San Diego, CA - Debauchery on the High Seas

Off to Coronado today for lunch with Fred. Over the bridge where the views are incredible. Towards Coronado with Point Loma in the background:

Towards the city.

Fred likes Mexican and as I have mentioned before, spicy is not our favorite. But, we checked the menu beforehand online and decided that we could share the fajita special, which looked huge in online pictures. We sat on their outdoor patio under the canopies and it was truly delightful. Couldn’t have asked for a better setting. And, the food - well, that fajita special not only filled us but we brought some home. Whew, luckily we shared. And, the best part - time with Fred. Pretty cool guy. At 96 he’s still going strong, though physically, he’s slowed a bit. He and Marilyn are hitting a play this evening.

After we took him home we headed over to the Coronado beach where we wanted to walk but - and here’s the best thing - also wanted to see the rising of the Monte Carlo. Gambling, prostitution, booze, mobsters, a monster storm, a sunken ship, looters - the legend of the Monte Carlo has everything.
It goes back to the late 20’s and 30’s when gambling was illegal ashore - but not offshore. Hey, let’s buy some cheap old working ships, outfit them for all sorts of illegal enterprises and anchor them 3 miles offshore - outside the international boundary. Great idea, and in the end 10 gambling ships dotted the coast between San Diego and Long Beach: ships named the Lux, the Reno, the Johanna Smith, the Rose Isle and the Monte Carlo.They were reconfigured working ships, designed strictly for gambling, prostitution and drinking. Some had been former military vessels, five-masted barkentines, lumber schooners and even a former Alaska Packer ship, the four-masted Star of Scotland.

The Monte Carlo itself was built in 1921 in Wilmington, North Carolina, romantically named Tanker #1, served in the US Navy and then plied the Pacific Coast for 10 years as a freighter. In 1932 she was sold, filled with concrete to reduce motion on board and converted into a gambling ship named the Monte Carlo. At 300’ She was the biggest of the fleet and could host 15,000 a week on board. $3,000,000 annually was the rumored pay off in the floating casinos. Wow, and this was during Prohibition and the Great Depression.

Her first mooring was off Long Beach in ‘Gambling Ship Row’ during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Then she was towed to Coronado. People flocked here. Free water taxi rides, free drinks, free dinners, orchestras playing in the background. The owners said they had ‘sportive games’ like ping pong but the ping pong tables curiously had numbers from 1 - 36 painted on them. Everything to lure people to the gambling tables. Did anyone make money in these ‘sin ships’? Yep, the owners of the ships. There was a rumor that Al Capone who just ‘happened’ to be in Coronado at the time the Monte Carlo ‘set sail’ might be financially involved.

Ministers railed against the Sin Ships, District Attorneys, unable to stop them, taxed the water taxis heavily. But they partied on. Until New Year’s Eve in 1936 when a huge storm punished the area. The Monte Carlo, which had been closed for the winter months, slipped its moorings and finally ran aground on Coronado’s shores. Here’s a picture from the San Diego Public Library.

The owners skipped town not wanting to pay for the removal of the wreck. The beach was littered with roulette wheels, gambling tables and bottles of booze. Then the looters materialized. There were stories of those who swam in the wreck, retrieving thousands of silver dollars. Hundreds of people scavenged for the wood which then found its way into many Coronado homes. The ship itself was left to rot on the surf line.

At extremely low tides, the hull of the Monte Carlo has been visible for years. But the current El Nino has exposed it even further and is a real attraction along the beach. It sure attracted us and lots of others. As the hour for low tide neared, people started converging on the shore where the ruin would appear.

Gary decided to wade out to it. He’s got hiking boots and wool socks on so the slippery mossy steel hull wouldn’t be a problem. Most people thought that barefoot on this hull was fine. Here he is checking for the right moment when the waves aren’t waist high.

Yep, he got up on it. Now what?

And, here comes the conquering hero, wet hiking boots, soggy socks, damp shorts and all. Hi, Sweetie.

Me, I just stood there looking cool in my Fort Dodge t-shirt.

We walked back along the beach as dusk approached.

The red-roofed Hotel Del is fading in the distance.

The Navy planes are coming in after a long day.

The birds are checking the dinner menu.

The sun is setting over Point Loma.

And we’re heading home.

‘It usually takes more than 3 weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.’
                                                                Mark Twain