National Park After Dark - What is Buried Beneath the Sea? Biscayne National Park

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Originally posted last month to Patreon for February’s bonus episode, in honor of Black History Month, we dive (literally) into an important and heartbreaking story which has been largely lost to time. This week we bring it to the surface, have difficult conversations and discuss the efforts the NPS, independent diving groups and historians have taken to rediscover what was lost to history and to the elements in order to honor its story in the present.Videos discussed in this episode: The Guerrero Project, The Hunt for the Slave Ship GuerreroFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!StoryWorth: Get to know your loved ones better and preserve those memories forever. $10 off your first purchase by using our link.Prose: 15% off your first hair care order by using our linkFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hello everybody. Welcome to another bonus episode. Today is a little bit different because we have just decided to release one of our exclusive episodes from Patreon for everyone. This is something we have not done in the past and something we probably won't do in the future just because we like having Patreon episodes for outsiders only. But this is an exception. And it's because after we told this story and discussed it, we just really felt that it was very important for everybody to hear.

It's a really interesting story. It has a lot of history. Just our Patreon in general, we cover some really, really cool stories. And we've been on Patreon for over a year now. And we do a bonus story every month. So we have a ton of Patreon episodes that you've never heard if you're not on our Patreon. So if you're interested, you can go over to that. You can find it on our website or on our Instagram. But let's get into this episode. Enjoy. Your sense of self refers to your perception of the collection of characteristics that define you. Your traits, strengths, weaknesses, desires, your belief system, and your moral code, things that drive you, and things that discourage you. Having a strong sense of self and acknowledging who you are is held in high regard in our society. As Aristotle once said, knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. But knowing yourself goes far beyond daily journaling or self-discovery retreats. For many, knowing who you are begins with where you come from. There's a reason genealogy services such as Ancestry.com and 23 and Me are immensely popular.

Because as humans, we have a deep-seated desire to know where our stories begin. But not everyone can trace historical documents back through the years of time, to track down their great-great-grandparents. A swab of the cheek and a three-to-five wait for lab results won't yield the answers that will complete their family trees. For some, the stories that fill the gaps of their past are lying on the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be found, to be commemorated, and to be remembered,

waiting for hundreds of years' worth of sand to be whisked away, to be unmasked and unobstured, waiting for someone to say, I found you, I see you, and I love you. Welcome to National Park After Dark. This feels like a history episode. It is indeed a history episode. And I will say it's a very, it's a pretty heavy one. It feels like it from your intro. I had to take a few breaks while I was researching this just for just to mentally, walk away and get some air and things like that because it's heavy. And I have not heard of anything like it within the National Park System. So I'm really, really excited to share it with everybody. But just a forewarning, it is pretty heavy and can be sad at times. But it's very

important. And it's Black History Month. It's a month of February. So I really felt it was important to tell it this month. Oh, cool. So we're going down the Black History route. Yes. Again, because I just did mine not too long ago about the escape of William Kraft. Yes. And that is one of the National Park sites and units that are dedicated to telling Black History stories. And there are so many of them. I mean, I think we think of the National Park System as having 62 sites. or 63, whatever the number is now. Yeah, 62 of them. Yeah, it's so different because there's all the national historic sites that go along with it. Right. There's so many national historic sites that are also accounted for in the bigger number, which is about 400 of them here in the United States.

And so many of them are places that don't get a lot of headlines, but have just as much to say and stories to tell. But anyway, so the place that we're going today is a place that has a lot of stories to share. And it is one of the bigger known parks, and that is Piscayne National Park. Oh, we're going to Florida, right? Florida. Yep. Florida. And I'm kicking myself that, like, of all the times that I have been to Miami, I have never been here.

And it's just... How far is it from Miami? Right below Miami. Oh. I'm literally going to be there in a couple weeks. Cassie, you have to go. You have to go. Okay.

First of all, after this episode, I'm sure you'll have a deep desire to go, not only for cultural and historical significance, but also it's so beautiful. Oh, God, it is so beautiful. Okay. I'm going to go. I'll go. I'm there for a few days. I have plenty of time.

I'll go. Perfect. So let's bring us all there right now with this episode. All of our outsiders. Hello. Oh, yes. Hello. How are you?

It's been a while, I feel like. It's been a month. I always want to say like it's that time of the month again, but then I just feel like I'm announcing our period to everybody. It's like, all right, let's not say that. But it is. It's that time of the month again. And we're back.

And we're back. Very regular. Alrighty. So as we always do, let's first take a look at the park itself before getting into the story. Biscayne National Park, which you should Google right now, seeing as how you're about to go. I was just saying, like, every time you tell me about a park, I immediately go to Google just so I have a visual in my brain of what you're talking about. And I already have my phone out. Look up the pictures, but also look up the location in proximity to Miami. I can see Miami in the

pictures. In all seriousness, it's very close. Wow. I had always heard of this park, but I never did too much research in it, but it's literally like, is it mostly in the water? It is. So this park, just south of Miami, is roughly 22 miles or 35 kilometers long, and it covers 270 square miles, which is about 700 square kilometers. The northern portion of the park preserves Biscayne Bay, which is a large lagoon near Miami, and the southern portion of the park includes Elliott Key, which is the largest of the 42 islands within this park and is also actually the northern most true island of the Florida Keys. So when you think about the Florida Keys, like you're going to Key West, Elliott Key is the most northern part of that. Okay.

