Page 56 - Panama City Living May/June 2019

SHIPWRECKS ON DOG ISLAND
storm. “Not one of the fleet can be saved,”
it observed; the losses included three pilot boats, the steamers Iola and Capitola, six lumber lighters, and 40 boats under 20 tons.
According to the bureau’s survey report,
in the early 1960s, Thorvald Iversen, a Norwegian man who had once sailed on the Norwegian lumber bark Vale and survived the storm onboard the ship, returned to Dog Island at the age of 86 to see the spot where he had been shipwrecked. He pointed out an area where he recalled the Vale to have beached after the storm. Measurement and analysis of the artifacts recovered suggests that the hull remains identified as Dog Island Shipwreck #2 in the survey is the Vale.
Famed American treasure hunter Mel Fisher, prompted by a tip from a local resident
who reported he had information about a possible shipwreck site, visited the area in 1994. The vessel in question was supposedly a Spanish treasure galleon, possibly the Santa Anna Maria Juncal, which is the earliest wreck documented. It is believed that it was wrecked in the vicinity of Dog Island in 1611 while carrying silver bullion believed to be worth millions back then. Fisher conducted magnetometer surveys but was unsuccessful in his search.
While the existence of these shipwrecks is well documented, the final resting place of the vast majority of them might remain a
Above left: Wrecked vessels on Dog Island following the 1899 hurricane. From left: The Norwegian bark "Jafnhar"[or Jafnar]; the American schooner "James A. Garfield" (in foreground); another U.S. schooner, the "Mary E. Morse" (beyond the Garfield); the Russian bark "Latara"[or Latava] (dismasted, beyond the Morse); another Norwegian bark "Ranavola" [or Ronavola] (mast visible in foreground); the American barkentine "Vidette"[or Vivette] (in the distance next to the Morse); the Norwegian bark "Vale" (to the right of Garfield); and the Italian bark "Cortesia"[or Corteria] (beyond the tugboat at the far right). Courtesy of the State Library & Archives of Florida
56 • May–June 2019 • www.PanamaCityLiving.com
mystery. Mollema says that after a dynamic storm event, there is always an increase in the number of phone calls and emails from locals. “People report ship timbers washing ashore, or erosion will expose new aspects of a site; this is especially true in the area of Dog Island because the bottom is most exclusively sand that gets moved around easily from a storm’s energy.”
Remains from two different ships re-appeared on the southern edge of Dog Island after Hurricane Michael—portions of a bow, protruding upwards about 6 feet from the beach, and remnants of a hull. The recent events spurred Mollema and his team to investigate further and he describes the analysis as a process of elimination in consideration of the clues presented. “Based on measurements of the different pieces that are revealed, we have a general idea of the size of the ship; the different aspects of ship construction allow us to determine a general idea of the date of the ship’s construction.” In the case of the bow remains, following an
analysis of its sheathing, it was determined to be made of Muntz metal, which was not used in shipbuilding until 1832, so we know from the first clue this ship was built after that.” Mollema explains that the timber dimensions offered the next significant finding. “Based on the well-documented insurance requirements of the time, it was a sizeable vessel, perhaps 600 to 800 tons.”
With these two clues, coupled with the fact that the end of the timbers appeared to be charred, Mollema had enough information to turn to historical data available from the Record of American and Foreign Shipping archives. Mollema believes the ship is the 673-ton Fanny Holmes, a coastal trader carrying a shipment of cotton that sank when a spark from a stevedore’s pipe caused a fire on April 3, 1860. The archives revealed that it was the only ship lost in the region at that time that fit the clues.
Mollema notes that one of the hulls revealed by Hurricane Michael is still mostly buried in