Baja Boat & Shipwrecks

Here's a shot of an old shipwreck we found while kayaking along the Baja coast - Can you guess where?

Do you have any great Baja shipwreck photos to share? Let's see 'em!



greg

[Edited on 1-31-2008 by gringorio]

Punta Banda New Years week

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Another.

"Crazy Annies" in Bahia.





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PUNTA FINAL,LOST SHIP!!!

Here's a photo of the back of Annie's boat, circa 1981. The story I was told is that Annie bought the boat from Papa Diaz, had it moved over on a high tide, set up on the beach. She and her boyfriend were going to live there, but never returned.



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Boats are small enough to be transposted on a ship...so far all that has been displayed is boat wrecks..


Recall this post from several years agoIVING- HUSSONG- COLUMBIA- TREASURE-HISTORY



"It no secret to most "vintage" divers that Hussong's was once a divers hang out. In the 1950 & the early 1960s it was a place that was "Muy Tranquillo." The music was Strauss Viennese walzes played by a group of locals in the corner. The Maggies were huge, served with a glass and the container they were mixed in (at least to the divers) -a few sips and the Cantina was transformed into another time and another place.

Walter Hussong who (I think) was Percy's son was a very knowldgeable experienced pioneer diver and a darn good one. It was only narural that divers of the 1950s and early 1960s would check in on the way south to check on conditions or on the way back to the states to report on the diving.

Walter and Bill Hogan who owned the Underwater Sports shop in Long Beach, California, teamed up in 1956 to salvage what silver remained in the Columbia which was in 200 plus feet of water in or near the La Paz harbor. (To place this in perspective self contained (aka SCUBA) diving was only five (5) years old in the US, equipment was rudimentary crude and dangerous use and unheard of in most of Mexico)

They dove it every day for a month returning with nothing but the ships bell which Bill located 50 feet from the wreck. They "did not find the silver" = and "were poverty stricken."

HOWEVER, There is an epilog to this tale..

With in a year of returning Bill managed to purchase two large lots at the base of the Belmont pier in Long Beach and establish a huge dive operation including one of the first training pools. He then divorced his wife, concurrently losing the dive operation in the process to her. Next he established a "Divers Bar" called "Hogans" which he gave away more than he sold, In about 1960-1 (?) he packed up and moved to Costa Rica where he remarried, raised a daughter and lived the life of a gentleman famer for most of the remainder of his years, departing to to the big reef in the sky about thre years ago--But--- He "never found the treasure of the Columbia."

Walter on the other hand was living the good life in Ensenada. He was aways at the bar always avaliable to drop every thing if he recognized you to "talk diving." However, the good life caused his demise--He was killed out side a bar on the mainland--but Walter also maintained -- "never found the treasure of the Columbia."

That was a ship that was wrecked and sunk.

sdm

Now that we all stand so righfully corrected, this thread was about photos to share. Do you have any SHIP/BOAT wreck photos to add?

Talk about taking the wind out of our sails.

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Edit: to play with the smiley faces. Too bad there's not a yawning one for crusty old farts.

[Edited on 31-1-2008 by Paulina]

Remember this one

Yes - I have some of my own photos of this, but not handy. Here's another shot.

Within one day, the taco stands had been set up, and the beach party was going on on the beach west of where Home Depot is now.

At 880 feet, maybe this qualifies as a ship?






[Edited on 1-31-2008 by Roberto]

This was near Cuatros Casas. I think it was about 1992 or so. I hear it's only a few scraps of metal now:

The wreck of the ferry Salvatierra sits in about 60 fsw in the La Paz channel between the mainland and Isla Espiritu Santo. It has made a GREAT divesite for decades, overgrown with fans and corals and loaded with fish life. It has lots of black coral, which is a little unusual for the Sea of Cortez in my experience. Here is a photo of a longnosed hawkfish in black coral on the wreck I took about 20 years ago. This is almost too much trivia for one post, but black coral is yellow when it is alive:




[Edited on 1-31-2008 by Ken Bondy]

then and now

Quote:

Originally posted by BigWooo This was near Cuatros Casas. I think it was about 1992 or so. I hear it's only a few scraps of metal now:

the "Isla del Carmen" RIP..... we first saw her with nary a bird poop on her deck in the mid-late eighties.

These are all great shots and stories! There's somthing powerful in photos of wrecked ships in the ocean - the power of the wind and water is truly amazing...

Quote:

Originally posted by Roberto Yes - I have some of my own photos of this, but not handy. Here's another shot. Within one day, the taco stands had been set up, and the beach party was going on on the beach west of where Home Depot is now. At 880 feet, maybe this qualifies as a ship? [Edited on 1-31-2008 by Roberto]

This boat has seen better days

Gadget - believe it or not, they missed the harbor!

