Castaway Part 2
even more GPS adventuring on the high seas!
Don’t forget to check out the other two articles in this series!
As promised, I’ve looked into the reason a big stack of diving videos from the Florida Keys landed in a small thrift store in Knoxville, Tennessee earlier this year. As it turns out, the simplest answer once again has shown itself to be the correct answer. Don, the creator of the GPS Adventures series, lived and went to school in Knoxville in the 1960s and 70s. He was even an ICEVOL, a member of the University of Tennessee Knoxville ice hockey team.
A few days ago, while I was scanning in the covers for this batch of tapes, I noticed that the cover of Volume 7 had a new graphic at the bottom with a URL. From what I can tell, The Keys Dive Guide webpage hasn’t been up since early 2015, but thanks to The Wayback Machine, archives of the site dating all the way back to 2002 are available.
A native South Floridian and Knight of the Conch Republic, Don Ferguson honed his diving and navigating skills as the dive guide for Finley Ricard's Atlantis Marina in Layton, (Long Key) Florida in 1975-76. When Finley sold the marina in October of 1976, Don trailered his van and boat throughout the Keys beginning his first dive odyssey, a two month adventure during which he located nearly sixty reefs and shipwrecks from Key Largo to Key West. In these days before GPS, Don located reefs and wrecks with "my charts, my compass and my eyeballs", using shore bearings to re-locate many difficult to find sites. At this time there were no publications to help Don with essential information such as where to find boat ramps, marinas and dive centers. — KeysGuide.com in 2003
more info about the Conch Republic can be found here.
While digging through the iterations of the site, I came across a links page which was a (treasure) trove of information, in fact, I was able to track down the artist who did the wonderful paintings featured as the focal art on many of the tape sleeves for this series, William (Bill) Trotter.
The wonderful news I’ve come across from digging through links is that Don has a Youtube channel where he has uploaded the entire Keys Dive Guide Series in DVD quality!
I was pretty certain I had the entire set of tapes (Vol 1-8), but I had a hunch that there was more content available, and there absolutely is. From what I can tell, this series is 12 full episodes, and was in production as late as 2006 (well into the DVD era), and the Youtube channel splits things up a little differently, but if you’re enjoying these tapes, please check out the channel. Higher quality video, more episodes, etc. It’s all there!
For my third and final entry in this series, we will be taking a look at a few early cuts of episodes, a program produced for an educational theatre in The Keys, and a few other odds and ends I found when I picked these tapes up.
Let’s dive in!
Shipwrecks of Islamorada
2001 | Runtime: 43 Minutes
"Shipwrecks of Islamorada" - "Fossil Reef State Park" Visit The Welberry Wreck, Hen & Chickens, Crocker Reef, Iron Mast Wreck, Tres Puentes-1733, Arno's Reef, The Eagle, Alexander Barge, USS Alligator, Cannabis Cruiser, Cheeca Rocks (15 sites)
Marathon Wreck Diver
2001 | Runtime 50 Minutes
"Marathon Wreck Diver" - "The Tarpon at Robby's" Visit Toll Gate Rocks, Matecumbe Gardens, Tennessee Reef, Bridge Rubble, Duck Key Shrimp Boat Wreck, Adelaide Baker, East Turtle Shoal, Grassy Key Wreck, Coffins Patch, Brick Wreck, Dinosaur Wreck, Mystery Galleon, Thunderbolt, Samantha Shoal, East Washerwoman, The Barge, 4 Kids, Delta Shoal, North America, Sombrero Key, 7 Mile Bridge Rubble (35 sites)
Night Diver
2002 | Runtime 45 Minutes
"Lower Keys Night Diver" - Visit The Auto Wreck, "G" Marker, Big Pine Shoal, Looe Key, HMS Looe, Adolphus Busch, Summerland Shoal, Sawyer & Content Keys (Gulf), American Shoal, Maryland Shoal, Maryland Dry Rocks, West Washerwoman, Nine Foot Shoal, The Issac Allerton, "The Spiegel Grove Saga" "The Turtle Hospital" (22 sites)
Key West Shoal Master
2003 | Runtime 50 Minutes
"Key West Shoal Master" - Visit Pelican Shoal, Speculator Shoal, The Sambos (East, Middle, West), Marker "32", Joe's Tug, Cayman Salvage Master, East Dry Rocks, Rock Key, Sand Key, West Dry Rocks, Archer Key Sponge Gardens, Man Key Wreck, Boca Grande Wrecks, DE66 Amesbury, Marquesas (Lookdown Wreck, Eagle Barge), Dry Tortugas (Ft. Jefferson, Loggerhead Reef, Windjammer Wreck) "Key West" (29 sites)
Well, that’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed the tapes! If you’re looking for more, please check out my page on Archive.org for the full list of digitized media. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message right here or drop a comment below. If you haven’t already, please check out the one of my previous posts below, or all of my other previous posts here. Thanks so much for checking out this week’s edition of Diptych!
See you soon!
—Forrest
Trotter's website is still beautiful!