A shipyard with no buildings
In sailors' usage a deadman is a buried anchor: a log, a block, sometimes a mass of concrete, sunk into the ground with a cable run to it, used to haul against when nothing else will hold.1
You needed one to careen a ship. Careening meant running a vessel into shallow water and hauling her over onto her side so the hull below the waterline could be scraped of weed and barnacle, recaulked and repaired. Before dry docks existed it was how a wooden ship stayed seaworthy, and it called for three things at once: deep water close inshore, a firm bank to work from, and something immovable to winch against. No buildings, no dry dock, no yard. Just the right piece of shoreline.
This cove had all three, which is why the Royal Navy careened here during the British occupation of West Florida, and why the water has been called Old Navy Cove ever since.2 The anchors they hauled against were the deadmen, and the island took its name from them. The City of Gulf Breeze gives the same explanation in the draft text of its own historical marker for the island.1
The wreck in the shallows
One of the ships that came here to be repaired never left.
The best current identification, from a 2021 study of the wreck, is HMS Florida, the survey schooner of George Gauld, the Admiralty surveyor who charted this coast. She sank at the careenage on September 11, 1778, off the island’s northern tip, the spot later called Town Point.5
She was excavated in 1989 in a project sponsored jointly by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, and the dig served as the first underwater archaeology field school of its kind.2
The quarantine station
Decades after the British sailed, the cove went back to work, this time against yellow fever.
Ships bound for Pensacola were held here and their crews inspected, in an era when an outbreak could empty a port. The vessels were fumigated with sulfur before they were let in.6 Not everyone held here left. The dead were buried on the island.3
The quarantine and the repair work shared the same shore. In the city’s own account, crews waiting out their quarantine heeled and cleaned their ships against the deadmen.6
In 2005 erosion opened the ground and exposed six hexagonal coffins.3 They are the most striking thing the water has ever handed back, and they are why most people assume the island is named for the men inside them.
On the name and the graves. The careenage, the quarantine ground and the burials all share this one shoreline, and the earliest British charts call the point Sandy Point and the careenage Deer Point, so nobody can fix the year the word attached. What can be said is that the maritime sense of deadman is specific to exactly the trade that made this cove valuable, and that the name was in use long before anyone saw those coffins.
Iron rails at Town Point
In the late 1880s the old careenage finally got machinery, and a way to pull a ship clean out of the water.
A marine railway is a set of iron rails running down a ramp into the water, with a cradle that is floated under a vessel and winched back up the slope, carrying the ship onto dry ground for work on the hull. One was built at Town Point, on the island’s northern tip, and for a time it made the point a working repair yard.6 Remnants of those rails are still there.
The hurricane of September 27, 1906, which pushed an eleven-foot storm tide into Pensacola, badly damaged the yard, and it never won back its trade.7 By the city’s account, the site was later turned over to glue and then fertilizer production, its last industrial use before it became a preserve.6
The island, year by year
- 1763 to 1781Britain holds West Florida. The Royal Navy careens ships at Old Navy Cove. HMS Florida sinks at the careenage in September 1778.
- 19th centuryShips bound for Pensacola are quarantined in the cove and fumigated with sulfur. Burials follow on the island.
- Late 1880sA marine railway is built at Town Point, the island’s northern tip, and the point becomes a repair yard.
- 1906The September 27 hurricane badly damages the yard. Glue and then fertilizer production follow.
- 1977The City of Gulf Breeze begins acquiring the island.
- 1989The wreck is excavated by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, in the first underwater archaeology field school of its kind.
- 1994A storm strips the shoreline and exposes three barrel wells that had once stood well back from the water. Excavated before the tide could take them, they give up shoes, wine bottles, an aqua glass ink well, ceramics, nails and spikes from the mid to late 1800s.
- 2005The hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 breach the isthmus. Erosion exposes six hexagonal coffins.
- 2017The city rebuilds the isthmus with five hundred feet of limestone riprap, twenty thousand cubic yards of sand and more than twenty thousand plants, to hold the marsh behind it. Boy Scout Troop 417 plants a thousand of them.
- 2022After Hurricane Sally, FEMA-funded rock goes back on the isthmus. The sand and replanting phase is still to come.
What the water has given back
Almost every find on that list surfaced the same way. The water took more ground, and something came out of it.
The 1994 barrel wells had stood well back from the shore when they were dug; by the time they surfaced the shoreline had moved past them.2 The coffins came up the same way. Every find is also a measurement of how much ground is gone.
The island is only an island because of us. It was a point of the peninsula until mid-century dredging cut it loose, and the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 finished the job by breaching the narrow isthmus that still tied it to the mainland.5
Holding the ground
The City of Gulf Breeze, which owns the site, has spent the better part of two decades refusing to let it go.
The line you see offshore in the photograph is not rock. It is 238 precast concrete reef units set on pilings in 2015, replacing mesh bags of oyster shell placed in 2009 that the 2010 oil spill killed, along with the sand and the plantings they were protecting. The rock is on the other side of the island.
