Florida Keys Dive Sites -
The
Wreck Alligator
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0704-G2/Y5/MSN |
USS Alligator (armed schooner lost November 23, 1822)USS
Alligator was launched, November 2, 1820, and commissioned in March
1821. Alligator's short, but intensive, period of naval service was
involved with combating the problem of the slave trade. In 1821,
Alligator was dispatched to the coast of Africa, where her officers
helped negotiate the purchase of Liberia as an American protectorate. The
new territory was intended to serve as a haven for former American slaves,
where they could start a new life. Alligator was one of the first
Navy ships dispatched to Florida following the acquisition of Florida by
the U.S. from Spain in 1821. Alligator was assigned patrol duty to
help suppress the rampant piracy which existed in the Florida Keys, and
off the coasts of Cuba. While returning from a naval action against
pirates off the coast of Cuba, Alligator ran aground on Carysford
(later renamed Alligator) Reef, in the Florida Keys, near present-day
Islamorada, on November 19, 1822. When Alligator's officers and
crew determined that she couldn't be saved, they set fire to her to
prevent her re-capture by pirates. The vessel exploded when fire reached
her munitions' areas. Her officers and crew were rescued and taken off the
Reef. Alligator may be considered to be the first Navy ship wrecked
in Florida.
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This page last updated: 01/04/2008