And like you mentioned, unlike most of the parks we cover, this one is mostly water and offers minimal hiking opportunities. So if you're to go onto the All Trails app, I think it's six trails. that you can do. And they're more like strolls rather than strenuous hikes. And they loop through the sandy beaches, the dunes. There's some flatland forests and mangrove line shores. But what the park lacks in land-based activities, it more than makes up for when it comes to water-based activities. So Biscay National Park is primarily a marine park. And it is made up of 95% water. Wow. So there's like literally no land. There are very small islands. Yeah, the 42 little dots of island or keys. But yes, most of the park is ocean and water. So this means that boating, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling, scuba diving and fishing are all immensely popular here. And about a half a million visitors come to this park every year. Visitors are able to explore four distinct ecosystems, including mangrove swamps and coral reefs, which are blanketed

sea grass and teeming with life such as sea turtles, crustaceans, manatees, mollusks, whales, alligators, and over 500 species of fish. Birds, such as the Great Eagrott and Cooper's hawks, can sail through the skies over the water, wander through the mazes of mangroves, and land onto the branches of bayseaters and coconut palms that stand firmly rooted on the keys. The area that is now the park has evidence of human history dating back nearly 10,000 years, starting with the indigenous glades culture, which is a name that has been given to the people in the area from the earliest accounts of human activity, and then later to the Kisita and eventually the Seminole and the Mikasuki. The 16th century brought the Spanish who controlled the area for nearly 200 years before it was turned over to the United States in the 1820s. During the time that the Spanish ruled this area, the keys themselves weren't what many people were after. The Spanish made little attempts to establish any sort of permanent settlements here.

It was the waters surrounding the keys that was enticing. A channel was discovered that ran along the mainland and the Bahamas. Called the Straits of Florida, the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, provided ships the quickest route from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic, and it became a heavily used trade route. Ships carrying sugar, tobacco, weapons, textiles, silks, and treasures whisked through the Straits of Florida. But this route also came with dangers. Known as a ship trap, the passage was narrow and the waters go from hundreds of feet deep

to only a handful of feet deep very quickly. And then this accompanied with the winds that push ships towards the reefs along with the limited navigational aids at the time resulted in hundreds and hundreds of shipwrecks. Within Biscayne National Park itself, there have already been more than 70 shipwrecks that have been documented within the waters of the park. And that number goes up every year. There's crashes every single year? Well, the number of wrecks discovered. Oh, okay. Wow. So this is still like very largely being explored. Oh, absolutely. Yes. And we'll get into that. That's so cool.

Stories of pirates buried treasure and lost shipwrecks stemming from this area fill the pages of history books. And today we are going to talk about pirates and shipwrecks, but not in the way that you may think. Because their cargo was much more important than gold, and uncovering the final resting places below the waters of Biscayne would actually be the greatest treasure of all. The same seas that carried ships with infamous names, such as Edward Teach, who is Blackbeard, John Rackham, who is Calico Jack, and Henry Morgan, better known as Captain Morgan, carried millions of others, many of whom have had their names and identities lost to time or intentionally erased from history. Somewhere on the seafloor of Biscayne National Park lies what remains of the ship Guero, and with it, the story of 561 enslaved captives.

I've never heard this before. Yes, me either. I will talk about it a tiny bit at the end of the episode, but I came into this research with an idea to cover Biscayne, but for an entirely different reason, there is a lot of black history within this park that is a completely different story than the story of the shipwreck. but it is just so fascinating that I just got I totally got pulled into this and I think it's just

so important to tell and I'm really excited because it also goes into a different part of the National Park System that we haven't discussed yet which is the water and the park rangers that work in it that work underwater mm-hmm okay I'm really excited for this I like everything about this I love this kind of history I love how different it is tell me everything tell me more I was so tempted to, there were so many times I was about to text you about different aspects of the story that I was learning because I know your favorite, along with survival stories, well, it is kind of like a survival story theme. You just love stories of people who triumph after being oppressed. And it would no matter the situation. I think this is going to be a story you really enjoy learning

about. Yeah, I'm surprised. I've literally never heard this before, so I'm really excited to hear it. So the history of the Gruero isn't clear or exact, but it is known that it was launched from New London, Connecticut, in 1813 under another name, the James Monroe. It worked as a privateer and a trading vessel before it became a piracy vessel known as the San Jose, and then the Pepe and later the Gruero. Engaging in piracy and robbing other ships of their cargo was obviously looked down upon, so it was not uncommon for ships who partook in those activities to either be destroyed or have their names changed and registered under new names to avoid detection or confiscation by authorities.