When the isthmus went, water poured through into the marsh behind it. That marsh is a stand of black needlerush the city’s own restoration record describes as the nursery for the sportfish of Navy Cove, where the juveniles hold until they are big enough for deeper water, and it is what the rock is there to protect. In 2017 the city rebuilt the land bridge with a five-hundred-foot revetment of limestone riprap, moved twenty thousand cubic yards of sand back onto the point, and put in more than twenty thousand plants. Boy Scout Troop 417, out of St. Ann’s in Gulf Breeze, planted a thousand of them in a single Saturday. Hurricane Michael knocked the rocks around in 2018, Sally scattered a hundred feet of them in 2020, and by the next summer four feet of isthmus stood between the bay and another breach.5
The city put the rock back in May 2022, the first phase of a Hurricane Sally project FEMA funded at $462,736. The second phase, sand and replanting, has not happened yet. At the city’s last public accounting $354,741 of that money remained for it, and the plan is to take sand already on the island, spoil from the dredging of Gilmore Bayou sitting on the south end, and move it to the north end. The permits for that phase lapsed in 2024 and were resubmitted in 2025. The city is also reassessing how much fill the point now needs, because it has lost more ground since the plan was drawn, worst of all at the northeast corner.8
For the long term the city has turned to the Army Corps of Engineers. In 2023 it asked the Corps to study the erosion, and in March 2024 the Corps approved starting an ecosystem restoration study under its Continuing Authorities Program, the first step toward a master plan for the island.8
About the reef. The units out there carry natural oysters, recruited on their own the way oysters do on any hard structure in these waters. The 2009 version was shell in mesh bags meant to seed a reef, and the oil spill killed it. What is there now is concrete doing its job with oysters growing on it anyway.
What lives there now
The city puts the island at about ten acres, centered on the black needlerush marsh.
Its own inventory also lists a dune, seagrass, an oyster reef, a stand of pine, a prickly pear colony and a maritime hammock it puts at roughly a hundred years old. Migrating birds use the island as a stopover, and the shallows around it are foraging ground for Gulf sturgeon, a federally threatened fish.8
Going to see it
Deadman's Island is owned by the City of Gulf Breeze, which began acquiring it in 1977, and it is open to the public.1 There is no visitor center and very little signage. The city’s guidance is to come by water, with launches at Woodland Park or Wayside Park. You land on a low spit of sand and scrub with the bay on one side and the marsh on the other.
There is a land bridge. You cannot use it. The isthmus that joins the island to the peninsula comes ashore on private residential lots along the shoreline, and every foot of the approach on the land side is someone’s yard. It is not a public path, it has never been one, and walking in that way is trespassing on a neighbor. The city itself describes the island as boat access only for exactly this reason. Launch a kayak or a paddleboard and come in from the water.
Two things worth knowing before you go. It is an archaeological site and a burial ground, so nothing there is a souvenir. And most of what matters is underwater and invisible; what you see from the bank is the last of the ground, not the history itself.
Why I know this
I fished that island as a kid, and I now live on Gilmore Bayou looking straight at it.
I grew up on Pensacola Beach, on Sabine Drive. I was in the first class at Pensacola Beach Elementary School in 1977, when it met in a borrowed A-frame house before the portables arrived. Pensacola Beach Elementary only went to sixth grade, so when I was twelve we moved across to Gulf Breeze Proper and I did seventh grade at Gulf Breeze Elementary, then went on to Gulf Breeze High School and graduated there.
Which is a long way of saying I have been looking at this island most of my life, and still learned the better part of what is written above by going and checking it.
Thinking about Gulf Breeze?
If you are weighing a move here, Jenny can tell you what the market is actually doing on a specific street, and what the flood and insurance picture looks like on a specific address.
Ask Jenny about Gulf BreezeCommon questions
How did Deadman's Island in Gulf Breeze get its name?
From ship's tackle. A deadman is a buried anchor used to haul against, and this cove was a British Royal Navy careenage where ships were pulled onto their side for hull work. The name was in use before the nineteenth century quarantine burials on the island.
Are there really coffins on Deadman's Island?
Yes. Ships bound for Pensacola were quarantined in the cove in the nineteenth century, and people who died in quarantine were buried on the island. Erosion exposed six hexagonal coffins in 2005, and the island remains a burial ground.
What was found in the Deadman's Island shipwreck?
A British vessel from the British period in West Florida, 1763 to 1781, most likely HMS Florida, the survey schooner of the Admiralty cartographer George Gauld, lost at the careenage in September 1778. Excavated in 1989 by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research.
Why is Deadman's Island eroding?
It was a point of the peninsula until mid-century dredging cut it loose, and the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 breached the isthmus that still tied it to the mainland. Gulf Breeze has been rebuilding it since, with an offshore reef of 238 concrete units in 2015, a limestone revetment, sand and marsh plantings in 2017, and rock again in 2022. A FEMA-funded phase of sand and replanting is still pending.
What was the marine railway on Deadman's Island?
A ramp of iron rails at Town Point, the island's northern tip, built in the late 1880s to haul ships out of the water for hull repair. The September 1906 hurricane badly damaged it, the yard never recovered its trade, and the site was later used for glue and fertilizer production.
