Shipwreck Relic Boca Diver Donates Cannon He Recovered To Gumbo Limbo. - Sun Sentinel
Shipwreck Relic Boca Diver Donates Cannon He Recovered To Gumbo Limbo.
January 15, 1993|By SHERRI WINSTON, Staff Writer
Things can really pile up in a garage from old bicycles to dilapidated gas cans, even 19th-century cannons.
When Daryl Wilmoth of Boca Raton decided to clean out his garage, he finally got around to something that he`d been putting off for years.
``Time really flies,`` said Wilmoth, a survey-boat captain for a dredging company. He has donated an English cannon to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
Wilmoth, who dives and pokes around in ship wreckage for a hobby, found the cannon in 1966. Since then he has displayed it at a marine shop he once owned in Boca Raton and has also displayed it in front of a friend`s shop. Twelve years ago he ``stored`` the cannon, hoping to find a nice home for it.
``I`ve always sort of felt I was holding the cannon in trust for the city,`` said Wilmoth, who uncovered the cannon at the north edge of the
Ocean Hearth Restaurant.
It was three months after Hurricane Cleo and Wilmoth, wearing scuba gear, was poking around a wrecked ship. Diving on the ballast pile with a friend, Wilmoth swam south of the reef. About 10-feet deep, the cannon lay exposed.
Where exactly was the Ocean Hearth Restaurant
You guessed it:
The dates given for the guns may indicate two different wrecks in very nearly the same spot.
