The Abbey Bee

[ECS]

Feb 17,1865,the USS MAHASKA,a paddlewheel steamer under the command of US Lt Commander William Gibson,captured the schooner,DELIA,off of Bayport.The DELIA was retuning to Florida with a cargo of pig lead,sabres,and 15 gal of rum.Gibson shared the rum with his crew.
After the fall of Richmond,April 2,1865,Gibson was ordered on May 1,1865 to patrol and picket the mouths of the Steinhatchee, Suwannee,Crystal,and Wacasassee rivers,for the Union believed that Jefferson Davis and Judah P Benjamin by one of these rivers with a blockade runner.Union infantry were also on alert at Cedar Key being the terminus of Yulee's(Benjamin's cousin) railroad,and at Otter Creek,which led to Cedar Key.

 

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[Salvor6]

That's a great question, I would like to buy the owner of Charlie's where the anchor is a beer. I would like to hear the story of how and who put the anchor there.

Sabre, you told me you know the son of the shrimper that found the anchor. He has the GPS numbers of the wreck. You know the story of how his father found it.

 

[ECS]

... Rodney Tyoe told me about a shrimper that snagged the anchor with his nets in 1978. He pulled up the anchor. Archaeologists dated the anchor to the Civil War and found a serial number on it. The Abbey Bee was a private blockade runner that was trying to smuggle part of the Confederate treasury to Cuba. A researcher found evidence at a life saving station. Thats all I know.
The anchor find sparked a massive treasure hunt in the Steinhatchee area. The shrimper claimed he was drunk and didn't know where he was. His Loran was not working. The shrimper also snagged a solid gold statue of what looked like an angel but it dropped out of the net.

Salvor6,the ABBEY BEE seems to be a tall tale that gets bigger with the telling.It seems to have begun as a story to sell an anchor to a resturant,and that became off repeted lore that is now accepted as truth.

 

[ECS]

... some people say that it is not the anchor from the AB. I spoke with the owner of the fish house and he said for years people have stated that it was but he said it was from another boat... I worked with the cousin of the shrimp boat captain's son that snagged the supposed wreck, he told me the same story and was shocked when I called it the Abbey Bee, almost as if it were a family secret. His cousin would never give me the loran numbers and in the beginning tried to convince me it was off of ST. Augustine.

This is a good examble how lore grows into a "believable possible truth" with the telling and retelling of the story with second and third hand hearsay.

 

[ECS]

The shrimper was taken at gunpoint off shore in 1980 to find the wreck. He couldn't find it. But he secretly recorded the LORAN numbers before disabling his machine. The shrimper died in a fire in 1990 and his son has the numbers. He said he is saving it for his retirement!

Add secrets,danger,and intrigue to the story and it becomes even larger.

 

[Salvor6]

Add secrets,danger,and intrigue to the story and it becomes even larger.

ECS what I posted actually happened. You can't fake a fire. But I'm starting to believe that the so called "Abbey Bee" does not exist. What ship do YOU believe the anchor came from?

 

[ECS]

Jan 15,1862,the USS Hatteras entered Cedar Key just as the CSA blockade runnrt THE STAG was setting sail.The Hatteras fired upon the Stag,whose capt ran the schooner aground and set it afire,as his crew escaped.The Hatteras also burned the blockade schooners,Anna Smith,Wyfe,and the Aucilla,which were loaded with cotton and turpentine as cargo.The CSA blockade schooner Fanny managed to escape and sailed to Crystal River.
The Union crew then commenced to burn Yulee's Florida RR depot,warehouses,7 railcars of turpentine,and pulled down the telegraph wires.
Another accounts of the Union in Cedar Key can be found in the diary of William McCullough,who served under US Capt Henry A Crane,Company A,2nd Union Cavalry,Fort Meyers.
www.lamartin.com/william_mccullough-diary.htm
David Levy Yulee's Margarita Plantation at Homosassa was raid and burned by the Union crew of the USS Arial.

The schooner that was burned to the waterline was the STAG,during the USS HATTERAS raid on Cedar Key,Jan 15,1862.The anchor could have come from any of the blockade runers that were captured and or burned during the War of Northern Aggression,or from another source that has nothing to do with the WAR.On my KGC in Florida thread,I have listed several encounters between the Union and blockade runners.

 

[Salvor6]

The schooner that was burned to the waterline was the STAG,during the USS HATTERAS raid on Cedar Key,Jan 15,1862.The anchor could have come from any of the blockade runers that were captured and or burned during the War of Northern Aggression,or from another source that has nothing to do with the WAR.On my KGC in Florida thread,I have listed several encounters between the Union and blockade runners.

I think you got it ECS. The so called "Abbey Bee" was burned to the waterline before she sank. This could be the same ship.

 

[ECS]

... I'm starting to believe that the so called "Abbey Bee" does not exist. What ship do YOU believe the anchor came from?

Take the "near the end of the WAR" part of the Abbey Bee tale (Richmond fell April 2,1865 and the flight with the remaining CSA treasury began/Lee surrendered on April 9,1865) and its location today at a Crystal River restuarant on Kings Bay,two possible ships could be-the CSA blockade runners FLORIDA or ANNIE,which were captured by the USS SEABIRD,April 11,1865 at the mouth of Crystal River.Both sloops were loaded with a cargo of cotton,and taken into Kings Bay.
It does appear that a story and legend was created about this anchor-a tall tale that makes its rounds and grows with the telling.
A month by month account of the War of Northern Aggression 1861-1865 in Florida,including captured CSA blockade runners and the ships that captued and disposed of them:
https://myfloridahistory.org/book/export/html/1033

 

[Salvor6]

Thanks ECS. That makes a lot more sense.