Schooner Rachel makes another appearance Photo: MEYER VACATION RENTALS

The first reports spoke of a “mystery shipwreck” uncovered by Hurricane Isaac on an Alabama beach about six miles from Fort Morgan.   It turns out the wooden vessel is not so mysterious after all. Local historians identified her as the 150 feet long, three masted, lumber schooner Rachel built in 1918, which came ashore in a storm in 1923.  This is not even the first time that the wreck has made an appearance. She was also uncovered from  beneath the beach by Hurricane Camille in 1969, then again in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan, and again in 2008 after Hurricane Ike.  The only thing mysterious about the schooner is her cargo on the night of her demise. Legend has it that she was carrying bootleg alcohol instead of lumber when she ran aground during the Prohibition.

Last month, at the extreme other end of the weather spectrum, the chronic drought in the US Mid-West revealed a shipwreck of the Montana, a Missouri River paddle-wheel steamer which sank in 1884  near Bridgeton, Missouri, after colliding with either a sunken tree or a railroad bridge, depending on the account.  At 283 feet (81 meters), including the paddle wheel, the Montana was the largest stern-wheel steamboat ever to travel the Missouri River.   This is not the first appearance of the the Montana either. She was previously reported emerging in 2002.