So that explains why there's so many name changes throughout its history. And this name change was especially important. to the Gruero's captain, Jose Gomez, as he was not only plundering other ships, he was engaging in the slave trade. The transatlantic slave trade functioned from the 16th to the 19th century, and had roots spanning three continents, North America, South America, and Africa. During this time, an estimated 10 to 15 million enslaved Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to the Americas. It is estimated that for every one of those millions, six times as many died. People were sold to or captured by enslavers throughout the continent of Africa, ripped from their homes and families,

and sent to forts on the western coast of the continent where they would face harsh living conditions and treatment while they awaited what was to come. Their heads would be shaved and their skin would be branded prior to being forced onto ships bound for the Americas. Men were stacked one on top of another, below deck of the ships, while women and children were usually kept above deck. No matter their locations, they were given little to no access to food or water, lack of sanitation and the ensuing spread of disease, exposure to rats and other various insects, starvation, dehydration, and exposure to the elements resulted in many perishing prior to reaching land. crew members would threaten their captives, inflict beatings, and even throw people overboard while

still alive if they showed signs of weakness or illness. They were utterly dehumanized and treated as cargo. Some captains would even slice off their ears as a form of proof of purchase. Conditions were so bad, some resulted in completing suicide or starving themselves intentionally to escape their treatment and ultimate fate. The slave trade was banned by Great Britain in 1807. And a year later, in 1808, the U.S. passed the act prohibiting the importation of slaves. So the trade of enslaved people was banned. But as we know, slavery was not abolished until many, many years later. So 1834 in the Bahamas, 1865 here in the United States, and not until 1886 in Cuba. And I picked those three areas just because that's kind of like

where our story is taking place. So this meant that there was still a demand for enslaved people. For example, in Cuba, the sugar plantations of Cuba, a young enslaved man would last an average of nine years before dying. Plantation owners and enslavers could not rely on procreation or natural reproduction of their enslaved people, alone to replenish the need for workers. so they turned to obtaining enslaved workers still, despite it being illegal. In July of 1827, the Gruera was documented leaving Cuba for West Africa. During its voyage, it intercepted and overtook another slave ship off the African coast and carried off with about 700 enslaved Africans.

On December 19th of that year, the ship was sailing down the Florida Straits headed for Cuba when it was spotted by the HMS Nimble. The Nimble was a British Royal Navy anti-slaving ship, and its mission was to intercept ships destined for Cuba with illegal human cargo. The Nimble spotted the Guerrero and chased it down from the Bahamas, up the Straits of Florida, and into the Florida Keys. The Nimble gave two shots as a warning towards the Gruero,

which was their signal to stop for inspection. but the Guerrero took off, so the Nimble took chase. Hours passed, and the Nimble closed in, and a battle ensued. They fired back and forth at one another until the Guerrero took off again. This time, the Nimble was hot on its trail. In the early evening, the Guerrero smashed into a shallow reef. The collision ripped through the hole and caused both masts to topple over. The nimble, hot on its tail, saw this collision and tried to turn around, but it was

too late. They too ran aground on the reef and started sinking. Crew members aboard the Nimble spent the night attempting to get free of their position on this reef. So to do this, they were instructed to throw the heaviest items overboard, meaning cannons, cannonballs, ballast, and Bar Shot. And Bar Shot, it looks, if you're to look it up, it looks like an elongated dumbbell. They're just giant metal like dumbbells essentially. What are they for? So what they do is, or what they were used for, is they were shot out of cannons, just like a cannonball. But the way that they were constructed, they would tumble one end over another. And it would cause a lot of damage once it hit its target, whether it be people, like personnel, equipment, or rigging on different ships.

It was intense. So now the ship that was just using all of its ammo for the Guerrero is now dumping all of it into the ocean. Yes. So they're now both very close to one another stranded on this reef after firing back and forth at one of another for hours. And the Nimble, whose whole mission was to stop and inspect the Guerrero and then obviously upon seeing that they were conducting illegal activity. Illegal activity and that they had enslaved captives, they were going to rescue them. That was their whole mission. So now these people who are stuck aboard, who are captives, their only hope of rescue is now trying to get away because they're stuck on the reef. A big turn of events here. This whole deloading of the ship did work a little bit. So their whole idea was to throw everything off board or overboard so that the ship would lighten up and kind of float on top of the reef.

just enough to get itself off the reef and be able to sail away. And it worked a little bit. On two different occasion, the ship floated up enough to drift a little distance away, but it was repeatedly grounded by the reef until it finally sank completely, about two and a half miles away from the original grounding location where it originally got grounded alongside the gruerro. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

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Of the 561 enslaved people on board, 41 of them drowned within the hold of the ship. So this original battle and the ensuing wrecks that occurred were all heard by wreckers, who were people who made their living from salvaging ships that crashed on the reef. They were anchored nearby, heard the whole thing. And the battle and the wreck of these two ships happened towards the end of the night and into the early morning. So as the next day approached and dawn came around, three different wreckerships made their way to the location to assist the Nimble and the Gruero. Jose Gomez, the captain of the gruelo, took advantage of the assistance and ended up hijacking two of the three wrecker crews. He loaded as much of his human cargo onto those ships as he could and made a break for Cuba,

where he and most of his crew made a full escape, and all of the enslaved individuals he had managed to take from the Gruero were sold into slavery. Oh, like you survive this boat crash, this traumatic, like war at sea, and then you finally make it out of that just to be sold into slavery. Yep. Amongst the chaos, seizing of the ship, ships and transferring of people, 121 Africans from the Gruero were safely delivered to Key West, but their journey was far from

over. They had just been ripped from their homes, interned in slave camps, abducted by pirates, went through a grueling 4,000 mile journey aboard slave ships across the ocean, they just went through a violent battle at sea, survived a shipwreck, and all the while they can't communicate with anybody. Oh, that's right. They don't speak the language, obviously. Right. They don't speak the language. And the other thing that I didn't include in this, but I think is an important side note is, I forget where I was reading it in one of my sources, that we have to remember, I think, when we reflect back on, you know, black history, it's kind of like this uniform sense of

