November 13

1815 – The ship Argus, sailing from Matanzas to Baltimore, wrecked on Raisin Reef near Key Largo. The crew and part of the cargo were saved and taken to Nassau, but the vessel was lost.

1930 – Mr. T.D. Hunt of St. Louis put forward an offer to the Key West City Council to construct a water pipeline to the island from the mainland, noting that he was ready to begin work at once.

1934 – Begley F. Filer, one of the first sports fishing guides in Key West, died at age 70.

1954 – A total of 19.8 inches of rain fell flooding streets, cars and homes. Damage was estimated at more than $100,000.

1960 – A sailor from the USS Bushnell was arrested for destroying a palm tree on Duval Street. It was the third of the newly planted trees to be vandalized in recent days: One had been downed and killed by a shrimper, with the other pulled out by its roots by another sailor. All men faced $250 fines.

1974 – Filming for “92 in the Shade” began at the Cow Key Marina on Stock Island, with actors Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, and Margot Kidder. The film, based on author Thomas McGuane’s novel of the same name, told a tale of rival Keys charter fishermen.

2010 – Archaeologists concluded two days of ground-penetrating radar surveys in Higgs Beach Park, where they located many dozens of graves from a cemetery of African refugees rescued by the U.S. Navy from illegal, Cuba-bound slave ships and brought to Key West in 1860.

---

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Filming "92 In The Shade" at Cow Key Marina on Stock Island, 1974. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.