Well, not quite. They timed the entry wrong, the pilot wasn't there, they tide was coming in, before they knew it they were in shallow water, and after a couple days, they were on the beach!

Took over a month or two (at least) to get it off, too. They unloaded the containers, dredged the beach with a fancy dredger, used 4-5 specialized tugs, with multiple hydraulic winches, were in danger of splitting the hull ... you get the picture. All this equipment had to be brought in special from around the globe.

I lost track after a while, but there was discussion that the ship would be salvage.



The whole amazing story (in photos) is here:
http://photos.signonsandiego.com/gallery1.5/beachedship

[Edited on 2-1-2008 by Roberto]

mexican tragedy..... (redundant)

it seems a south wind will disable even the nimblest of craft.....


SPOT X.....

[Edited on 2-1-2008 by woody in ob]

AHHHH - you're killing me. During BBBB#1 I took that shot and posted it later. Tried to find it for this thread but then I remembered that a certain someone got irate at me because I posted a photo of that person winning a, uh, contest (rightlyfuly so, I might add). I promised to delete it but instead I deleted the entire file - thus lost all my BBBB#1 photos. Well, not all.................

Salt Freighter

Here is the skeleton of a derelict in the shallows off the old pier at the salt pond on Isla Carmen

Isla Angel de la Guarda

Here is a photo of a wreck one half of a minute before it happened.

My brother was bringing in my boat (15' Western side console w/ Suzuki 40 h.p.) if front of my beach house ( I wasn't there yet, still traveling south). He killed the motor because the waves were running up the beach and the water would become shallow. The instant he killed the motor, the boat got sideways, and boom!

He was ok though, he fell onto the sand first and here comes the boat, but between the motor and the console there was a crevace and the boat literally missed him. That is the steering wheel between his legs.

The boat was not the same after that.

Made for a helluva shot though...

[Edited on 4-4-2008 by BajaWarrior]

Yacht with a problem

Don't know the story, but this one was anchored off Loreto on the 27th of last month, and it looks to be pretty heavily damaged. Maybe salvaged.

Baja Warrior

Not exactly a shipwreck...but close.

It was a boatwreck for sure, though.

It happened while we were triple-towing on a fishing trip..truck, 5thWheel, and boat behind fiver. My wife was riding in back and we each had a handheld VHF radio for communication. We had had a little friendly arguement over our destination and then she was noticably quiet for some time.

Then she calls and informs me that..."You know the boat is gone, don't you?"

After slamming the brakes and throwing all loose gear forward in the camper, I made a U-turn and headed back the way we had come. An approaching truck driver waves at me, grins and points back over his shoulder...arggh!

Luckily, it had skidded off the loney highway without crossing lanes and went gently into a wheat field. Tall wheat was the best possible landing pad for that sliding boat. I disconnected the Fiver, hooked up the boat trailer, and winched the boat back on the tiltable EZ-Loader trailer. The safety chain had busted and the winch cable hook was completely gone. I double-roped everything and hauled to nearest village.

I thought I remained very calm throughout the whole affair.

Skid marks

The whole nine yards.

It occured to me that some might wonder what all that rolling stock looks like...almost 75ft long all told.

Here it is. We do it a lot where allowed, just don't like losing the boat anymore and it is very secure!!

Saw this old Panga in San Ignacio on the little oasis of a lake

Rebirth of a Baja veteran

Bruno, not sure what kind of wood it was, but the Panga was still sitting on the edge of the lagoon in San Igancio in Don Chon's campground when we stayed there a month ago.

Maybe it shouldnt be called a boat wreck? I'll bet someone still uses it, although it was dripping with character

A sad little boat

Saw this thing on it's side in Puerto Carranza in Guerrero negro


Then this thing was just amazing to me that it was still floating with the amount of bird crap on it! Last date registered was in December of 97 out of California
Saw it morred off of Playa El Coyote


This one was on the beach at Playa Burro. I'm not much of a boater, but dont sail boats usually have a large keel under them?

Quote:

Originally posted by jdtrotter

JDtrotter, I'm confused as to what that thing even is?

Quote:

Originally posted by EMAM Quote: Originally posted by jdtrotter JDtrotter, I'm confused as to what that thing even is?

ENAM

San Juanico

Can you imagine finishing a bottle of tequila and sitting on the beach, and having that whale boat pass by you

Oh man would that be funny!!

Mexican dry dock

Beyond the boat is the "Blowhole"

Saw this old relic peeking out from the waves while we took the dirt road to Punta Abreojos from Asuncion



By how rusted it looks, something tells me it's been here for a few years