Blackness is what they said in the article. But people that were abducted and sold into slavery, they compared it to, it's as if people from Boston to South America and everybody in between were taken and thrown together. These are people who come from very different backgrounds, different countries, speak different languages, have different beliefs, maybe have been at war with each other at some points. Well, when you think about it, they're taking Africans from Africa. Africa is a continent. It's not a country.

Like, Africa is filled with so many different countries. So there's so many different languages, religions. You know, it's just your, and then you're combining all of these same people onto one ship. Right. Exactly. And I think that a lot of that doesn't get really acknowledged unless you really think about it. because yeah, now they're all in the same situation and they're having a shared experience, but that doesn't diminish the fact that they're vastly different people and they came from

vastly different backgrounds. Yeah. They may not be able to communicate with each other. Right. So let alone with their enslavers or have any idea of what's going on around them. I mean, to some degree, yes, they knew. But to understand, you know, what people are saying. Yeah.

And then being able to not communicate with the people that you're, you're also being held captive with. It's just, it's hard to wrap your mind around. Well, and on these ships, there were a ton of diseases that were spreading during these voyages too. So, like, you're also stuck with all these people, like, down in the bottom of the boat being held somewhere. And there's feces, there's urine, there's sickness all around you on top of not being able to communicate. On top of everything. You pick a couple things, and then it's like on top of that. of that on top of that like the horrible crulness of it all just like it piles up and piles up and it feels like it never it's never ending there's no like silver lining it's like well at least they

had this it's like no all of this was so bad right and another thing about the illegal slave trade a point that a historian made that i quote him later on he made mention that the whole slave trade was obviously horrific that goes without saying but once it became illegal conditions worsened tenfold because now they're trying to hide it. People are being shoved in places like cargo to hide away and be hidden from ships like the nimble and things like that, which obviously leaves little to no room for any sort of livable conditions. And it's just that's kind of part of where I had to take a mental break because it's

very, very difficult to reflect back on the atrocities that other humans can committed on other humans. And it's just really difficult. But it's important. It's hard to digest how cruel people can be and how cruel as Americans, how our history is. And then to digest and hold it into today's society. Because as, I mean, you haven't gotten into your story, but it sounds like you can still see some of the history that's there.

You feel really far removed from things like this. And you're like, oh, it was so long ago. but then you hear the time period and when things really ended or are still going on. It's so recent that a lot of issues are still carried on into today. It's hard. It's a hard pill to swallow that this is our history. Right. Exactly. So going back to what these particular people had endured up into this point, they finally arrive onto Key West and their arrival kind of placed them in a limbo. There were problems surrounding who, quote unquote, owned these people or who was responsible for them. And after attempts by some Key West residents actually to take them by force, they had to be transferred north to St. Augustine. And they were placed under the custody of a U.S. Marshal named Waters Smith. Mr. Smith had to pay for their care out of his own pocket as the government did not offer any assistance at the time. He covered part of their expenses for food, medical supplies, clothing, and shelter out of his own pocket, which surmounts to about $100,000 today.

Wow. And he was pleading for Congress to supply the additional funds that he needed for the care of these people. But while they were waiting to come to some sort of decision, he was advised by Congress to rent out some of the Africans to different plantation owners at a rate of $2.00. a month to help cover some of the costs that he needed. At this time, there were laws that covered Africans seized during a legal transport into the United States, but because this group entered the country somewhat accidentally, those laws didn't apply to them. And this left them in a legal limbo and left them in a position that was almost indistinguishable from slavery. So he had to take some of the members of this group who were able-bodied because some of them are super sick.

Obviously, they had just gone through hell. Some of them were blinded from their sickness. They were weak. Some of them were children. And he had to take some of the able-bodied men and rent them to plantation owners in northern Florida just to get some money to fund the cost of care for the others. That's really sad. And they're getting no help from the government.

definitely at this point hates them too. They're like, oh, well, yeah, we'll decide on it at some point. You figure it out. It was a unique situation that they hadn't encountered before. It was just they fell into a category that there was no laws pertaining to yet. So as we know, anything in the legal system, Congress, decisions, things like that, takes a long time. There's no quick answers. This whole thing happened for two years. It's a long time. It is a long time. In 1829, Congress finally coughed up the funds that not only reimbursed Watersmith, but also, and more importantly, funded transport for the group back to Africa. Smith was ordered to prepare everyone for this journey, but he ran into trouble. He had to forcibly take back or use bribery to take back some of the men that he had rented out to these plantation owners because they wanted to keep them.

