Capt George E. Brewer

Key Largo Adventures: Real Marina Life in the 1960's Capt George E. Brewer

Back in the sixties, the Florida Keys was a frontier, compared to the rest of Florida. The book is about the efforts the author went through in order to start a marina. After searching South Florida waterfronts, the author happened onto the settlement known as Key Largo. The town consisted of groups of trailers, a couple of churches and 12 bars. A single road ran through town called U. S. 1, which was the only way to get on or off the Keys. The Book tells the escapades of the various customers and about the employees, who were all colorful Keysee characters such as Doc, who was always wondering around in his undershorts looking for the perfect Manhattan cocktail, and Jimmy who, while imbibing free beer, was paid to build a structural cinder block wall. He put in the sand and water but forgot the bag of cement. Then there was Jackson whose boat caught fire 10 miles off shore, made the U. S. Coast Guard believe there had been a mutiny and a murder on board, so that the Coast Guard had to dispatch a 110 foot Endurance Cutter out of Miami to assess the situation and make arrests. The author and his Deep 6 Marina fell afoul of the U. S. Government. The lawsuit was between the Corps of Engineers, who mandated he rip-rap his water front property to stop further bank erosion, on one hand, and the Environmental Protection Agency, who said if he did rip-rap it would kill sea grass and fish breeding areas and they would close down his operation.