From September 7th Yahoo! News "Shifting sands from Isaac reveal 1923 shipwreck" by Melissa Nelson Gabriel.
Last week, I wrote about the shipwreck that turned up on shore near Mobile, Alabama's Fort Morgan by Hurricane Isaac. At the time, there was some conjecture as to whether or not the ship was a blockade-runner.
The schooner Rachel's eight man crew ran aground Oct. 17, 1923, during a tropical storm. It was heading for Mobile after a stop in Cuba. All survived, fortunately, as the storm sank another schooner with the loss of all aboard.
The ship was later burned and eventually covered up by sand until Hurricane Camille in 1969, when its burnt timbers were again seen. Sand was pushed over its remains, only to be revealed again by 1979's Hurricane Frederick and 2004's Ivan.
Michael Bailey saw the 20th century features on the remains and also found a US Army Corps of Engineers mention of it in a shipwreck study. (So, it definitely was a blockade-runner, too bad.)
The Rachel was built at Mosspoint, Mississippi, at the De Angelo Shipyard and was a common ship for her time. However, considering that she was coming from Cuba in 1923, she might very-well have been bringing in bootleg liquor because of Prohibition.
Hurricane Isaac uncovered the ship more than any of the others storms.
Now, it must be intentionally recovered with sand because of the danger of people receiving cuts, scrapes and bruises from climbing on it.
Hopefully, it will still be uncovered this January-February when we're in the area. I'd definitely like to see it.
Let It "Live" a Few Months Longer. --Old B-Runner
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