Manual Can Opener from Cuban Refugee Chug

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A claw or lever-type can opener recovered from an abandoned Cuban “chug” ca. 2010, at the Marquesas Keys, Florida. Chugs are the small refugee boats that carried freedom-seeking people from Cuba to the US. With the end of the “wet-foot/dry-foot” policy in 2107, which allowed Cuban refugees who reached US shores automatic asylum, the chugs have generally stopped coming. The can opener is a hand-operated tool that features a large curved blade with a guard on the other end to stop it from penetrating deep into the can. To use it, the lid along the rim of the can was punctured; the pointed blade was driven into the can, and levered back and forth along the edge, cutting the lid open, bit by bit. This can opener is part of the Benjamin “Dink” Bruce collection donated to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in 2017.