The Florida Yacht Club commemorated a piece of maritime history last month with the unveiling of a pair of historical markers for the “Maple Leaf” shipwreck.
The “Maple Leaf” was a 181-foot steamship, built in Canada in 1851. Later, it served the United States as a Union Army transport ship during the Civil War. On a voyage from Palatka to Jacksonville, it struck a Confederate mine and sank in the St. Johns River near Mandarin.
FYC member Dr. Keith Holland is a respected dentist, historian, scuba diver, and author. In the 1980s, he and a team of volunteer divers located the shipwreck and salvaged just 1% of its artifacts. Many of these artifacts are currently on display at the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society.
The unveiling ceremony on Friday, June 19, represented a full circle moment for Holland, his divers, and FYC. The yacht club served as the training grounds for the divers, who learned to dive with an umbilical in dark, murky waters. It was also the staging area for recovered artifacts before they were transported to Holland’s lab at St. John’s Archaeological Expeditions for preservation.
After more than a decade of advocacy on Holland’s part, the “Maple Leaf” was designated as a National Historic Landmark, joining the ranks of just a handful of shipwrecks with that honored national recognition, among which are the USS Arizona, Monitor and Utah. It is the first in Duval County. The commemorative bronze plaque the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service bestowed upon Holland is the very same plaque that is now installed at the Florida Yacht Club.
Mounted beside Holland’s marker is a plaque telling the story of the “Maple Leaf” and Holland, commissioned by FYC member Khaki Hager, who was instrumental in the installation and last month’s unveiling.
Holland attended the unveiling ceremony alongside his family and several members of his diving team, including Bobby Lunsford, Larry Tipping, Mike Barker and Steve Michaelis.
“Truly, I am speechless,” Holland said at the unveiling ceremony. “Let me just take this in for a minute. It’s been what, 40 years, and to see the people who took a dream, a gamble and a bet and followed it all the way through to the discovering it, finding it, I can’t possibly describe the efforts that went into it…And look at me up here with all y’all. I am so touched, this is probably the greatest reward of all the hours and time and efforts involved with ‘Maple Leaf.’”
To this day, the “Maple Leaf” remains entombed in the muddy depths of the St. Johns River, and Holland said he still dreams of returning to the shipwreck.
“I will tell y’all, ‘Maple Leaf’ is still there, and although we rejoice in this, don’t think – I don’t want you to think I’ve abandoned it,” Holland said. “We are still working in the background, trying to get the impetus up. It’s still there. We can go back.”
This is the second historical marker installed at FYC. The first one stands at the yacht club’s entrance, commemorating its history and founder, William Backhouse Astor.
