Smithsonian Magazine - 10.2019

(Romina) #1

28 SMITHSONIAN.COM | September 2019


T WAS THE FOURTH SINKING of its long


career, and this time the old wooden


fi shing boat lay submerged for nearly


six months in brackish water and mud.


When the authorities fi nally hauled


it to the surface and towed it to Port


Townsend, Washington, in June 2013,


the Western Flyer looked like a ghost


ship. Veils of seaweed hung from its


rotting timbers, and it was encrusted


with barnacles. The insides were full


of mud. At the boatyard the wreck was


valued at $0, but a purchaser from Cal-


ifornia, John Gregg, paid $1 million for


it, or more precisely, for its mystique.

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