some of the men had run away, so he had to hire some members of the local Seminole tribe to track down those individuals who had run away. And all the while, he had to stay on alert because he suspected that there were slave dealers who were scheming to abduct individuals as they attempted to sail away to safety. Well, as we learned from my episode, there's a lot of people getting into people's business and trying to do whatever they can to keep people enslaved. That is true. all, 100 of the original 121 Africans who arrived in Key West boarded another ship destined for Africa in September of 1829. Some of the original group had either passed away or were too ill to travel. This final journey wasn't smooth sailing either. The boat was damaged. At one point, they ran out of drinking water. Several people died during the journey. And in the end, 95 of the original 560 Africans held against their will aboard the Gruero were returned to Africa when they arrived to the free settlement of Liberia. Little is known about the fates of their surviving captive members of the Gruero and even

less is known about the final resting place of both that ship as well as the Nimble. By locating and identifying those wreck sites, the National Park Service marine archaeologists who work for Biscayne National Park hoped to provide a link to the past as well as closure. In the video, The Hunt for the Slave Ship Gruero by the National Park Service Submerged Resource Center, historian and professor Jean Tini was interviewed and speaks in regards to Black history, stating that we have a very limited understanding of history through standard education. And quote, the African American history has an added burden, a combination of omission, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation.

And it is this sentiment and a chance find of a remnant of the Gruero that provided Ken Stewart and Brenda Lanzendorf all the fuel they needed to create diving with a purpose. And just a side note before we get into that, there is a channel online by the National Park Submerged Resource Center. That is so cool. So cool. They have videos on Biscayne, but they're also videos on Pearl Harbor. there's one in the Ozarks, Lake Mead, a bunch of different places. That all has to do with marine archaeology within the National Park Service. Oh, that's really cool.

Yeah. Ken Stewart is a Bronx native who eventually made his way to Tennessee and had a great interest in diving. He formed the Tennessee Aquatic Project and Development Group, which used diving to reach and influence young people, and he also served as a representative for the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. He was contacted by a producer for an upcoming documentary called The Gruero Project.

At the time, they were seeking members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers to be interviewed for this film. And after the documentary was completed, Ken watched the film and was really impressed by this woman named Brenda, who was at the forefront of the film.

So impressed by her, in fact, as well as the film, and the whole entire story of the Gruer that just a few months later in 2003, he took members of the Tennessee Aquatic Project down to Biscayne National Park to meet her. Brenda, a New Hampshire native, earned her undergraduate degree in prehistoric land-based archaeology at UNH, and later went to Brown to earn her doctorate in underwater archaeology after spending time doing field work in Dry Tortuga's National Park and studying maritime economies. of the Florida Keys. What are these majors? Like, you and H had that? Like, what? I'm sorry, but when I went to college, I went in and I was undecided and they're like, yeah, so you can be a biology major,

psychology major, business major, or like, pottery. Pottery. Yeah, like photography. It's like, I'm sorry, what is this? I honestly feel like we just didn't look hard enough because I went into the same thing. I mean, you went to Plymouth. I went to Keene, both New Hampshire schools as well. And I just, I was like, bio, biotis. You know, like, sure. Yeah. Because you're 18.

You don't know. And I remember I went in as undecided. And they're like, well, you have to pick, like, what you want your major to be within the first year or something because you want to get the right electives and not have to be in college for five years instead of four. And I'm like, I don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I know. Like, what do you mean? Looking back on it, people who waited a year was so smart.

So smart. But when we were that age, you waited a year to go to college, you were like, I don't know, it was like frowned upon it. It was like, I'm sorry, you're wasting your entire life and you're never going to become anything. It's like what people fed to you. And now you're like, hold on. There's so many things that you can do without college. There are so many things that you can do before you go to college.

But when we were that age, I feel like every. everything was fed to us as college is the only option. If you don't go, you're going to fail. And then you go and you're like, I'm just turned 18. I just moved out of my parents' house. I just discovered alcohol and I just discovered what living by myself feels like. I have no idea what I want to do for the next 60 years of my life. Yeah. I, for one, was definitely not studying land-based prehistoric archaeology or whatever. whatever Brenda was doing. Such a cool major. It is.

And I'm sure there are so many cool majors out there. And, you know, reflecting back, I think that I wish I just took a beat. I mean, I love where I ended up and it's great and it worked out. But who knows what I would have chosen if I kind of just paused and wasn't caught up in the whirlwind of what everybody else was doing and applying for and going to and, you know, boom, boom, boom. You never know. could just go on forever about that.

Go on in tangent. Brenda had it down. Brenda knew what she was doing. And in 1998, she went on to become the first cultural resources manager at Biscayne National Park at the time and the sole marine archaeologist, despite being constantly told there's no money in the field and there weren't any females in the field either. Ken and Brenda met while Ken visited Biscayne in 2003 and they connected immediately. They had a really long conversation, and just as Ken was leaving, Brenda turned to him and said, you know, there are many wrecks in the park and being the sole diver, I need some help.

