tortugas.

After the fort tour, visitors are free to wander, picnic on the park grounds and swim and snorkel in the clear waters that are an inspiring (and sometimes heartbreaking) vision of how magnificent all the Keys waters once were.

The ferry provides box lunches for $4 or you can bring your own food. The ferry also has a full bar. The fort has no water supply or soda machine for guests and you must take all trash with you when you leave.

(The ferry is an excellent option for anyone wishing to camp at the park -- seaplanes sometimes make you buy two tickets if you stay overnight. They are also more limited in the amount of gear you can bring; the ferry charges an extra $15 for campers.)

The fort has a small bookstore with information about the history and ecosystem of the islands. And that's it -- Dry Tortugas National Park is blessedly free of surrounding concessions, snack bars, tour trams and T-shirt hawkers.

In the Tortugas, you are free to see a Florida that has largely vanished -- when ships were the way to get from here to there, the water was clean and nature mostly undisturbed. See it while it lasts.

IF YOU GO

Tortugas Ferry: 100-foot motor ship leaves from Land's End Marina at the foot of Margaret Street in Key West at 8 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Trip to Fort Jefferson takes about three hours and 15 minutes. Passengers have about 4 1/2 hours on the island before the boat departs for Key West about 3:45 p.m.

Round-trip fare: $75 for adults, $65 for senior citizens, $45 for children 16 and younger.

Information: Yankee Freedom, (305) 294-7009 or (800) 634-0939.

Staying overnight: If you're planning to camp, returning on the ferry later in the week, take along absolutely everything you will need and be prepared to take it home with you. The park has bathrooms, but no trash cans. There is no running water or food. Camping is free; there are 10 sites.