1936, The Ohioan, salvaged off Point Lobos
.
FACTS
The Ohioan was a steam powered
5,153-ton freighter built in Maryland in 1914. Operated by the American-Hawaiian
Steamship Company she was requisitioned for use in World War I transporting
material and troops to Europe. After the war the ship went into service
between the east and west coasts of the United States via the Panama Canal.
In early October, 1936, she
was nearing the Golden Gate with a cargo of washing machines, trucks and
general merchandise. Her captain and the pilot who had come on board
lost their bearings in a thick fog. Narrowly missing Seal Rock, the Ohioan
ran aground off Point Lobos, casting a sea of sparks into the night air
as her steel hull hit the rocks. She came to rest 100 yards off shore and
the following day her crew was rescued and barges started a salvage operation.
Huge crowds came and watched as cargo was transferred in heavy seas crashing
over her stern.
The salvage rights were sold
at auction to William Mitchell for $2,800.20 who continued to take cargo
and gear from the ship for the next several months. In the process the
Ohioan was set afire when a workman torched spoiled meat and flames spread
threatening to set off dynamite left on the ship for salvage operations.
Nine thousand gallons of crude oil were still on board. An explosion would
foul the surrounding waters and beach and threaten the entrance to the
Golden Gate. Mitchell and Joseph Rosenberg rowed out to the ship and, while
holding the flames at bay, threw the dynamite overboard.
Mitchell finally managed to
remove virtually all the machinery and furnishings and sold the scrap metal
rights. But the rusted hulk of the Ohioan remained off Point Lobos until
a winter storm finally broke up the ship two years later.
.
FICTION
Salvage Rights
(What $2,800.20 will get you at auction.)
Washing machines, tumbled dry.
Tub fulls of stinky black crude oil.
Pig and cattle carcasses, remnanted and sour.
Herniated trucks with axles
pinioned to truckbeds.
Four upholstered chairs, innards exploded.
Canned tomatoes, case cracked and seam split.
Aspirin, eyewash and bicarbonate of soda,
formerly packaged.
Cooking utensils, crusted with fish stew.
A hundred retold stories, each unprintable.
And a thousand gallons of mean smoke,
filtered through dynamite.
