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Dead Reckoning
by Capt. John E. Rains
Ghost stories from Baja California and the Sea of Cortez
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In Mexico, the gringo holiday of Halloween has slowly crept into modern life. You see “piñatas” made to look like jack-o-lanterns, wicked witches on broomsticks and arching black cats, all hanging from the rafters in the mercados. In Baja California’s larger towns, the children don costumes (usually depicting the Moors who invaded Spain), so they can visit their neighbors and ask for sweet treats (no tricks).
However, Mexico has a slightly edgier traditional holiday -- Day of the Dead -- that is celebrated on November 1. On Day of the Dead, all God-fearing Christians are supposed to make a pilgrimage to the cemeteries, many of which are located along the coastlines. There, the mourners clean the gravestones of their relatives and spread a special meal over the grave -- a meal to which the ghostly spirits are invited.
Day of the Dead foods are decorated with black icing and morbid white skulls dripping red from their eye sockets. Children giggle nervously as they nibble, their eyes wide and expectant.
Incense and candles are burned in special holders that depict leering red devils with cloven hooves, pointy horns and long twitching tails. The mourners themselves put on colorful -- and very weird -- carved masks of ghouls, goblins and fierce monsters that are meant to scare the devil back where he belongs.
You see, the restless spirits of the dead are never far below the surface of the collective consciousness in Mexico, and if the devil’s filthy lucre was involved in their tragic deaths, the spirits sometimes seek revenge. It’s especially true for those who lost their lives in the briny deep.
Dead Men’s Cove
Near Mulege and Bahia Concepcion, several young sailors and the oldest vessel in Mexico’s merchant marine met their fates together on the reefs off the Islas Santa Ynez, just a mile southeast of Punta Chivato.
The venerable Abel Miranda was built in 1859, and she was the last “rag sailor” -- a much-loved training vessel -- in Mexico’s Armada when she was lost on these rocks in 1957. Although the many tidal rocks of Islas Santa Ynez are well within sight of shore, anyone who tries to swim to safety could be pummeled by the breakers, shredded by the razor-sharp encrustations and swept farther out to sea by the merciless current.
Today, two light towers mark the north and south ends of the Islas Santa Ynez. Anchoring and snorkeling are possible over the 18-foot-deep shoals just east of the southernmost island -- right about where Abel Miranda met her maker.
We don’t know how many sailors’ lives were lost during what was then called “the Miranda Disaster,” nor how many of their restless spirits still haunt these waters. However, according to newspaper archives at the San Diego Historical Society, decades later a number of mysterious “fat gold coins” was reported to have washed up on one particular white-sand beach near Punta Chivato.
Were they medals? Were they memorial coins to be awarded to the cadets? Were they part of some secret treasure being transported by the military? No one knows.
Where exactly did they wash up? In a pleasant little spot called Caleta Muertos -- Dead Men’s Cove.
Ghost Town
Not far from Puerto Escondido and Loreto, a real-life ghost town (pardon the pun) lies on the uninhabited island of Carmen, hidden away from civilization on its eastern shoreline. All that remains of an ancient volcano crater in the low center of the island is a dry salt lake.
For centuries, the rise and fall of the tides generated thick layers of salt, which was highly prized by the Pericue natives, then by their Spanish conquerors. Legends say that hundreds of slaves died of thirst and hunger here while being forced to mine the precious salt, and that their spirits still roam the pretty beach in search of water and food.
Pangueros from Agua Verde and Loreto seldom would come ashore at the site they had dubbed La Salina.
However, in the early 1970s, a mainland company ignored the ghost stories and chose La Salina for their new salt-evaporation plant. Since no one lived on the island, they constructed a complete town containing three stone factory buildings, wooden barracks for 20 families of workers, a one-room schoolhouse, a tiny chapel and a huge pier.
Over the next 10 years, thousands of tons of salt were scraped off the lake, shoveled into bags, carried onto small ships at the pier and delivered to dozens of tiny fish-packing plants that the government was developing on both sides of the Baja Peninsula. Cut off from the world, the salt miners had to rely on the company store, which was provisioned by a small boat that arrived from Guaymas only once a month.
The rebellious spirit of abused slaves may have risen from the lake, because in 1982, labor disputes reportedly led the factory owners to fire all the workers and shut down La Salina without warning. During the sudden evacuation of the town, the stunned workers were forced to abandon their homes and belongings -- except what they could carry on their backs.