So after going home and reflecting on their conversation and Brenda's parting words, Ken sent out a mass email to his entire dive list that said, tired of the same old diving, let's dive with a purpose. And thus, diving with a purpose was born. Today, the organization is open to any diver, although it is comprised primarily of black members, and it is a leading international organization that provides education and training programs, mission leadership, and project support services for submerged heritage preservation and conservation projects worldwide with a focus on African history. Over 300 divers have completed the course, and more than 46 of them have gone on to become dive instructors themselves. And the organization has two different programs, one for adults and one

for youth, but they both have the same goal, which is to train divers to become underwater archaeology advocates and to assist in historical documentation and preservation of artifacts and rec sites. Members of the group don't earn a degree through this program, but what they do gain is education, hands-on experience, and they create bonds within their community of divers. cool program. Such a cool program. And after reading a lot of interviews and watching a lot of interviews with these organizations, a lot of them had kind of like a similar sentiment. And these, just to preface, these were all members of the black community. And they were saying, you know, like, I always thought that I was like the unicorn. I was the only black person I knew that had

this interest. I always kind of fell out of place that I didn't belong. And then after finding this organization and finding out that there are so many other people within my community that have a similar interest. I feel less alone. And I feel like I found a group of people that I really connect with. That's awesome. That's really, really cool. When you can find groups that are like that. And it's kind of the same where you see women's hiking groups and things like that. Because, you know, I feel like it really became more recent that women really started getting into the outdoors. And it was like, now we can find people who want to go outside or in outdoor anything, job-related is a very male-dominated place. So I feel that's so cool to have a group that you can find people that are just like you

that have the same interests. Exactly. In 2017, the organization partnered with the National Park Service and conducted a summer's long search for the Gruera and returned again in following years. Along with the National Park Service staff, they performed extensive underwater archie geological documentation of shipwrecks surveyed their condition and developed detailed maps of different wreck sites throughout the park. Referencing historical documentation to find wrecks is very difficult as the accuracy is pretty questionable. The Nimble, for example, had records, as did

the nearby records that went to assist them initially, which have definitely helped to narrow down the search area, but the Guerrero didn't because they were operating in illegal trade, not only of enslaved people, but they were also pirates engaging in piracy. So they had a big shady operation going on, so they didn't keep any records that would only help to track down their activity if they were ever overtaken by ships like the nimble. Yeah, you don't write down your illegal activities. Right. 101, you know, criminals 101.

Number one. Yeah. So they were never found. The Guerrero hasn't been found. So there's no documentation from them. So through other records and historical accounts, they've kind of narrowed down where this wreck may be or the nimble and the Guerrero might be. But even still, pinpointing the wreck site is like finding a needle in a very, very large, very watery haystack. But archaeologists within the national park system, along with volunteers from diving with a purpose, are fairly confident that the wrecks are both located within the waters of Biscayne National Park. Once an area is selected for a search, a magnetometer is run on the surface of the water back and forth to detect magnetic anomalies that would indicate iron. Because if there is a presence of iron,

that is indicative of human artifacts, like anchors and cannons and other ballasts and everything that has to do with it. historic shipwreck. That makes sense. In the waters of Biscay National Park, the water temperature, oxygen levels and salinity levels, as well as the exposure to hurricanes, erode and deteriorate any wood from the ships over time, leaving only these metal components behind. And these metal components over hundreds and hundreds of years get buried in the sand, they get scattered amongst the coral reef. It's really, really difficult to find. If an area is indicated by this

Magnotometer. Magnotometer. Magnotometer. Thank you. A crew is then sent down to survey the area by hand, searching with metal detectors and fanning away the top layers of sand to reveal what may lay beneath. There have been promising discoveries made in the search grids, including bar shot, cannonballs, and even a complete cannon. Archaeologists from the National Park Service Submerged Resource Center, Geneva Wright, says that all Although it can't yet be confirmed that this area that they found these items is the initial impact site for the nimble, it certainly could be.

Because you can imagine crew members throwing all of these heavy items overboard in their attempt to float their ship away. Locating the nimble is important because it's one step closer to finding the grue arrow. Rachel Stewart was interviewed by ABC News in 2020 in regards to her involvement in diving with a purpose. She began scuba diving with her father, and when he passed away, she continued the activity as a way of remembering him. Before joining Diving with a Purpose, she had limited knowledge about marine archaeology, but after learning of the gruero, everything changed for her. When discussing the importance of finding this ship, she told Ali Yang of ABC News, quote, I started to think about how underwater archaeology can show me more about my history and where I come from. It's uncovering a bit of people's pain.

It's important to know and tell these people's stories. It's important that black people have a role in telling their own stories. And Ken Stewart, who's one of the co-founders of Diving with a Purpose, says that exploring potential recites of the Guerrero is hard, but necessary, saying, quote, to know exactly where you come from is very difficult. It's not often to be on the site where your ancestors lay. And Forrest Gordon of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers says, quote, While it's important that this site is found and that the people who lost their lives are honored,

it is also important that this site acts as a reminder that we have to be vigilant to make sure that a monster like slavery or indenturedness does not raise its ugly head again. Today, diving with a purpose is expanding beyond the search just for the Guerrero. They have expeditions and trainings planned abroad in places like. Mozambique in Costa Rica. And they formed a relationship with the slave wrecks program, which aims to build new scholarship and knowledge about the study of the global slave trade, particularly through the lens of slave shipwrecks. It's so cool that people are taking their time to literally dig up old history, because like that person had said, it's important to know this because we can't let it happen again. Right. And that's why when we think of shipwrecks, and

And excavating shipwrecks and why it's important to go looking after them, the first thing that comes to our mind is like, well, there's gold and treasure and things of monetary value. And that's not what this is about. It's way more important. The value it holds can't be measured monetarily. What I think is so special about this group in particular is like they also said, these are their ancestors. It's just like it hits so differently when it's actually linked to the people who are. searching for this history. It is their story to tell it. It makes it so much more important and impactful that someone who is linked to this is the person who's going to be telling the history of it.

