The Tortuga Triangle

摘要

Lying in the Gulf of Mexico at its juncture with the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, the Dry Tortugas were discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513. "They reached the chain of islets which they named Tortugas [turtles]," wrote the Spanish historian Antonio de Her-rera, "because in a short time of the night they took, in one of these islands, a hundred and seventy turtles, and might have taken many more if they wished, and also they took fourteen seals [probably the Caribbean monk seal, extinct since the 1950s], and there were killed many pelicans and other birds, of which there were five thousand." Then as today, however, these islets of sand and coral rubble would not have yielded fresh water with which to wash down such bounty. Hence the "Dry" appellation, subsequently attached as a caution to mariners.