Vessel off Keys is identified as British warship that sank in 18th century

KEY WEST

A wrecked vessel discovered decades ago off the Florida Keys has been identified as a British warship that sank in the 18th century.

National Park Service archaeologists used new research to determine that the wreckage first spotted in 1993 near Dry Tortugas National Park is the HMS Tyger, the agency said in a news release late last week. The findings were recently published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

The HMS Tyger was a Fourth-Rate, 50-gun frigate built in 1647. It sank in 1742 after running aground on a reef while on patrol in the War of Jenkins Ear between Britain and Spain.

“This discovery highlights the importance of preservation in place as future generations of archeologists, armed with more advanced technologies and research tools, are able to reexamine sites and make new discoveries,” maritime archaeologist Josh Marano said in a statement.

Archaeologists surveyed the site in 2021 and found five cannons several hundred yards from the main wreck site, officials said. The guns were determined to be those thrown overboard when HMS Tyger first ran aground, leading archaeologists to confirm the wreck was the HMS Tyger.

After the ship wrecked, about 300 crew members were marooned for more than two months on what today is Garden Key. They erected fortifications more than a century before the establishment of Fort Jefferson, which remains on the island as a historical site. Survivors built vessels from salvaged pieces of the HMS Tyger and then burned the rest of the ship to prevent its guns from falling into enemy hands. The survivors used their makeshift vessels to travel 700 miles through enemy waters to British-controlled Port Royal, Jamaica.