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Narrowing It Down To Palm Beach’s Top 100
Editor Pat Thomas tells me she’s extended the nominations deadline for Palm Beach Elite — our Feb. 24 section spotlighting 100 Palm Beachers who get things done — until Friday. Here it is, your chance to tell us what to do. True, there’s no guarantee your nominee will make the newsroom’s final cut, but like they say about the lottery — you can’t win if you don’t play. Find all the details here: Elite Nominations
More On The Providencia
Debi Murray, director of research and archives at the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, sent me some interesting information in response to my emailed question to her yesterday about reports the Providencia had been used in the slave trade.
“I did do extensive research on this subject,” she wrote in her email. “While there were several ships named Providencia that did carry slaves, our Providencia did not. Everything is packed away (we actually start loading trucks in the a.m.) so I cannot give you the references and this will be off the top of my head. Our Providencia was built in Spain at a boatyard on an island off the coast … in 1853. She was a merchant ship.”
As just about every last person in Palm Beach knows, the Historical Society is moving into its fabulous new headquarters in the old but newly restored courthouse in West Palm Beach. (You can peek through a Web cam lens at the building here: 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse)
“… there were several ships named Providencia that did carry slaves — most of the ones I found flew the Brazilian flag. Some of the ones I found had been captured by the British and turned into merchant ships. If I remember correctly, the last one was in the 1810s — but it has been a few years!”
You know nothing frustrates a researcher/archivist more than not being able to cite chapter and verse, so thanks, Debi, for your quick response and willingness to share your “off the top of my head” recollections. We’ll follow up again once you’re settled.
And about that cargo, Debi wrote: “Contrary to popular belief, she was carrying logwood and hides as well as coconuts. The shipwreck list in the National Archives in D.C. show only the logwood and hides — the most valuable part of her cargo.”
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