FORT MORGAN — The schooner Rachel, a 150-foot long, three-mast cargo ship, has emerged from the sand again.

She was exposed after Hurricanes Ivan (2004), Ike (2008) and Isaac last week. According to local records, the wreckage was first uncovered during Camille in 1969.

It was determined to be built by the John DeAngelo and Sons Boatyard in Moss Point, Miss., in 1919. Many thanks to Ken DeAngelo who provided detailed drawings of the ship, construction notes, family history and other information which facilitated her identification.

The Rachel was built to service the expanding lumber trade along the coast. She was launched in 1919 and wrecked during an unnamed tropical storm on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 1923.

At the time of her loss she was owned by the Van Heynigen Brokerage Company and captained by Captain N. C. Williams with a crew of seven. No lives were lost in the wreck.

Soon after the wreck, the Rachel was evaluated by salvage captains from Mobile and determined to be high and dry aground and de-masted. Salvage Capt. C.M. Daughrill of the tug Harry G. Lytle stated that the Rachel had been driven so far ashore by the storm that she would need to be “dug off the shore.”

As a result, she was stripped and simply abandoned where she lay. Soon afterwards her remains caught fire in “suspicious circumstances.” Her remains lay today where they were in 1923 - well above the high tide line, a few miles east of Fort Morgan.

They are usually buried deep in the sand, however they are periodically exposed by storm surge from hurricanes and tropical storms.

The Rachel is a great and unique piece of local history and the story of her wrecking is well known to many old timers. The Rachel is also mentioned in the 1986 book "Well, I've Never Met a Native" by Joy Callaway Buskins, where she talks about her father and the wreck of the Rachel in 1923.