A traditional legendary trope is that of wreckers deliberately decoying ships on to coasts using tricks, especially false lights, so that they run ashore for easy plundering.
John Viele, retired U.S. Navy officer and author of a history of wrecking in the Florida Keys, states that such tricks simply would not work.
In hundreds of admiralty court cases heard in Key West, Florida, no captain of a wrecked ship ever charged that he had been led astray by a false light.
[3] Legend maintains that the town of Nags Head, North Carolina takes its name from wreckers or "bankers" deploying false lights.
The toponymic legend states that in the 18th century, wreckers would hang lanterns from the necks of mules (colloquially called "nags" at the time) and walk the animals very slowly up and down the beach.
By that time the Spanish had been using first Indians (the Lucayans from the Bahamas were particularly prized for the task) and then Africans to dive for pearls around the islands near present-day Venezuela.
The Spanish kept salvage ships with crews of African divers on-call in major ports around the Caribbean, ready to sail as soon as word of a wreck was received.
[5] In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish ships returning to Spain from the Caribbean rode the Gulf Stream to Cape Canaveral and then aimed for Bermuda.
[7] While the Eleutheran Adventurers were primarily farmers, seamen from Bermuda began settling on New Providence in the 1660s, attracted by ambergris, wrecks and salt.
A U.S law of 1825 required that all goods salvaged from wrecks in U.S. waters be taken to an American port of entry (which, for the Bahamians, meant Key West, Florida).
[10] The American Civil War sharply cut the volume of shipping around the Bahamas, and the wreckers suffered with far fewer wrecks to salvage.
During the 19th century, wrecking in the Keys became a highly organized and regulated industry, with dozens of vessels and hundreds of men active in the trade at any given time.
The combination of heavy shipping and a powerful current flowing close to dangerous reefs made the Florida Keys the site of a great many wrecks, especially during the 19th century.
From early in the 16th century, Spanish ships returning from the New World to Spain sailed from Havana to catch the Gulf Stream, which meant they passed close to the Florida Reef, with some wrecking.
In 1733, 19 ships of the Spanish treasure fleet wrecked during a hurricane in the middle and upper keys, and salvage operations lasted four years.
The Spanish used dragged chains, grapnels, free divers and even an early diving bell to find and recover goods from the wrecked ships.
By 1775, George Gauld, who produced a chart of the Keys that was still being used 75 years later, advised mariners to stay with their ships if they wrecked, so that the Bahamian wreckers could assist them.
This measure created a great inconvenience for the Bahamian wreckers, as they had to take salvaged goods and ships to Key West before they could return home to the Bahamas.
[19] A visitor to Key West in the 1880s reported that the United States District Court was in session almost every week, and had heard more than 700 Admiralty law cases during the preceding year.
Wreckers also had to be prepared to make emergency repairs to ships to refloat them or keep them afloat while they were sailed or towed back to Key West.
Unusual cargoes salvaged by wreckers included the fossilized "Hydrarchos" skeleton collected in Alabama by Albert Koch, and a locomotive.
In 1827, Guerrero, a Spanish slave-runner carrying 500 African captives, and the Royal Navy warship HMS Nimble ran onto the Florida Reef during a running gun battle.
Judge Marvin of the Federal court in Key West told a navy officer in 1860 there was "a great deal of wrecking by design.
Wreckers would attempt to frighten off the curious, suspicious or unwanted visitors, by spreading wild rumours concerning supernatural activity, ghosts and cannibals (as told about in Clovelly) near their wrecking sites.
[27] A 2005 BBC documentary, Coast, successfully replicated the conditions of false light wrecking in an experiment which suggested that a single-candle lantern onshore would be insufficient to lure a boat into dangerous water on a dark night.
It was only recently, that the light signalling was fully developed and deep sea-bed canals were dug in the often very shallow waters here, making seafaring relatively safe.
[31] A few wreck masters are still appointed in Denmark, but nowadays the job also includes observations and reporting on oil spills, pollutions, vandalism, etc., and they work in close cooperation with the police.
In 1942, the Technicolor Movie Reap The Wild Wind by Cecil B. DeMille depicted life in the wrecking business in the Nineteenth Century around Key West, Florida.
[33] In 1962, the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color TV series aired a two-episode live action adventure film entitled The Mooncussers about the investigation and exposure of a gang of wreckers.
The Wreckers, by Iain Lawrence, is a book for younger readers about The Isle of Skye (a London vessel) being shipwrecked along the shores of Pendennis, Cornwall.