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.