Right. Yep. And only a handful of the hundreds of slave ships that likely lie on the bottom of the ocean off the shores of the United States have been found. The Henrietta Marie is one of them and one of the only to have ever been found and formally excavated. It was discovered in 1973 by a man named Mel Fisher while he searched for Spanish galleons near Key West. And although there were no prisoners aboard the ship at the time of its sinking, many items, including shackles of various sizes, were collected and brought to the surface to be preserved and studied. And again, this historian that was being interviewed for it, he said, you know, I have been exposed to a lot of atrocities throughout time.

Like his specific area of study is the slave trade. And he was saying that handling the shackles himself and seeing them, especially the small ones meant for a child, really, really impacted him in a big way. So even though people didn't lose their lives specifically in that shipwreck, it still holds a huge significance. And just a little side note about Mel Fisher. I read his name and I'm like, this is triggering a suppressed, or not a suppressed intentionally memory, but just something deep in the recesses of my memory. So Mel Fisher, he was a world leader

in historic shipwreck recovery and is most well known for his discovery of the Neuestra Signora de Atocha, which it was a Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of southern Florida in 1622. So far, 40 tons of gold. and silver, 114,000 Spanish coins, bronze cannons, Colombian emeralds, and more have been found at this site, which is only the estimated half of the total treasure that this ship was carrying. And Mel Fisher has since passed away, but his business, Mel Fisher's treasures, continue salvaging and searching for other wrecks. And his museum is located in Old Town Key West. And I've been there and I have a one of those coins from the atocha on a necklace.

That's so cool. Can you take a picture of it so we can all see it? Yes. So I had my mom because it's a lot of my really important things, sentimental or otherwise, I left at home with my parents when I moved to Washington. So I had her send me a picture and I'll send it to you really quick. Yeah, I want to see it. It comes with like the little paperwork about the atocha and like a certificate and things like that. But so that's when I, went to Key West, I was probably 14 or 15 at the oldest. So it was quite a while ago, but I remember going to his museum. And his museum is all about the golds and treasures of all of the shipwrecks. So it's very eye-catching and obviously leaves you wanting more.

Oh, wow, that's so cool. And this is a coin? Yeah. They have certain pieces of quote-unquote treasure that have been discovered from the atocha just because there's such an immense amount of it and they're discovering more of it all the time they do have it for sale at this museum and i remember just being so infatuated with the story and leaving and i think i'm pretty sure my stepdad went back and bought that for me and had it put on a on a little necklace gold chain that's so cool well it says right in there atocha 1622 so anyway a little little antichael token. Yeah, there, literally token, coin. So if you're ever in Key West, I highly recommend going to that museum because it's great.

As of today, the locations of both the Nimble and the Guerrero have not yet been confirmed. But work continues by the National Park Service, dive groups like diving with a purpose, as well as the National Association of Black Scuba divers and historians like Gail Swanson. Gail Swanson is a Florida Keys resident and historian who actually first uncovered details about the Guerrero and really dove deep into its story. And she was the one who inspired Ken and Brenda to kind of get going with this. She says that she felt a responsibility purely for no other reason other than just being a human being to find out what happened to the survivors of the Guerrero. And after years and years of research and delving through historic records, she's discovered many of the men that survived and were brought back to Africa, went on to become successful

farmers creating a thriving town complete with a schoolhouse and a church. Some of them married freed American immigrants, as well as survivors from an all-women slave ship called the Antelope. Many of those couples went on to have children who have descendants that are alive today. Biscayne National Park was originally designated as a national monument in 1968 after backlash against development of the area. It was later expanded and re-designated as a national park in 1980, and the chapter in Biscayne's history regarding its designation as a national park is worthy of an entirely separate episode. And like I mentioned earlier, Israel Jones and his story is what I was originally going to cover today before I got lured into. the Guerrero story, but just as like a very quick rundown of him, he was a man that was born into slavery and he made a life down here where Biscay National Park is now. And he became the first black

landowner in the Keys and he ran what became to be one of the most successful producers of pineapple and limes in Florida. His children became well-known fishing guides to elite visitors of the area and they went on to refuse offers by billionaires who wanted to buy their land to convert it to use for oil and chemical plants, insisting rather that it be preserved and protected. The Jones family eventually sold their property to the National Park System, 277 acres of it, which is now part of Biscayne National Park. Very cool. Lastly, I also did want to mention because I'm sure someone's going to bring this up as like

a did you know type of thing. And again, weren't an entirely different episode, which I'm sure at some point we will cover, and I'm guessing you will because this is right up your alley. And it came up during my research, but it's that Southern Florida is part of the Saltwater Underground Railroad. Believed to have operated between 1821 and 1861, the Saltwater Underground Railroad refers to the coastal escape route followed by fugitive enslaved people into British-controlled Bahamas. From there, some paid for their passage on Bahamian vessels, while others made their way across the Atlantic in dugout canoes and on small boats. And that story is wild.

