by Debbie Williams
Published: Mon, September 29, 2008 - 3:26 pm CST
Last Updated: Mon, September 29, 2008 - 4:37 pm CST
It's been making appearances on the beach near Fort Morgan since Hurricane Camille blew through in 1969. But the latest resurrection of what some believe is a civil war era ship, maybe its last.Piece by piece, the ship uncovered by the wind and water of Hurricane Ike several weeks ago, is disappearing. It's not mother nature that is reclaiming her, it's souvenir hunters. "That's horrible they don't have someone protecting it. If it is historical they should have someone protecting it," says Ron Nesmith who drove from Sumerton, Alabama specifically to see the wreckage.
This is the fourth time Nancy Cantrell from Warrior, has visited the ship. "A lot of metal spikes and nails and things that were laying there are gone and someone has tried to cut off the big brass thing on one end of the ship, that's sad."
Historians speculate the ship is a civil war era blockade runner or the schooner "Rachel" that sank in 1933. "What's amazing to me," says Nesmith, "is that its been on the beach all this time with all these homes around it and people and walking across it and never seeing it not knowing it's there."
The identity of the ship may not matter. Unless it disappears under the sand again or something is done to preserve what remains, it maybe lost forever.
Most historians seem to agree the remains are that of the "Monticello" a confederate battle ship that ran aground while trying to outrun the U.S. Navy. The schooner "Rachel" and the rum-runner "Aurora" have also been mentioned as possibilities.
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