which, at the time, employed some 400 people. In
the 1770s, Bernard Romans, a Dutch cartographer
retained by the British, explored and mapped the
coasts of Florida, including Charlotte Harbor. He
reported that, over a 3-year period, 1000 tons of
dried mullet were shipped from Florida to Havana.
In 1783, at the conclusion of the American
Revolution, England returned Florida to Spain.
Spain promptly re-legitimized trade between the
Seminoles and the Cubans.
By this time, the Cuban fishermen were packing
fish in salt, which gave them a longer storage life
than fish which were simply dried or smoked.
However, salt remained expensive because of the
high tariff that had to be paid on it. Revenue from
the tariff went to the Spanish church and
government, and fishermen were forbidden to
make their own salt from sea water. Despite this
interdiction, one imagines that some fishermen did,
in fact, produce their own salt.
In 1784, soon after Florida again became Spanish,
Jose Caldez, the head ranchero for Spanish
fishing operations in the Charlotte Harbor area,
set up his headquarters on an island just south of
the Harbor, then called “Toampa”– the present-day
Useppa Island. The island was renamed “Caldez
Island” and Caldez's small village consisting of
several palmetto houses was built on its west side.
Three other Cuban fishing hamlets under his
command were located on other islands nearby.
He remained in charge of Cuban fishing activities
well into the 1830s.
After February 22, 1819, Florida became a U.S.
territory and the trading of certain Cuban goods
to the Seminoles – guns, ammunition, and hard
liquor (rum or whiskey) – became of concern to
Federal troops and customs agents. Cuban trade
with Indians was again outlawed.
During the next three decades, marked by the
“Seminole” wars and the presence of U.S. troops
in the vicinity of Charlotte Harbor, Cuban fishing
activities ceased and their small settlements on
some of the islands were abandoned.
Captiva Rocks fishermen’s camp,circa 1973.
Then, after 1845, when Florida became the 27th
state, a number of small fishing stations sprang up
on Useppa (by then called “Guiseppe”), northern
Cayo Costa (at Burrough's Ranch), Mondongo,
Punta Blanca, and Pineland (then called “Browns”).
At the same time, small-scale vegetable farms and
citrus cultivation also were started in the
Charlotte Harbor area.
During the 1850s, there might have been some
commercial fishing in Charlotte Harbor (records
are scarce for this period). But in 1861, the
outbreak of the Civil War, which Florida entered
on the side of the Confederacy, once again
interrupted fishing operations.
Once the War Between the States was over,
Cubans returned to Charlotte Harbor and fish
ranches were again established on a few of its
islands. In the 1870s, George Goode conducted a
survey of fishing operations in the Charlotte
Harbor area for the Smithsonian Institution and
the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries.
Goode identified four major fish ranches
scattered on the outer islands. They were 1) the
Captiva Fish Ranch run by Captain Pierce and 30
“Conchs” (people from Key West), who were
producing 660,000 pounds of salted mullet and
48,500 pounds of mullet roe per year; 2) the
operation at South Cayo Costa conducted by Jose
Sega and 26 fishermen, producing about 25% of
the output achieved by Pierce; 3) the ranch
further north on Cayo Costa operated by Tariva
(“Captain Pappy”) Padilla, together with 23 Spanish
Cubans and 1 American (Padilla's production was
similar to that of Sega's); and 4) the ranch at
Gasparilla Island's north end, at Peacon's cove, at
which Captain Peacon from Key West and 30
Conchs were processing about 550,000 pounds of
mullet and 44,000 pounds of roe per year. Salted
mullet sold for 4 cents per pound and cured roe
for 5 cents per pound in the early 1870s.
Goode (according to Gibson, but actually
researched by one of his assistants) was
enormously impressed by the high density of the