Posted by Patrick Smith on December 12, 2004 at 14:44:29:
In Reply to: shipwreck posted by Geoge on December 10, 2004 at 08:22:46:
Just took a look at the BBS messages I've missed now that my gear is drying.
I did a quick search , and all I can say is someone screwed up big time.
USCG records state the gas-screw vessel Signal Hill (O.N. 257836) foundered (read sunk)"in Catalina Channel, Calif., 39 degrees, 29 minutes, 3 seonds, N. Lat., 118 degrees, 51 minutes, 1 second W. Long.
A quick plot places this location somewhere in NW Nevada - between Sparks and Fallon, roughly. The scale on the chart I had at hand was very large and I couldn't be very precise, but that sure isn't the Catalina Channel. Heck, it isn't even Lake Tahoe.
Someone fritzed the location on this one if it did indeed go down in the Channel. Try looking through microfilm copies of local papers and see if this event was important enough merit some column space.
Sort of like the American Boy's location where for years her "official" sinking position plotted out in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu Pier, behind what would become Pepperdine University. Much better b.t had she really been there. ;-)
Stay wet.
Patrick Smith