Modern Day Wrecker Reef Perkins: “Sex, Salvage & Secrets” Now In Print

So, Key West and its legendary wrecking and salvage industry…  The galleons overloaded with treasure, the shallow reefs, the hurricanes, the imprecision of ancient celestial navigation were all causes of an abundance of shipwrecks around Key West back in the ‘old days’.  But what about today?  According to Captain Reef Perkins, a salvage Captain in Key West for 35 years, the modern salvage industry in Key West is just as colorful and active as it was 100 years ago.  Reef’s new book “Sex, Salvage & Secrets” sheds unexpected light onto the rarely publicized ins and outs of shipwrecks, buried gold and Key West’s economic ups and downs, when the worst part of the recession was the fact that all the prettiest dancing girls were leaving town.

Among other things, Perkin’s book finally answered our questions about the mysterious grounding of the “Columbus Iselin”.  The “Iselin” was a research vessel owned by the University of Miami.  One day in August of 1994 while surveying the reef near Looe Key, the Iselin unexpectedly veered off-course and ran hard aground.  No mechanical failure was found.  The boat was equipped with a state of the art navigation system.   Captain Perkins was hired to salvage the boat, which had caused $2 Million of damage to the pristine coral reef.

Well, according to Captain Perkins, after three and one-half years of official inquiry, the government investigator concluded discretely that flatulence was to blame.  In other words, what happened was that someone in the pilothouse had eased out such a foul, eye-tearing, metal-tarnishing fart that both pilots rushed out in self-defense.  They kept accusing each other, neglecting the helm.  The boat came to an abrupt stop, after climbing onto the reef.

Perkins is above all else a Key Wester.  One of the most extraordinary aspects of Key West life is the large percentage of people who, young or old, seem to have mysteriously washed up on our shores, survivors of some far away storm in some other part of the world.  Those people that you see everyday, who by discretion will never tell you (and you’ll never ask) what their storm was about.  This is a book about one of us and his storm; the one that led him here, through war and perdition, to finally find (he would deny this) some measure of peace.

Being in the salvage business myself, I had the privilege of being there during some of those salvage operations with Reef Perkins, the “hero”, as we call him (who else would dare put so many pictures of himself in his book?).  Now I don’t know if he knows about that nickname, so don’t tell him I told you.   After all I myself appear in the book as the “fearless frog”.  (I’m French.)

So now this book comes out… and it’s great.  I always knew Reef had a way with words.  I remember when the Fury parasail boat impaled itself onto a knocked down day marker in the Northwest Channel – an unbelievable collision.  After rescuing the boat, Reef, Eric Denhart, and I met with the insurance agent.  I must have said something like “zee boat was going to zink.”   Eric said,  “Sir, only Dorothy in the Tornado was in more trouble than that boat.” And Reef said, “Are you kidding me, it hit so hard, I could see the imprint of the Captain’s balls in the steering wheel.”   Now that’s poetry.

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You can meet Reef during his joint book signing event with author Michael Haskins this Saturday, July 27th, 4-6 p.m. at Smokin’ Tuna Saloon, 4 Charles St in Old Town Key West.  Reef Perkins will debut his much-anticipated memoir, Sex, Salvage & Secrets. Published by Absolutely Amazing eBooks in both digital and print versions.