Captain Mike Daniel

Captain Mike Daniel holding a ship’s bell from Queen Anne’s Revenge

We first met more than 15 years ago when he made a historical presentation to the Jupiter Tequesta Juno Beach Chamber of Commerce on the exploits of Jonathan Dickinson.  In an area where the oldest existing structure was built in 1860, Dickinson’s 1696 shipwreck, subsequent capture by Jaega Indians, escape, and return to civilization is particularly significant.  Captain Mike Daniel’s attention to detail and relaxed style made a profound impact upon the entire audience.

Subsequent contacts with Mike have revealed a diverse background filled with achievements of historic proportion.  From Mike’s South Florida home, Mike has discovered a number of historically significant sites in the Caribbean, Florida, the Bahamas and the Carolinas.  Mike and author Robert F. Marx discovered the wreck of Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas in 1972.  This treasure laden Spanish galleon sank in the Bahamas in 1656. The gold, silver and emeralds contained in the wreckage are extraordinary in their quality.

More recently, Mike discovered the wreckage of the infamous pirate Blackbeard’s flagship off the coast of North Carolina.  Concorde, a French slaveship, was captured by Blackbeard in 1717. After renaming her Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard made her his flagship.  Within less than one year, Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground, broke up, and sank but not before Blackbeard had successfully blockaded the port of Charleston, SC for nearly a week.  More than 275 years later, extensive research enabled Mike to pinpoint the wreckage and recover numerous artifacts.

Throughout his years of historical maritime research and undersea exploration, Mike has maintained a unique focus.  The significance of the Golden Age of Piracy has always outweighed any interest in treasure.  It is his profound belief that no one ever “owns” treasure.  Instead, treasure falls into the custody of “caretakers” for brief periods of time; quite often with painful consequences.

In between his various treasure-hunting exploits, Mike has worked extensively in the television and film industry.  Most recently, he created and served as the first curator of the Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter, FL. Mike and his wife, Nancy, also owned and operated a successful marine parts business known as Sea Chest for more than 30 years.

You can follow Captain Mike Daniel’s exploits on Facebook.

Can Palm Beach County ERM learn from its mistakes?

According to a Palm Beach Post article dated June 19, 2012 (“Jupiter’s DuBois Park earns national design award”), Palm Beach County spent $6.2 million  to restore, redevelop, and add new features to DuBois Park.  One of those features is a “1-acre snorkeling area and artificial reef.”

Less than 6 months later the Post, reporting on damage from Superstorm Sandy noted, “At Dubois Park in Jupiter, erosion along the shoreline exposed irrigation lines.  The damage totaled at least $200,000, officials said.”

There is an explanation for this damage.  An engineering solution called a “perched beach,” was improperly applied.  Unless the Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management Department (ERM) reexamines its plans for beach stabilization at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area (JILONA), Cato’s Bridge Beach is destined to endure a similar fate.

A limestone breakwater, was built parallel to the beach to provide a snorkeling area and stabilize the beach at DuBois Park. Work was completed in March 2012.

An aerial image taken from an April 2012 ERM document depicts steps taken in Phase II (Shoreline Stabilization & Recreational Amenities).  A wall of stone with small openings was installed to protect the beach area and provide a snorkel lagoon. This design is so closely similar to the JILONA design plan that ERM made the comparison in a presentation to the Jupiter Town Council in 2011.

Proposed breakwater design for the eastern JILONA boundary extending south from Cato’s Bridge.

Recent storm damage at DuBois Park will require $200,000 to repair

Look at pictures of DuBois Park taken 2 weeks after Superstorm Sandy.  Note the severe erosion to the beach area.  Clearly, ERM’s beach stabilization is a dismal failure with a $200,000 price tag to repair.  If a similar situation occurs at JILONA, the damages could include destruction of the historic lighthouse.  We cannot allow this to happen.

A Nation Grieves

10 years ago today my close friend, Lee, and I were driving from Wisconsin where we had taken ownership of an old Chris-Craft Holiday, to our homes in Florida.  The radio stations saturated the airwaves with patriotic music as we sliced through our nation’s heartland.  Every overpass on I-65 had an American Flag suspended from it’s railing.  On some, people proudly waved flags back and forth for everyone to see.  Cars and trucks passing below saluted their support with enthusiastic hand and arm gestures and sharp horn blasts.

Tears came to our eyes as we reflected on the tragedy of a year earlier – tragedy that touched the lives of every American in the most horrific way.  Our country came together on that day to honor and glorify the memory of those who paid the supreme sacrifice for being Americans.  Our chests swelled with pride as we saw that we were surrounded with people we didn’t know, people we would never encounter again, people who joined together in defiance of terrorism,

The fervor has cooled. The expressions of patriotism are more controlled.  While that exuberance has passed, the deep sense of loss remains.  We all lost something dear to us on that day eleven years ago.  Perhaps it was our innocence… our naïveté.  Had we put up a psychological wall to shield ourselves from the pain, no one would have been surprised.  No one would have criticized us for compensating by turning cold-hearted.

