Lake Okeechobee South Bay Hazard - Steam Dredge Hamilton Disston

The steam dredge Hamilton Disston it is likely the oldest wreck in Lake Okeechobee and indirectly that wreck represents the beginning of SFWMD. It was constructed by the Menge brothers up on the Kissimmee River. They had never built a dredge. It was too narrow and became unstable, so they had to bolt on pontoons (how the wreck was identified) to the sides (see yellow arrow on second image). That dredge cut both the Caloosahatchee Canal by the lake as well as the first 13miles of the Miami Canal. At that point they encountered a fossilized ridge they could not get through which why pioneers called the canal “13 Mile Canal”. The story of its sinking is the dredge broke off its tender during a storm and was lost. This reported to have occurred between Ritta and Clewiston. However, as you found it is located between Torry and Kreamer. Based on our helicopter flight it was dredging from Pahokee towards the cut between Kreamer and Torrey Island. Now Will (2002) was an early pioneer to the area 1911 stated the cut between Kreamer and Torry already existed when he arrived. The only dredge crews operating in the area that people wouldn’t have a memory off would be the Menges. Bob Carr has found random canals were dug to different properties across south Florida. Basically, a property owner would approach the dredge crew slip them some cash and they would dig an extension. Nobody could really check their progress because the head engineers (like Kreamer) were not on site most of the time. A weeks delay was often explained away by encountering shallow rock or mechanical failures. It can’t be proven but I suspect the Menge’s may have been cutting a pass for somebody to be able to get between Pahokee and the Miami Canal or South Bay without having to get near that reef north of Kreamer Island. The dredge clearly caught fire and that is what likely lead to its sinking