They were herded onto the deck of the Guaymas supply boat, which carried them away the same day. It deposited them, sobbing and broken, on the mainland shore to look for new lives.
Today, the wind moans through dangling screen door on the remains of the workers homes at La Salina, and flips the leaves of yellowed 1982 calendars. The more recent shipwreck that lies in shallow water off the end of La Salina’s tumbled-down pier is said to be the same ill-fated supply boat, returned here to die in shame.
Displaced ghosts still haunt the silent salt lake, but they are kept at bay from the ghost town by a brave priest who burns candles in the chapel. However, even he abandons La Salina on the Day of the Dead.
Lost off La Paz
Another shipwreck, Salvatierra, lies in 57 feet of water only 13 unlucky miles north of La Paz harbor. Unlike the Abel Miranda, only the life of the valiant ship was lost, not the people she carried -- thus rendering the Salvatierra (meaning “safe ground”) a less ghastly shipwreck.
The 360 foot Salvatierra had been a U.S. Navy LST serving in World War II before its second incarnation as a Mexican cargo ferry. In 1976, when she struck Suwanee Rocks (named for a previous shipwreck), Salvatierra blew her horn and signaled rescuers from La Paz.
The crew and captain made it off, but the ship went to the bottom with its holds full of commercial trucks and their semi-trailers. Sponges and fans now bedeck these bulky trucks that undoubtedly still long to roam up and down their beloved Highway 1. Perhaps it is their unmuffled mechanical spirits we hear grinding gears and downshifting sadly into the long night -- audible in almost every anchorage in Baja California.
Sharks and sea lions swim in and out of Salvatierra’s crushed bridge, which lies less than 25 feet below the surface, just east of the San Lorenzo Channel Light, south of Isla Espiritu Santo (Holy Ghost Island).
According to Baja Expeditions, a charter group in La Paz that guides sport divers to Salvatierra, two wrecks were intentionally sunk nearby in 60 feet of water, namely Santa Cruz and Becky Lynne. A long tether between the three hulks allows divers to explore them all without getting lost. Three other wrecks have been sunk as artificial reefs and dive spots near Isla Ballena on the west side of Holy Ghost Island.
Murphy’s Ghost
On the Pacific side of Baja California, near Bahia Magdalena, a devilish current sweeps the unwary into the shallows northeast of Cabo San Lazaro. In 1870, the massive side-wheeler Golden City was en route to San Francisco when she smashed up on the beach with all hands and crew -- and an enviable treasure in golden bars.
It was reported in newspapers of the day that lifeboats were launched by Capt. Comstock. However, during the scramble and squabbles that accompanied their rescue, one James Murphy and several passengers were killed -- by sabers. Obviously, someone was not behaving well in a crisis.
The survivors walked safely ashore on Isla Magdalena, the barrier island that forms the north end of Bahia Magdalena. It is connected to Baja California by a sand spit, so they could have walked to civilization -- if they had known where they were. Ignorance combined with the spirit of melodrama, though, and the survivors immediately began imagining the pangs of a slow death by starvation.
When an unfortunate cow strolled over the sand dunes just before sunset, it was immediately seized, butchered and consumed on the spot -- washed down with several casks of brandy that someone was able to carry ashore from the beached vessel.
To his credit, Capt. Comstock did guide his surviving -- if overly sated -- passengers to the nearby town of Puerto San Carlos, and he brought back an expedition that retrieved most of his golden cargo, but no one ever learned why the world-famous Golden City went aground in the first place. She soon was broken in half by the pounding surf.
A few of the ship’s weathered keel bones may still poke out of the shallow water southwest of Boca de Soledad, and the nearby beach has yielded buckets of corroded silverware and crockery shards. If you come here on Day of the Dead, keep a sharp eye open for Jim Murphy and his ghostly cohorts who can never disembark in San Francisco.
Fire and Brimstone
Perhaps Golden City was lured to its sad fate by the moaning song of nearly 150 dead souls who were already haunting the other end of Magdalena Bay. Punta Tosca is the southerly headland of Isla Santa Margarita, the other barrier island that forms Bahia Magdalena’s south end.