That’s not what Americans do!  We cried.  We beat our chests in sorrow.  Then, our nation buckled down and faced the task at hand with intensity and conviction. Individually, we rose to the occasion.  We mustered a drive from deep inside that enabled us to push through the pain and move forward in a positive direction.  The struggle has been long and hard.  The human sacrifices continue to mount, but progress can be found every day.

Will our world return to a pre-9/11 blindness?  Never!  We stand prepared to join together to defend our homeland, to prove to the world once again that we will protect the American way of life!

Finding the Path to Prosperity.

There are many paths to the same destination. They each have their own set of challenges, and they vary widely in difficulty. Whether you’re traveling from Florida to Alaska or attempting to reestablish growth and prosperity in a faltering economy, it’s the arrival that is of tantamount importance.

Hannibal crossing the Alps

The key element in any journey of magnitude is leadership. It was Hannibal’s leadership ability that enabled him to cross the Pyrenees, fight off local tribes of barbarians, cross the Rhone River, scale the Alps with an army of 50,000 Carthaginians, enter the Po Valley and defeat the Roman Army in a series of battles during the second Punic War.

A study of that campaign reveals not only his tactical superiority but also Hannibal’s negotiating ability, his political awareness, and his organizational skills. Most important of all was the manner in which he “managed” his army. He deployed them in ways that assured their freshness, reduced desertions to a minimum, confused his enemies and assured maximum strength upon entry into the Po Valley. Management is a critical element of leadership.

Romney’s successes with the Olympics and during the course of his governorship in Massachusetts may be a reflection of his management abilities, but management alone did not deliver his achievements in the face of opposition. While reviewing his history, reflect also upon Obama’s successes.

Is Obama able to forge a consensus from opposing elements? Is he successful in ending stalemates through compromise? Strength of leadership outweighs political platforms. Does Obama forge a consensus from opposing elements? Is he successful in ending stalemates through compromise?

Do not allow volumes of rhetoric distract as you strive to identify leadership skills in the candidates before you.

Let’s Pick a Leader For President, A Real Leader!

The eyes of our nation are cast upon the upcoming presidential election; many not by choice.  Televised talking heads fill moments of planned escape from the vagaries of life with seemingly endless political diatribes.  Virtually every digital and print publication is saturated with advertisements and “news” stories extolling each candidate’s position on a wide variety of subjects or excoriating their comments, actions, or behavior.

The public is struggling with a difficult decision at a difficult time in the history of our country.  Clearly, we haven’t found the information we need to make the decision that our entire country depends upon.  Is President Obama’s position on healthcare, Romney’s position on right to life going to be the determining factor in this election?  Will the future of our economy or our military commitment in the Middle East sway your vote?

There will be no better time than right now to heed the words of the philosopher, George Santayana:  “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”  We need only look back in the history of our country to identify the criteria we should all use in selecting our next president.  Our greatest presidents were our greatest leaders. George Washington was a great leader.  Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest leader of all.  Look carefully at Lincoln’s presidency.

Prior to 1861 when Abraham Lincoln took office, not one of the previous eight presidents (Buchanan, Pierce, Fillmore, Taylor, Polk, Tyler, Harrison, Van Buren) earned reelection.  The country was in turmoil as secessionists were tearing it  apart.  In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln said, “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.”

President Lincoln’s Cabinet

Unlike the “yes” men who commonly serve as cabinet level advisors, Lincoln chose his cabinet from a list of his greatest adversaries.  That nearly every one of them became intensely loyal, supportive presidential confidantes speaks more eloquently than words of Lincoln’s leadership.  Picture for a moment an Obama cabinet comprised of John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and Ron Paul.

When the war began in 1861, one month after Lincoln took office, there were 16,000 men in the US Army.  Lincoln initially called

Civil War Volunteer Recruitment Poster

for 75,000 volunteers to serve three months, time enough to put down the “insurrection.”  In July of 1861, Congress authorized a volunteer army of 500,000 men.  Ultimately, between 1861 and 1865, 2.5 million men served in the Union Army.  The majority were volunteers.  Of those, 360,000 died and 280,000 were wounded.

Congress, under Lincoln, authorized the first US Income Tax in 1862, in order to support the war effort.

Faced, as Commander-In-Chief, with leading a burgeoning war effort, Lincoln created and administered a foreign policy that prevented the intervention of other countries in the Civil War.  He crafted and successfully delivered the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.  He held the country together and began the process of reconstruction after the war.

Lincoln was reelected…

…by Union and Confederate soldiers coming home from war, by political friends and foes, by the citizens of the reconstituted United States, the first president in 38 years to earn that honor.

That is leadership.  As you listen to the political commentary and read the stories, as you scan the ads and weigh the endorsements, seek out references to leadership successes.  Which candidate has most effectively demonstrated leadership skills that have delivered significant, important accomplishments.  That’s the candidate who deserves your vote.

Florida – A Southern Perspective

Forty-one years ago next month, my first wife and I moved to Gainesville where my first son was born.  My position as Assistant Director of the TBA Division of the Florida Farm Bureau provided introduction to the close knit, warm and friendly lifestyle of the agricultural community in Florida.  Many a noon found me at a huge kitchen table enjoying an enormous “dinner” with family, farmhands, and spur-of-the-moment guests like me.  Southern hospitality was introduced to me first hand by wonderful, down-to-earth, unassuming people.

