Give a unique gift to someone special that also helps support research and education at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. We have a list of artifacts including shipwreck items, lighthouse keepers’ tools, and even our historic lens can be adopted!
Your adoption contribution will help us provide critical preservation, conservation and care for each piece in our collection so that future generations will be able to to experience it and the story it represents for years to come.
Artifacts available for adoption:
4-pound Long Gun
9- pound Carronade
A 9-pound carronade was also excavated in the summer of 2011 and mechanically cleaned. This very rare 9-pounder carronade was cast at the Carron Iron Company in Falkirk, Scotland. It is dated 1780 and is one of the first of its kind. Artillery experts at the Tower of London believe this to be the second-oldest carronade to have survived anywhere in the world.
First Order Fresnel Lens
Muskets
A pair of 18th century “Brown Bess” muskets that are still encased in concretions formed over two centuries of life on the ocean floor. It took the power of an x-ray machine to reveal a secret about the British weapons: both guns are still loaded.
U.S. Coast Guard Bell
Donated by the USCG to the Junior Service League during the lighthouse’s restoration in 1991, the bell honors the memory of lost Coast Guard crew members. The bell’s condition deteriorated over two decades of harsh Florida weather and restoring the eighty year-old bell became a labor of love taken up by the Senecal family, in memory of their son Steve Senecal, and a handful of dedicated community members.
The Coast Guard Bell honors the memory of the lost Coast Guard crew members Duane Stenbak, Craig Lerner, Paul Perlt and Matthew Baker and local fisherman Steve Senecal.
The USLHS TenderFern
The Fern is a 24-inch scale model of a supply ship that made trips from New York to St. Augustine once a year from 1874 to 1888. Records show the ship tied up at a dock on the Matanzas River, along the west side of Anastasia Island, and brought supplies to the lighthouse via rail cart. In 1891, the Fern was re-assigned to the U.S. Navy fleet where it remained in service until it sank off the coast of Canada in 1906. The scale model is based off plans obtained from the National Archives in College Park, Md., and old photos of the ship. The model was constructed entirely from scratch by donor Duane Muzzy, down to the individual deck planks, rigging lines, hand rails and port holes. Immaculately detailed and hand-painted, the model will illustrate an important part of lighthouse life for museum visitors.
