Land below the high tide line is defined as "public" in Florida. This
means we all have the right to use it, supposedly.
The incident (roughly 1990) was extensively covered in local paper the
"Tallahassee Democrat" but mostly from the marine Patrol point of view
as the local paper will go to any length to keep from criticizing state
govt in the state capitol. Local people will give you the real story.
If you really want to know, go into some of the longer lived
restaurants or bars along the coast from St. Marks to Carabelle and ask
about the yellowing newspaper clippings hanging on the walls about the
incident. The wreck was visible for weeks from the shore of Alligator
Point and I motored within 50 yards of it several times before it was
removed. The Marine Patrol officer who was issuing a net ban ticket in
Dog Island Sound at the time of the incident claimed at first that he
didn't hear the distress call on Ch 16 but later said that his VHF was
turned off while he wrote the ticket. Either way, something is wrong.
Two years later, another local was lost in the same area and the Marine
Patrol conducted a half assed search and gave up. A friend of mine
chartered a small plane and he and and a pilot flew back and forth over
the area and found him. Jack leaned out the open cockpit and dropped
water and a hand held VHF so that he could be rescued.