Who owns Deadman's Island?
The City of Gulf Breeze, which began acquiring it in 1977 and manages it as a natural area. The city puts it at about ten acres.
Can you visit Deadman's Island?
Yes. The City of Gulf Breeze owns it and it is publicly accessible, by water. The land bridge comes ashore on private lots, so launch from Woodland Park or Wayside Park. Treat it as what it is: an archaeological site and a grave site.
Who is writing this
Rob Rushing grew up on Pensacola Beach and in Gulf Breeze Proper, went to Gulf Breeze High School, and lives on Gilmore Bayou across from Deadman's Island. He is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate with Rushing Partners at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, and a member of The Florida Bar (#140007).
Jenny Rushing is a licensed Florida REALTOR® (license SL3291677) and team leader of Rushing Partners, at 836 Gulf Breeze Pkwy in Gulf Breeze. She has worked the Gulf Coast from Perdido Key to Destin since 2014.
Ranked #37 of 2,086 agents in the Pensacola Association of REALTORS MLS by sales volume, year to date 2026. 271 closed transaction sides representing $114.2 million since 2014.
Production figures are Jenny’s own closed transaction sides from the Pensacola Association of REALTORS MLS Volume Ranking report. All inquiries go to Jenny.
Sources and notes
- Maritime usage of “deadman” for a buried anchor used in careening, and the attribution of the island’s name to deadman anchors rather than to burials. Local and maritime-history accounts are consistent that the island’s association with death is not the source of its name. The City of Gulf Breeze’s draft historical marker text for the island, in a Parks and Recreation memorandum to the Advisory Park Board dated April 28, 2026 and approved by the Board for submission on May 5, 2026, states that the island “was likely named for the maritime term Deadman,” that it provided sailors “a place to clean and repair their vessels” in addition to serving as a quarantine station, and that the City acquired part of it in 1977. ↩
- University of West Florida, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, “Deadman’s Island Shipwreck.” Records that the site at Old Navy Cove is owned by the City of Gulf Breeze; that the 1989 excavation was sponsored jointly by the City, UWF and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research; that the wreck was an abandoned British sloop of the British period in West Florida, 1763 to 1781 (later work, cited at note 5, identifies it as HMS Florida); that it served as a first field school in underwater archaeology; that three barrel wells were exposed by storm erosion in 1994 and excavated, yielding shoes, wine bottles, an aqua glass ink well, ceramics, nails and spikes of the mid to late 1800s; and the presence of what its photo caption calls a naval railroad forming part of the cargo unloading area. The published archaeology and the city’s own history identify those rails as the marine railway that hauled ships out for repair; see note 6. ↩
- Nineteenth century quarantine station serving the port of Pensacola, and associated burials; six hexagonal coffins exposed by erosion in the fall of 2005, as recorded by the archaeologist who worked the site. ↩
- Observation that the reef units carry natural oyster recruitment is the author’s own, from living opposite the site.
- City of Gulf Breeze records on the Deadman’s Island restoration: Parks and Recreation memorandum to the Tourist Development Committee, August 5, 2020, and the 2021 damage assessment and 2022 scope of work for the isthmus revetment, all in the city’s public document center; the project site deadmansisland.org, which records the 2009 and 2015 reef installations, the 2017 sand and planting work, the black needlerush marsh as sportfish nursery, and Troop 417’s planting day; and Van Slyke et al., “HMS Florida,” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2021, for the identification of the wreck and the mid-century dredging that separated the island. ↩
- City of Gulf Breeze Parks and Recreation, interpretive panels on Deadman’s Island and on the city’s maritime heritage (2026), provided to the authors by the department: sulfur fumigation of quarantined ships; crews using deadmen to hold or heel their vessels for cleaning and repair during quarantine; a marine repair yard at Town Point with iron rails for hauling ships out of the water, severely damaged by the 1906 hurricane and later used for glue and fertilizer production. Van Slyke et al. (note 5) place Town Point at the island’s northern tip, and the marine railway is discussed in K. Jordan-Greene, “A Maritime Landscape of Old Navy Cove and Deadman’s Island,” in The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes (Springer, 2011). ↩
- National Weather Service, Mobile/Pensacola office, “September 27th Hurricane of 1906”: a Category 2 landfall near Pascagoula with an eleven-foot storm tide at Pensacola. ↩
- FEMA Public Assistance, Hurricane Sally (DR-4564), project 60, “Deadman’s Island,” $462,736, obligated April 28, 2022. City of Gulf Breeze memoranda of October 31, 2023 and August 8, 2024: phase one riprap completed May 2022 at $107,995, leaving $354,741 for sand and vegetation; sand to come from Gilmore Bayou dredge spoil on the island; phase two permits expired and to be reapplied for; a Continuing Authorities Program ecosystem restoration study initiation approved by the Army Corps of Engineers on March 7, 2024; and the island’s habitats, including a Gulf sturgeon foraging area. Advisory Park Board minutes, October 14, 2025: nourishment permits resubmitted, erosion worst at the northeast corner, and the site to be reassessed for additional fill. ↩