Hurricane Ike uncovers historic ship on Baldwin County beach

[babylonsister]

Ike uncovers historic ship on Baldwin County beach
Friday, September 19, 2008
By Guy Busby
Staff Reporter

FORT MORGAN - A mystery ship uncovered over the decades following storms appears to be a Civil War schooner run aground in 1862 while trying to sneak past the U.S. Navy to enter Mobile Bay, according to one local expert.

The ship reappeared earlier this month after waves created by Hurricane Ike eroded the beach about six miles from Fort Morgan. After examining photographs of the wreck, Shea McLean, marine archaeologist with the Museum of Mobile, said the ship is most likely the Monticello, a two-masted schooner run aground and partially burned on June 26, 1862.

"Based on what we know of ships lost in that area and what I've seen, the Monticello is by far the most likely candidate," McLean said Wednesday. "You can never be 100 percent certain unless you find the bell with 'Monticello' on it, but this definitely fits."

more....

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/1221815716203500.xml&coll=3

[countryjake]

1. Here's the pic...

People look over the wreck of a wooden ship uncovered by Hurricane Ike on a beach on Fort Morgan Road in Fort Morgan, Ala., Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. Archeologists say the wreck could be that of a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later. The wreck had already been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969. Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War. (AP Photo/Press-Register, Guy Busby)

[flstci]

2. How cool is that?!

What I want to know is, where are the bodies?!!! I know there must be some kind of media black out on this. The bodies must have been digitally removed. :sarcasm:

[countryjake]

5. No, they all blew over to Dauphin Island, obviously

and are hanging in trees.

Seriously, this is too neat and I wish they could somehow positively identify the wreck. And it's cool that it's been laying there right at Ft. Morgan all these yrs.

Here's some more pics and info on the find:

http://www.nbc15online.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=912ac129-ea83-4be0-a912-34b83f96efb5&rss=217

Click on the "related links", to see better close-up shots.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Damn!

Look at that white sand. It's too bad Ike didn't wash up some of that white sand to Galveston. :)

[DearAbby]

4. WOW that is amazing...n/t

[BryMan]

6. Eh, probably not that historic

"Bailey said a report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2000 determined that the remains were of the schooner Rachel. The Rachel was built in Moss Point, Miss., in 1919. The vessel ran aground near Fort Morgan in 1933.

Bailey said that while some blockade runners ran aground in that area, the wreck appears to have components, such as steel cables, that date from later than the 1860s. The cables, then, suggest that the vessel is probably the Rachel, rather than the Monticello."