Deadman's Island, Gulf Breeze: How It Really Got Its Name

Q: How did Deadman's Island in Gulf Breeze get its name?

From a piece of ship's tackle, not from the dead. A deadman is a buried anchor, typically a log or block sunk in the ground, that a vessel is winched against. Deadman anchors were used at this site to careen ships, meaning to haul them over on their side so the hull below the waterline could be cleaned and repaired. The location was a British Royal Navy careenage known as Old Navy Cove. The island's later use as a quarantine station, and the burials associated with it, came about a century afterwards and are not the origin of the name.

Q: Are there really coffins on Deadman's Island?

Yes. The island served as a naval quarantine station in the 19th century, where vessels entering Pensacola Bay were held and crews inspected during the era of yellow fever. People who died in quarantine were buried there. Erosion has since exposed graves, including hexagonal coffins uncovered in 2008. This history is real, but it postdates the name by roughly a hundred years.

Q: What was found in the Deadman's Island shipwreck?

The wreck excavated off Deadman's Island in 1989 was an abandoned British sloop from the British period in West Florida, 1763 to 1781. The project was sponsored jointly by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, and served as the first underwater archaeology field school of its kind. In 1994 storm erosion exposed three barrel wells on the shoreline, which yielded shoes, wine bottles, an aqua glass ink well, ceramics, nails and spikes dating from the mid to late 1800s.

Q: Can you visit Deadman's Island?

Yes. Deadman's Island at Old Navy Cove is owned by the City of Gulf Breeze and is publicly accessible. It sits on the Pensacola Bay side of the Fairpoint Peninsula, off Fairpoint Drive.

Deadman's Island, Gulf Breeze, Florida: a low wooded peninsula and marsh seen across a tidal pond, with a segmented rock breakwater lying offshore in Pensacola Bay. — Deadman’s Island from the south, looking across the tidal pond to Pensacola Bay. The dark line offshore is the segmented rock breakwater the City of Gulf Breeze set out to take the energy out of the waves before they reach the bank.

The name has nothing to do with the dead

In sailors' usage a deadman is not a corpse. It 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, it was how a wooden ship stayed seaworthy. It took deep water close inshore, a firm bank to work from, and something immovable to winch against.

This spot had all three. During the British occupation of West Florida the Royal Navy used it as a careenage, and the cove has carried the name Old Navy Cove ever since.² The deadmen were the anchors they hauled against. The island is named after the ground tackle.

The plain version. Deadman's Island is named for a piece of equipment, not for anybody buried there. The maritime sense of the word is older, it is specific to exactly the activity that made this cove valuable, and it predates the burials by roughly a century.

Why the wrong story is so convincing

Because there really are dead men on Deadman's Island.

In the nineteenth century the site served as a naval quarantine station. Ships bound for Pensacola stopped here first and their crews were inspected, in an era when yellow fever could empty a port. Not everyone who was held here left. The dead were buried on the island.³

And then the water started taking the ground back. In 2008 erosion exposed six hexagonal coffins.³ Which looks, to anyone standing there, like proof.

It isn't proof, and this is the interesting part. Finding dead men on Deadman's Island tells you nothing about where the name came from. The name was already old when the quarantine station opened. What happened in 2008 was that a coincidence got dressed up as a confirmation, and a folk etymology that was already the more repeatable story became almost impossible to dislodge.

Both halves of the island's history are real. Only one of them is the etymology.

What is actually buried here

1763 to 1781Britain holds West Florida. The Royal Navy careens ships at Old Navy Cove. A sloop from this period is abandoned in the shallows and stays there.
19th centuryThe site operates as a naval quarantine station during the yellow fever era. Burials follow.
1989The wreck is excavated in a project sponsored jointly by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research. It serves as 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.
2008Erosion exposes six hexagonal coffins.

There is also the remains of a naval railroad on the site, part of the apparatus for getting cargo off ships and onto land.² For a strip of scrub and sand that most people drive past, the density of what is underneath it is remarkable.

The island is losing

Every discovery on that list happened the same way. The water took more ground, and something came out of it.

That is not a series of lucky breaks. It is a slow emergency. The 1994 barrel wells had originally stood some distance inland; by the time they surfaced the shoreline had moved past them.² The coffins surfaced the same way. Each find is a measure of how much has gone.

The City of Gulf Breeze, which owns the site, has worked to hold what is left, including a segmented rock breakwater set out in the bay, built to take the energy out of the waves before they reach the bank.

One correction to how this usually gets described. That breakwater carries natural oysters. They recruited there on their own, the way oysters do on any hard structure in these waters. It is not a harvested reef and it was never stocked to be one. Accounts that describe an oyster fishery out there are describing something that does not exist. What it is, is rock doing its job with oysters growing on it.

Going to see it

Deadman's Island is owned by the City of Gulf Breeze and it is open to the public, off Fairpoint Drive on the Pensacola Bay side.² There is no visitor center and very little signage. You walk out onto a low spit of sand and scrub with water on both sides.

Two things worth knowing before you go. It is an archaeological site and a burial ground, so nothing there is a souvenir. And the best of it is underwater and invisible; what you are looking at 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 for most of my life, and I still had the name story wrong until I went and checked.

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Common 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 burials came about a century later and are not the origin of the name.

Are there really coffins on Deadman's Island?

Yes. The island was a naval quarantine station in the nineteenth century and people who died in quarantine were buried there. Erosion exposed six hexagonal coffins in 2008. The history is real; it just is not the etymology.

What was found in the Deadman's Island shipwreck?

An abandoned British sloop from the British period in West Florida, 1763 to 1781, excavated in 1989 by the City of Gulf Breeze, the University of West Florida and the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research.

Can you visit Deadman's Island?

Yes. The City of Gulf Breeze owns it and it is publicly accessible off Fairpoint Drive. 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.

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. ↩
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; 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 a naval railroad forming part of the cargo unloading area. ↩
Nineteenth century naval quarantine station and associated burials; six hexagonal coffins exposed by erosion in 2008. ↩
Observation that the breakwater carries natural oyster recruitment rather than a harvested or stocked reef is the author’s own, from living opposite the site.