Editing Key West (section)

===Ownership claims===
In 1815, the [[List of colonial heads of Cuba|Spanish governor of Cuba]] in Havana [[deed]]ed the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the [[Spanish Navy|Royal Spanish Navy Artillery]] posted in [[Saint Augustine, Florida]]. After Florida was transferred to the United States in 1821, Salas was so eager to sell the island that he sold it twice&nbsp;– first for a sloop valued at $575 to a General [[John Geddes (politician)|John Geddes]], a former governor of [[South Carolina]], and then to a U.S. businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana café on January 19, 1822, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos in 1821. Geddes tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton who, with the aid of some influential friends in Washington, was able to gain clear title to the island. Simonton had wide-ranging business interests in [[Mobile, Alabama]]. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention to the opportunities presented by the island's strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a [[shipwreck]] in 1819 and he had been impressed by the potential offered by the deep harbor of the island. The island was indeed considered the "[[Gibraltar]] of the West" because of its strategic location on the {{convert|90|mi|km|-1|adj=on}}–wide deep shipping lane, the [[Straits of Florida]], between the Atlantic Ocean and the [[Gulf of Mexico]].

On March 25, 1822, Lt. Commander [[Matthew C. Perry]] sailed the schooner {{USS|Shark|1821|6}} to Key West and planted the U.S. flag, claiming the Keys as United States property.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jerry Wilkinson |url=http://www.keyshistory.org/keywest.html |title=History of Key West |publisher=Florida Keys History Museum |access-date=August 29, 2012}}</ref> No protests were made over the American claim on Key West, so the Florida Keys became the ''de facto'' property of the United States.

After claiming the Florida Keys for the United States, Perry renamed ''Cayo Hueso'' (Key West) to Thompson's Island for [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] [[Smith Thompson]], and the harbor Port Rodgers in honor of [[War of 1812]] hero and President of the Navy Supervisors Board [[John Rodgers (naval officer, War of 1812)|John Rodgers]]. In 1823, [[Commodore (United States)|Commodore]] [[David Porter (naval officer)|David Porter]] of the [[United States Navy]] [[West Indies]] Anti-[[Pirate]] Squadron took charge of Key West, which he ruled as military dictator under [[martial law]]. The United States Navy gave Porter the mission of countering piracy and the slave trade in the Key West area.