1822 – Captains Joshua Appleby and John Fiveash advertised their schooners Polly and Comet as available to carry freight and passengers from Charleston to Key West, with a stop at St. Augustine.
1835 – There was hope that arrow root might be a profitable crop at Key West. Two or three planters were experimenting with its production.
1930 – The Coast Guard, while chasing a rum-running boat near Key West, opened fire to stop it, and three men were arrested. The men claimed that Willie “Twisteye” Demerritt had been shot and fell overboard. A search failed to find his body. Local authorities tried to charge the Coast Guard crew with murder, but they left town and charges were dropped. Demerritt was never seen again.
1932 – The Miami Biltmore golf team arrived in Key West by train for a match against the players of the local country club.
1942 – Saltwater was run through the water mains at Key West as a flushing process preparatory to freshwater being delivered by aqueduct from the mainland.
1960 – An Aerovias Q. flight was hijacked over Cuba and forced to fly to Key West. In the melee, a Cuban guard was killed and three people were wounded.
1965 – Rear Admiral Hiram E. Cassedy was buried at sea by having his cremated remains shot out of a Navy submarine’s torpedo tube off Key West. Cassedy had been a submariner for 21 years, and the unique burial fulfilled his final wish.
2013 – Jay Miscovich, a man who claimed to have found 154 pounds of ancient Spanish emeralds on the sea floor near Key West in 2010, was found dead of an apparent suicide near his Pennsylvania home. Miscovich had been sued for fraud, and as the case wound through the courts, it became increasingly apparent the gems had been purposefully placed underwater in recent times.
Information compiled by the late Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Aerovias Q plane being guarded by police car at Key West airport C 1960. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.