Very similar to the Underground Railroad, you and I are familiar with up north, but entirely different. Yeah, but through water, canoes on the Atlantic. Oh my, I can just imagine the kind of stuff that they saw. And had to face. And yeah, it's like, I guess I never, it's. never dawned on me that people who were enslaved in the deep south that it was just impossible for them to make it all the way up north and, you know, into the northern states and up into Canada, their other option was to go south into other countries that were free, free countries.

And parts of Florida, southern Florida, have locations that were part of the saltwater underground railroad. And it's just, yeah, it's really, really cool. So now, if you, were to search Biscayne National Park things to do. One of the most popular points of interest is the Maritime Heritage Trail. This underwater trail gives snorkelers and scuba divers the opportunity to explore the remains of six shipwrecks spanning nearly 100 years within the park. And while that is fascinating and important on its own, if you find yourself there, take a moment to look out onto the waters that mask other lesser known and less discussed wreck sites. recites that are physical representations of the ugly scars we have throughout human history, but ones that deserve attention, respect, and understanding.

And just like physical scars, the final resting place of the Guerrero symbolizes pain and doored, but also serves as a testament to the power to overcome and to survive. And that's it on the Guerrero and Biscayne National Park. I'm really excited that you just covered this episode because I'm really excited that you just covered this episode because I'm going to be here so soon. And as soon as you mentioned the Maritime Heritage Trail, I immediately looked it up and I have to do it. It looks so cool.

So you can snorkel it. You don't have to scuba dive. And you can snorkel over these shipwrecks and this. So cool. Yeah. And the water is going to be warm. That's what I need is warm ocean water. That's like it's been so cold here.

I just want like tropical ocean snorkeling, shipwreck's tragedy sunshine there you go what more can you ask for and brenda actually she has since passed away she passed away from cancer in i believe 2009 but she actually was at the forefront of creating this maritime heritage trail and she worked to construct these like underwater plaques that will discuss the actual shipwreck and things for scuba divers to know just like you would come across a point of it on a trail yeah that's so cool so just a couple recommendations before we end this out because there are a lot of resources that I used there are a lot of articles but there are a few things that I really recommend that everyone take a few minutes to watch or look into at some

point the documentaries that I watched there's two of them one of them the hunt for the slave ship Guerrero. You can find it on Vimeo. It's online. It's like 20 minutes long. And it has interviews with the National Park Service and members of these different dive groups. It's really, really cool. And there's also the Guerrero Project, which you can find on Amazon, but there's actually a shortened version of it on YouTube. It's half an hour long. And it covers in-depth the story and has interviews with a bunch of different people. I really recommend it. I'll link it in the description of the episode, of course. And there are two books as well that I didn't read, but they are on my list of to read because I'm very interested. One of them is called Slave Ship Gruero,

and it's by Gail Swanson, that historian that we talked about. And there's another one called Biscayne National Park by James Cushlin and Kirsten Hines that discusses the history of the park as a whole, not just the slave ship story. So if you're interested in Biscayne and its history, those things are where it's at. Awesome. Well, thank you for picking that story. That was really cool. Yeah, I hope I did it justice and I did a good job of highlighting a story within Black history that maybe not a lot of people are aware of. And I hope that everyone learned something new and now want to go to Biscayne even more. Yeah, I certainly learned a lot today, and I'm really excited. I'm going to go and I'm going to take a lot of pictures and maybe I can do that scuba diving

heritage trail. I think you should because although it's, you know, a lot of scuba divers do it, you can snorkel it. It says for advanced snorkelers, whatever. I am not an advanced snorkeler. All right. Well, practice before you go to practice your bathtub. I'm in Vermont. I'm actually like a really bad snorkeler. I would actually go on the other end of that to say that I'm a very untalented snorkeler because I always end up breathing in water or having to take my goggles off. Like I'm kind of like a, I don't consider myself a good swimmer either. I can swim.

Fine. I'm not like drowning while I'm not there. But if anything was to come even slightly more than completely calm waters, I would be struggling. Okay. So maybe look into the logistics of this Heritage Trail a little more before you go. I'm a land girl. I'm a land girl for sure. Well, you're going to have to get used to the water if you want to explore this park the right way.

I'm going to go with like little floaties on. Just take a tour. Take a boat tour. Maybe they have the glass bottom boats. I've done those before. That's cool. I'm sure they do through the mangroves and things. I'm sure.

Yeah. I'll look into it and get back to you. Great. Can't wait. Well, I'll see you literally right. after you go. Yeah, that's true. Like a day after you, the day, you land. So yeah, okay, cool. Anyway, all right, thank you everyone so very much for being you, you know. Yeah. Thanks for being outsiders. Thanks for joining our Patreon. We appreciate you. We love doing these episodes,

these bonus episodes for you. We really, really do. And our podcast wouldn't be what it is without you. So thank you very, very much. We'll, it'll be, we'll see you next month for our time of the month. Enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode,

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