BOYNTON BEACH, Florida (3 Mar 2003) -- All that's left of the 223-foot bark Lofthus are deck beams, an iron mast and hull plates, now a haven to scorpion fish, spiny lobsters and other creatures off the coast of Manalapan. Much of the Norwegian shipping vessel was destroyed when its owners, caught in a storm off Boynton Inlet in 1898, used dynamite to get through the iron hull to save the lumber its crew had been transporting to Buenos Aires. The Lofthus is an important part of the history of South Florida, said Harvey Oyer, president of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. "It highlights the importance of waterborne commerce and travel, which was the only form of travel and commerce until the arrival of Flagler's railroad" said Oyer, a West Palm Beach attorney. State officials say enough of the ship remains to turn it into an underwater archaeological preserve. Such a designation would make it illegal to remove or salvage anything from the site, which is state property and has remained mostly undisturbed for the past century. Local divers unfamiliar with the ship's history already visit the wreck. It's only 18 feet underwater and portions of it are periodically buried underneath the white sand that drifts in with the changing tides. Lynn Simmons, who runs a Boynton Beach dive shop with her husband, Terry Brabham, said she often takes customers to the Lofthus when teaching them to dive. "It's always a special treat going out there," she said. "You could see it from the surface." Della Scott, an underwater archaeologist with the state Division of Historical Resources, said the Lofthus easily could become the state's eighth underwater archaeological preserve because it's easy to get to by boat, isn't in deep water and is home to various kinds of marine life. The first preserve, the Urca de Lima near Fort Pierce, was designated in 1987. Urca de Lima was a merchant ship cast ashore during a hurricane in 1715. Scott met with a group of residents and civic leaders recently at the Boynton Beach Library to gauge local interest. Without support from the local community, the Lofthus won't get the special designation, she said. Scott encouraged those attending to send letters of support to her boss, Janet Snyder, director of the Division of Historical Resources, at the Florida Department of State. Once that office is certain there's enough community support, the site could become an underwater park, Scott said. | | A Friends of the Lofthus group will be formed to raise money for a plaque, which would be placed underwater with the wreck. The state would advertise the wreck. Museum considered Douglas Hutchinson, director of Boynton Beach's Community Redevelopment Agency, said the Lofthus would fit nicely with plans to promote the area. Hutchinson said his staff is studying the possibility of putting a waterfront maritime museum downtown at the Intracoastal Waterway. "A land-based information center for Lofthus would fit nicely into that," Hutchinson said, adding that he hopes the CRA can play a role in organizing a group of supporters here. "That would be a great addition to what we're trying to do with our waterfront." The Lofthus was built in Sunderland, England, at the T.R. Oswald shipyard and launched under the name Cashmere on Oct. 5, 1868. The ship was about the two-thirds as long as a football field and had a hold 23 feet deep. It was employed in the East Indian trade for a few years, then sold to a Norwegian who renamed it Lofthus and used it to transfer lumber and other materials to America. On Jan. 30, 1898, a storm blew the Lofthus off course, pushing it north along Florida's east coast instead of south to Argentina, said Bruce White of Marine Archaeological Research and Conservation Reporting in Pompano Beach, the nonprofit group that researched the vessel for the state. Hannibal D. Pierce, one of the first permanent white settlers in what is now Palm Beach County, helped salvage the ship's cargo. He and his family went aboard the vessel before it was destroyed and ate a meal with the ship's captain, said Oyer, Pierce's great-great grandson. The ship's dog and cats were given to the Pierce family. A crew member gave Pierce's 21-year-old daughter, Lillie Pierce Voss, a piggy bank in the shape of a pudgy little man, Oyer said. The Lofthus "puts a focus on late 19th-century pioneer development of South Florida," Oyer said. "They were eking out a living, salvaging ships," Oyer said of those early pioneers. "It was a rough existence." |
