Work halted on Buffett shipwreck

SPANISH FORT -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday ordered a condo developer to stop digging up the sunken remains of a four-masted schooner once captained by the grandfather of singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

The decaying wooden hulk is that of the Chiquimula, a longtime Mobile Bay-area landmark, which was commanded for many years by Capt. James Buffett, a highly regarded Gulf Coast master mariner.

The vessel's charred hull, buried for more than 50 years beside the shore of Blakeley River near the Causeway, lies in the way of plans for boat slips at Shellbank Landing, a planned 57-unit condominium project.

Last week, a diving contractor hired by real estate developer Dent Boykin and his business partners began using a high-pressure pump to uncover the underwater remains of what Boykin thought was a vessel singer Jimmy Buffett mentions in a song and in a book.

Boykin said the contractor, Kim Lea of Lea Diving & Salvage Co., was not destroying the vessel -- Lea was surveying the vessel so that builders could avoid damaging it when they later place the pilings for the condo project's 57 boat slips. Lea also planned to remove the highest parts of the ship because they would endanger boaters at the future condo site, Boykin said.

But, Boykin said, at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, a Corps of Engineers official arrived on site and "told us to cease and desist." Work on the boat slips is on hold until the Alabama Historical Commission determines whether the ship is historically significant, and how the project should then proceed. The Press-Register's efforts to contact corps officials were unsuccessful late Thursday.

No permit issued

Greg Rhinehart, an Alabama Historical Commission official contacted by a Press-Register reporter early Thursday afternoon, said the agency had issued no permit to conduct work on the shipwreck. Rhinehart said the commission only learned of the shipwreck's disturbance when a Press-Register reporter called about it Wednesday.

Boykin said he hadn't sought an Alabama Historical Commission permit he didn't think one was needed.

"I'd love for them to bring their expertise here and do a real study," Boykin said. He and Lea apparently had been trying to conduct their own marine archaeological study without knowing what they were doing, he said.

Lea said he had so far removed tons of silt and mud, in some places 10 feet deep, from most of the wreck. The underwater dirt was contained within a filter fabric curtain surrounding the work site, he said.

"We want to make sure that we don't destroy anything that could be of interest," Boykin told a reporter Wednesday. Boykin stood a few feet from an open trailer piled with what appeared to be a hatchway cover, pieces of the ship's ribs and hull, spikes and brass screws, as well as and other objects.

State records show the vessel at the excavation site by the shore of Blakeley River is in fact Capt. James Buffett's 176-foot Chiquimula.

Hideeho!

Jerry