True Stories of the Perilous Straits: The Florida Keys

Excerpted from ships' logs, captains' diaries, court-martial transcripts, and newspaper accounts, the stories in this volume―a companion to The Florida Keys, Volume 1: A History of the Pioneers―will make you glad you live in a modern world. Read harrowing tales of the cruelty and torture inflicted on mariners at the hands of bloodthirsty pirates; of pistol and cannon battles between merchant ships and wayward privateers; and of the hardships endured by some of Florida's earliest settlers.

Sprinkled with hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, and maps depicting the lay of the land during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this book presents a scholarly, historically accurate account of life on the Keys and in the perilous Straits of Florida during the age of sail. An index and extensive bibliography are included.