Sunken Civil War Ship Creates Pickles Reef

Locals dive captains and divers all have general stories about the origin of the name Pickles Reef, located just southeast of Key Largo within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Various types of debris are scattered across the reef including a number of barrel-shaped concrete objects.

The name comes from cement filled pickle barrels sunk here during the Civil War.   Supposedly there was a shipwreck on the reef that sank to the Atlantic floor with a load of barrels, where the cement mixed with the water and hardened over time, the barrels wooden staves rotted away leaving only the barrel shaped forms behind.   As many as fifty barrel-shaped features have been identified around the reef at the site.

First the name Pickles Reef appears in historical records dating back to the late 1820s.

Archaeologists suspect the barrels can be dated much later than the 1860s.   It has been suggested the cement had been destined for construction projects associated with the building of the Overseas Railway.

It doesn’t matter much when the barrels sank at the bottom, because they created a really great site for snorkelers and divers with the depth range from 6 to 30 feet.  Large patches of sea fans dot the underwater landscape.

This is a great site for photographers who want to catch juvenile fish out and about.