CORTEZ – Like the mangroves that line local shorelines, Manatee County’s historic roots are in the water, and the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez is bringing two chapters of local history to life, in wood.
Wooden boats were integral in the landing of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1539 in west Bradenton and in the escape of Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin from the Union in 1865 in east Manatee County.
Volunteers at the museum have completed one handcrafted replica, already an award-winner, and have plans for the other.
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De Soto longboat
At the re-enactment of Hernando de Soto’s landing during the 71st De Soto Heritage Festival at Bradenton’s De Soto National Memorial this April, the Spanish longboat stole the show.
With seats for six oarsmen, longboats were used as exploration vessels to scout passages for their larger galleons, which need deep water, and to transport passengers and cargo to and from shore, said Jorge Acevedo, chief of interpretation at De Soto National Memorial.
De Soto’s galleon, “San Cristobal,” stayed at anchor at Bahia Espiritu Sancto (Holy Ghost Bay), now Tampa Bay, in May 1539, while the longboat actually made the landing at Shaw’s Point in northwest Bradenton.
While the original longboat was unlikely to have a name, the replica was christened “Ana Mendez” after a young girl who disguised herself as boy so that she could join the expedition, which she – unlike Hernando de Soto – survived.
“Ana Mendez” won the People’s Choice Best in Show award and first place in Traditional Design/Contemporary Construction earlier this month at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md
The 25-foot boat’s design dates to the 16th century, and was adapted by Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez director Roger Allen and master boatbuilder Bob Pitt for construction in “Cortez teak” (pine), cypress, buttonwood, oakum (an African wood) and Spanish cedar, once used to make cigar boxes.
St. Petersburg artist Herman Trappman researched the longboat to make drawings for the park’s Junior Ranger book, which gave the designers a good idea of its appearance, Acevedo said.
A partnership was established between the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez and the National Park Service and volunteers for both organizations to build the longboat for the annual landing re-enactment, in which it ferries a “priest” and “conquistadors” ashore from the galleon, he said.
The “Ana Mendez” will be on display at the park beginning Dec. 11.
Benjamin escape boat
Judah Philip Benjamin attended Yale University at age 14 and became a lawyer, Louisiana sugar cane plantation owner and Secretary of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
He also helped establish the Illinois Central Railroad and declined two nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court while serving as the second Jewish U.S. Senator in the country’s history.
He resigned from the Senate when Louisiana seceded from the Union to serve as attorney general, secretary of war and secretary of state to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.
Just before the South fell with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Virginia in 1865, Benjamin fled to Florida disguised as a French journalist, an easy feat, as he spoke fluent French.
With a $40,000 reward on his head, he hid at the Gamble Plantation in Ellenton in east Manatee County, the home of Archibald McNeill, the Confederacy’s deputy commissary for Manatee.
After narrowly eluding Union troops in the woods behind the mansion, Benjamin escaped by boat on the Manatee River to the nearby home of Capt. Frederick Tresca, who, with Hiram McLeod, helped him flee to Sarasota.
McCloud described the boat as a 16-foot ship’s yawl, said Pitt, who is awaiting funding to build the replica at the museum.
From Sarasota, another boat took Benjamin to the Florida Keys, where he boarded a boat known as “Blonde” headed for Bimini, outside the Union’s jurisdiction, then a native boat to Nassau, Bahamas, he said.
Benjamin’s escape route also included Havana, Cuba; St. Thomas, British Virgin Islands (his birthplace), and, eventually, London, where he became a respected barrister. He is buried at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
The Daughters of the Confederacy purchased the Gamble Plantation and donated it to the state as a memorial to Benjamin. It is now a state park.
