Our friends at Telstar Logistics keep sending us great stories. Last week they brought us “New Yorkers call 911 on dockwise ship” (hey I am the one from Manhattan) and today they bring us this story, “Ghost Ship Surfaces on San Francisco Beach”. The ship turns out to be a three-masted clipper ship King Philip, which was built in Maine in 1856. It was definitely a working ship. For those working on the Asphalt Commander I think they have you beat:
According to the records, which are frequently less romantic than the speculation, the ship spent much of its career carrying bird manure fertilizer around the world. In its last years, it carried lumber from the Pacific Northwest to San Francisco.
On Jan. 25, 1878, it was towed by a tug through the Golden Gate, then laid anchor to allow the tug to assist a nearby vessel in distress, according to historian Stephen Haller. The anchor didn’t hold, however, and the King Philip drifted onto the sand at Ocean Beach, where it foundered.
For Telestar’s take on the story navigate here.
