Mother Nature is Not Forgiving

 Today we visited Crane Point Hammock to do a service project. While we spent time helping to clean up the one trail, we also had the chance to explore what the area had to offer. There were many trails and beautiful sights to be seen. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the museum they had. Not only was it air conditioned but it had a lot of interesting information. One thing that I found extremely interesting was a display on the New Spain fleet of 1733. The fleet of 21 ships was traveling back to Spain from Havana harbor on July 15th when a hurricane hit. Many of their ships and cargo were lost in the storm. The documentation from this, pictured below, showed the account of the damage and how to find the ships that were destroyed and how to navigate through the area. 

The sites at which these recks happened are some of the oldest artificial reefs in North America. More information about this wreck can be found here. 

Divers explore the wreck of El Infante, galleon of the 1733 Spanish plate fleet wrecked in the Florida Keys.( Scott-Ireton,2006)  

While the hurricane of 1733 was damaging to the New Spain fleet, the damage that has happened from hurricanes over the years is astronomical. People from Florida have become used to the constant threat of the next big storm coming through and destroying everything they own. How people can live here knowing that their lives can be changed in an instant baffles me. Hurricane season would terrify me and I would be obsessed with tracking the next big storm. Back in 1733, they had no warning of these hurricanes and by the time they knew bad weather was coming it was already there. Living in the 21st century has given us the tools to be able to know when a storm is coming and be prepared. One place you can track storms at is at the National Hurricane Center and and Central Pacific Hurricane Center will help you be prepared to not face the same damage as the New Spain fleet did.