The Ghost Ship in the Surf
A speculative salvage mission seeks to recover a fortune in iron rails from a shipwrecked vessel buried in the sand.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Paul A. Mohr of Tacoma and A. M. Cannon of Spokane were in Hoquiam on Friday. The day following, they, in company with Mayor F. D. Arnold, proceeded to Oyehut and from there up the beach where lies the ship Abercorn, which was wrecked off the coast more than a year ago en route to Portland from England with iron rails. Sometime ago Mr. Mohr bought the wreck at a very low figure as a speculation, and it is now his intention to devise some means by which the iron may be removed from the wreck. The vessel lies about five hundred feet from shore and at low water, portions of it can be seen protruding from the water. Mr. Mohr will proceed at once to build a wharf out to the wreck, when a hoisting machine will be used in extricating the iron rails; a track will be laid to Oyehut from which point the rails will be shipped to Portland. Mr. Mohr is interested in a railroad project in Oregon which will require about twenty-five miles of rails, and there is said to be about that amount on the Abercorn.
“The vessel lies about five hundred feet from shore and at low water, portions of it can be seen protruding from the water.”
The shifting sands of the North Beach Peninsula have claimed many vessels, but few remain as literal anchors for local legends like the Abercorn. Modern coastal engineering often deals with erosion, but in 1891, the challenge was turning a maritime disaster into a supply chain for the expanding railroad network of the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.