Punta Tosca looks like a high island when approached from the south, and the shoal-clogged Rehusa Canal to the east of Punta Tosca has often been mistaken for a clear passage, especially on a foggy November night -- until frothy breakers can be seen up close.
Such was the case in 1853, after the 211 foot side-wheeler Independence impaled herself on a rock pinnacle at the foot of Punta Tosca -- with 400 terrified passengers aboard. Although the captain managed to ram his mortally wounded ship ashore on a tiny shingle of beach at the foot of the steep cliffs, the ship’s boilers had already burst, sending murderous flames throughout the wooden ship.
Dozens of men, women and children died in the conflagration, some huddled in their staterooms waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Many of those who managed to leap overboard soon drowned in the maelstrom.
Only a few of the many bodies that floated ashore were lucky enough to be laid to rest in shallow graves dug by the survivors and by villagers from Magdalena Bay. The fire and wrecking of Independence remains one of the worst boating disasters in local history.
The tiny graveyard lies right above the beach, called Playa Independence. Anchors, capstans and two paddle-wheel shafts are reported to be visible in the rocks near shore. It lies about 2.5 miles northeast of Punta Tosca, in case you care to visit on Day of the Dead. The ghosts of 150 panic-stricken victims of the shipwrecked steamship Independence guard these artifacts and remains.
NEW CABO CRUISE SHIP DOCK SPARKS ARGUMENTS, LIES & VIDEO TAPE
The heat is definitely rising fast in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas! Only this heat does not register on any thermometer. Temperatures have reached the boiling point as the “Heated discussions” continue between the “environmental watch groups” and the “investors & promoters” of the proposed construction site of a Cruise Ship Dock in the Bay of Cabo San Lucas.
The Ecologists warn of the dangers that will follow, not just to the bay of Cabo San Lucas, but to the entire ecosystem! Cabo San Lucas plays a crucial role in the protection and preservation of the waters and species that help make up this fragile ecosystem. Here you’ll find a mix of species, on both land and sea, found nowhere else on earth! What will become of the already endangered gray whales, who come to Cabo San Lucas to feed; or the Sea Turtles who nest on the beautiful shores.
The proposal to build the 350 meter cruise ship dock is pending, but seems inevitable. Can you image the impact a pier larger than the size of 3 football stadiums would have on this small bay? Not only will it effect the thousands of species of fish and birds, it will effect the beaches, the undersea canyon and the beautiful undersea sand falls discovered by Jacques Cousteau.
One newly formed organization called “SAVE CABO BAY” is putting up a good fight against the location of the cruise ship dock. The group is made up of environmentalists, local businessmen & residents of Cabo San Lucas. Not only have they begun an extensive letter writing campaign to various environmental groups in Mexico and the United States, but also to the Mexican Government itself, who are in favor of the proposed dock!
It’s not that the environmentalists are against a cruise ship dock, they want to see it built in another location. The proposed sight, right in front of the Hacienda Hotel on Medano Beach, is directly in line with the Submarine Canyon.
The group in support of the cruise ship dock has presented a “10-year old vide o-tape” to the people of Cabo San Lucas, which gives a false image of the bay. It does not show the crowded bay, which is saturated by sportfishing boats, wave runners & tourist boats. In addition, the promoters continue to deceive the community by giving them false information about what impact the humongous propellers and anchors will have on the bottom of the Submarine Canyon. They claim there is nothing but sand at the bottom of the canyon. While ecologists say this information is false. The Submarine Canyon is full of marine flora, which if threatened, could be deadly.
The organization “SAVE CABO BAY” has requested that Cabo San Lucas be declared a Federal Park and protected area. The famous Arch was declared a National Monument many years ago, leaving out the bay, sand falls and Submarine Canyon. As required by the Federal Ecological Law of Mexico, an environmental plan must be established before any new commercial development is allowed. The environmentalists feel they have a fighting chance, thanks to the new President Fox. Unfortunately some people still like to play dirty politics with their arguments, lies & video tape!
For more information you may send your requests to RICARDO ZARZOSA at: zarzosap@prodigy.net.mx OR the “SAVE CABO BAY” co-founder Aleph Dzyan Alighieri at: m31dive@prodigy.net.mx. Visit their website at: www.savecabobay.org
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This article first appeared in the October 1, 2001 issue of Sea Magazine. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
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