Gil Blas


	Under Sea Adventurers Dive Club

The Story of the Gil Blas

Ray McAllister

As part of the continuing history of the Hillsboro Lighthouse area, an interesting shipwreck, that set back the development of Broward County by about 50 years is in the surf zone about mile N of Hillsboro Inlet. She is the Gil Blas, a Spanish brig, wrecked in 1835, during a severe hurricane.

Loaded with sugar and cigars, she was headed north from Havana when the hurricane drove her into shallow water. The captain deployed his anchors and kept her from being broken up on the beach, but she was well and truly grounded.

While William Cooley, a salvor, was removing the cargo, the Seminole Indians attacked his settlement and killed the women and children left behind. Most of the menfolk were with Cooley on the Gil Blas. Had they been home, would the massacre have occurred? In any case Cooley and the survivors sailed to the Key Biscayne lighthouse and then to Indian Key, in the Florida Keys where they took refuge. Other settlers at Little River and Miami River joined them and some of the latter ran all the way without any household goods, according to Raymond, (1984).

It would be more than 50 years before the settlers returned to Broward County in numbers equal to the population before the massacre, setting back settlement of this part of S Florida by a half century or so.

The Marine Archaeological Council worked this wreck under a permit from the State until quite recently. If interested, contact them at the Lighthouse Dive Center, 942-1100.