THE LAST CRUISE OF H.M.S. "LOO" 



By MENDEL L. PETERSON 



Curator of Naval History 



U. S. National Museum 



Smithsonian Institution 



(With 17 Plates) 



In the spring of 195 1 I was invited by Dr. and Mrs. George Crile, 

 Jr., of Cleveland, Ohio, to accompany them on an expedition to ex- 

 plore remains of a ship that had been wrecked about 5 miles off the 

 main line of the Florida Keys over two centuries ago. The wreck had 

 been shown to them by William Thompson, of Marathon, Fla. Only 

 one thing was known about the ship — that it went down sometime 

 after the year 1720. This was indicated by the fact that in 1950 

 Dr. and Mrs. Crile and their party had recovered some copper coins 

 from the site, one of which was a Swedish half-ore piece (pi. 2, fig. i ) 

 dated 1720. The site was a reef named "Looe" on the charts and was 

 located some 25 miles southwest of Marathon. At the time, the source 

 of the name was unknown, and its presence on the charts was not 

 considered significant. 



On Sunday evening, May 27, most of the members of the expedi- 

 tion assembled in Miami, and the next day left for the Keys and 

 Thompson's yacht harbor, which was to be the base of operations. 

 Here the entire party came together. It consisted of the sponsors, 

 Dr. and Mrs. Crile ; Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Link, of Binghamton, N. Y.,^ 

 Mr. and Mrs. James Rand, of Cleveland, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. John 

 Shaheen, of New York City ; William Thompson, of Marathon, Fla. ; 

 Arthur McKee, of Homestead, Fla., an experienced diver on ship- 

 wreck sites ; and myself. Necessary supplies and equipment were as- 

 sembled and tested, and the boats were made ready. We were to use 

 a barge built on a Higgins boat hull, a small fishing launch, and later 

 Mr. Link's yawl, the Blue Heron. 



Early Wednesday morning. May 30, the party left for the reefs 



^ The participation of Mr. and Mrs. Link in the expedition was to prove very 

 fortunate for the National Museum since it led to the establishment of the Link 

 Fund through their generosity. This fund enables the Museum to participate in 

 annual expeditions to explore historic wreck sites in the Florida Straits area. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 131, NO. 2 



