| Scene at Bailey's Bluff. A part of the Key West sponge fleet is shown. According to Ralph Bellwood, this photograph was taken in “1893 or a year or two later.” The caption for this photo in Images of America: Tarpon Springs is: “This rare early picture is a unique record of Bailey's Bluff workmen tending the boats and storage pens. The sizable fleet in the distance supports the reports that by 1898 at least 19 Tarpon Springs fishing boats and nearly 100 from Key West were harvesting sponges off the coast near the Anclote River. Many Key West boats came north at this time to avoid Spanish warships during the Spanish-American War.” |