Two Boats from Biloxi – the schooner Rachel and the yacht Nydia

December 3, 2009 · Filed Under Current, History, Lore of the Sea, Ships 

rachel-sTwo sailing vessels from Biloxi, Mississippi are in the news this week.  One, the schooner Rachel of 1918, has reappeared from beneath the sand on the beach six miles east of Fort Morgan, Alabama, and the other, the yacht Nydia of 1898,  in considerably better shape, is being brought back from New Orleans for restoration and display at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi.

Mystery schooner revealed again on Fort Morgan peninsula

When Tropical Storm Ida struck Nov. 10, the charred wooden hull reappeared on the beach six miles east of Fort Morgan.   The wreck is most likely to be the three-masted schooner Rachel, which ran aground on the peninsula in the first half of the 1900s, according to Mike Bailey, Fort Morgan events coordinator.

“We’re 95 percent sure that’s it. At 155 feet long, it was one of the largest Biloxi schooners built,” he said. “It was built as a lumber schooner and was carrying a load of lumber when it ran into a storm.   It didn’t have a full crew and they couldn’t handle the ship in the storm. They put out an anchor, but it ran aground.”   The Rachel was built by John DeAngelo in Moss Point in 1918.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineer records report that the ship wrecked in 1933, Bailey said, but the builder’s grandson, Ken DeAngelo of Grand Bay, has records indicating that the Rachel swept onto the beach in 1923.

In addition to the uncertainty as to when the Rachel came ashore there appears to be some question as to the circumstances.  In describing the lumber schooner Rachel built in 1918 at the same shipyard,  Ken DeAngelo, on the Schoonerman website, writes that the schooner was “said to have been burned at sea for the insurance shortly after completion,”  which would agree with the accounts of charred timbers.

The yacht Nydia, built in 1898, is also returning to Biloxi after fifty years at Tulane University.

Nautical treasure sailboat goes to Biloxi museum

The Nydia, built about 1898 at the Johnson Shipyard, “represents the ultimate in boat-building skills, a pure example of Biloxi boat building,” said Robin Krohn David, executive director of the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi.

Alongside Biloxi’s Back Bay, the Nydia was constructed of cypress and steam-bent oak at the shipyard owned by William N. Johnson, a Biloxi native with a reputation for fabricating fast boats.

Click here for a news video on the return of the Nydia

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Comments

One Response to “Two Boats from Biloxi – the schooner Rachel and the yacht Nydia”

  1. Ken De Angelo on December 31st, 2009 11:05 pm

    http://picasaweb.google.com/Kenneth.DeAngelo/SchoonerRachelPhotoBookComingEmailForInfo?feat=directlink

    See the link above for Schooner Rachel info.

    My Rachel Photo Book is in the final stages.

    Ken De Angelo

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