The Straits of Florida is a 110mile sea passage between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean bordered on the northern side by the Florida Keys and the Florida Reef. In its waters along the reef and on desolate keys thousands of men and women have died in shipwrecks attacks by natives sea battles and pirate boardings. Few of their stories have survived but those that have tell gripping tales of their struggles against the perils of the sea and the onslaughts of men. This book presents a selection of such stories during the age of sail from the time Spanish navigators discovered the Straits to the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842. Excerpted from ships logs captains diaries courtmartial transcripts and newspaper accounts the stories in this volumeampmdasha companion to The Florida Keys Volume 1 A History of the Pioneersampmdashwill 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 Floridas earliest settlers. Sprinkled with handdrawn 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.See all of the books in this series