I frequently observed at the time that I would never consider living south of Ocala.  There were just too many Northerners polluting the human environment.  Their crass, abrasive mannerisms and their haughty demeanor were offensive.  That ultimatum did not last long at all.  I soon found myself mired in a South Florida environment that seemed to be the worst of all worlds.  The average person would prefer not to see a Rembrandt at all rather than see one defaced by some vain and heartless boor who thought it would look better touched up with neon red and yellow stripes.

It took little time to succumb to the influence of apparently wealthy, successful, motivated “business people” from the New York metropolitan area.  They seemed to have the world on a string – complete control of their destinies.  Their lives appeared to be akin to walking through a green market and picking the best ears of corn, the reddest tomatoes, the ripest cantaloupe, and the freshest watermelon.  I learned to ignore the fingered and bruised culls that they left behind for others.  I coveted their success.

Before long, I convinced my family that we needed a piece of that pie and had to move back up north to make it happen.  It took little time to discover the quality of life sacrifice that was made in pursuit of professional achievement and success.  People laughed and ridiculed my slow pace, my casual speech patterns, and my friendly demeanor.  They expected me to be “chewed up and spit out” and did not hesitate to say so.  My effort to achieve success became little more than crude attempts to become the individual I loathed most, the person who would walk/climb/run over anyone who stood in his path.  Prosperity comes with a hefty price tag, especially in the New York metropolitan area.  While the mistake was immediately apparent, it took almost 15 years to rectify it.

Over the past 25 years many people have observed that, “Florida is not for me.  I’ve got to get out of this place.”  Their disillusionment typically emanates from a perceived failure to achieve the level of success they anticipated.  Their frustration and discouragement is easy to comprehend.  People rarely find a pot of gold at the end of a Florida rainbow unless that gold is measured in quality of life terms.  Sunshine, balmy weather, oceans, rivers, lakes, and all that goes with them must be the focal point.

Our history dates back to the mid-1800’s with only a few significant events preceding that time, unlike the rich and glorified history of other parts of our country.  With few notable exceptions (Clyde Butcher, the Highwaymen, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Ray Charles), Florida was passed over when artistic and literary talent was handed out.  There are precious few industrial or commercial businesses of size with Florida histories dating back more than 2 or 3 decades.  Our society is superficial and tends toward overbearing.  The “bluebloods” who have found this state rarely stay here for more than a few weeks at a time.

Just the same, people flock to Florida from all over the world with an unpleasant effect.  A man from Brooklyn once visited Vermont.  Smitten with the pristine beauty of mountains and meadows, forests and wildflowers, rivers and lakes, he purchased a ¼ acre of property and built a modest home.  Situated down an unpaved country lane with beautiful vistas spreading out from picture windows, the setting was idyllic.  Naturally swelling with the pride of his good fortune and anxious to tell others of his accomplishment, he invited friends and relatives to visit and share in his happiness.

When those same friends and relatives purchased ¼ acre lots next to his and built their “dream homes” next to his, the natural beauty was destroyed.  The path was widened and paved.  Then, the road was dug up once to install sewers and again to install underground utilities, leaving behind a sea of potholes and patches.  The quaint general store with gas pumps gave way to a Wal-Mart Super Store, and the gas pumps were replaced with a Shell mega-station, owned by corporate entities located thousands of miles away and managed by transplants with little knowledge of the community.  Bright yellow and red paint glistens in the harsh luminescence of 1,000 watt mercury vapor lights.  It’s no different than that person passing through the green market:  “Hooray with me and to hell with you!”

The coast of Florida is becoming one long megalopolis that stretches from the Keys to Pensacola on the west and the Keys to Jacksonville on the east side.  A web of interstates and high speed secondary roads crisscrosses the state, enabling travelers to reach their destinations without the time-consuming interference resulting from glances out the side windows of their vehicles.  The worst attributes of other parts of the country have found their way into Florida with the impact of a horde of grasshoppers.

The State of Florida, through the various water management districts has been working to eradicate exotic, invasive vegetation like Brazilian Pepper and Melaleuca, and reptiles like the Burmese Python.  Only over the past 10-15 years have Florida counties and cities begun to curb the spread of urban blight through creation of regional planning councils, comprehensive master plans, and tougher zoning.  Sadly, efforts to protect and preserve are being thwarted by economic issues that must also be addressed.

The first person to sound the alarm about exotic vegetation or non-indigenous reptiles was probably greeted with ennui.  Other pressing issues we faced had to take precedence over bushes/trees/snakes, but environmentalists eventually prevailed.  The time is now upon us to protect and preserve what remains of our unique state, but it must be undertaken in a manner that is consistent with our history, not the wishes of “Johnny-come-lately’s” and “NIMBY’s (Not In My Back Yard)” who seek to manipulate environmental standards for their own benefit.

Only those who remember the past can effectively reestablish it.