In 1936, a gambling ship called the "Monte Carlo" was beached about
100 yards off the beach of Coronado, CA, just south of San Diego, CA.

From "gambling ship" "monte carlo" I found this:
http://www.gloriettabayinn.com/html/activities.php  South of The Del,
at low tide, the hull of the sunken gambling ship, the Monte Carlo,
can be seen. The ship washed ashore in 1936.

From http://home.nethere.net/willisjs/wrecks.htm, and clicking on the
green dot closest to shore, we find that the wreck was a converted
concrete tanker built for the USMC, probably in 1921 and called the
McKittrick. It was anchored 3 miles off the coast, where it was legal
to gamble. During a storm in 1936, (I think it was December 31, 1936)
it lost hold, and drifted to to the beach in Coronado. No one claimed
ownership, since it was illegal once inside the 3 mile limit.

I'm looking for additional information about this ship, and about the
incident.

1. Was anyone on the ship at the time? Did they have to get rescued?
2. Did anyone die in the incident?
3. Did they salvage the ship, or did the hull just remain there?
4. Was it made of concrete?
5. Anything else known about the Monte Carlo?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 14 Sep 2003 21:34 PDT

I've found answers to questions 3, 4, and 5, but not 1 and 2.  My
sense is that since there are no references to passengers, rescues, or
deaths, there weren't any.  (It appears that the ship simply broke
loose and washed up to the shore.)

If this set of answers would be sufficient, please let me know, and I
will post all the information I have found.

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Clarification of Question by maphound-ga on 15 Sep 2003 04:45 PDT

Yes, go ahead, this will be sufficient.

Hello maphound,

For starters, the following description provides answers for questions
3, 4, and 5, including information that the hull still remains there
and was made of concrete.

"San Diego Reader Best 2000 Winners - Best Shipwreck - The Monte
Carlo, off southern end of Coronado Shores"
San Diego Reader
http://www.sdreader.com/php/bestshow.php3?year=2000&id=80

Note that a San Diego county publication states that the "wooden hull"
can still be seen at low tide.  This seems inaccurate, given the
information in the more extensive descriptions from the San Diego
Reader and the San Diego Wreck Diving pages, and given that a wooden
hull presumably would have rotted significantly, if not entirely, over
more than 60 years.  But, at least this publication provides a picture
of the grounding of the ship.

"Law Enforcement Quarterly" (Winter 1999-2000) [page 7 of the PDF
file, under "Coronado"]
County of San Diego District Attorney
http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/safety/da/leq/leq_99_winter.pdf

Here is a picture of part of the wreck, up close:

"Editorial / advertising : 2" ["Shipwreck Coronado Beach", at lower
left of page]
CoronadoPhoto.com
http://www.coronadophoto.com/editorial%202.htm

You might be interested in negatives of "debris from wreck of gambling
ship Monte Carlo on Coronado beach", contained in the following
collection.  (You could likely get even more information about the
Monte Carlo at the San Diego Historical Society, where the collection
is located.)

"Finding Aids - Booth Historical Photographic Archives - Guide to the
Joseph M. F. Haase Collection"
San Diego Historical Society
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/findaid/ac058.htm

Here's another reference to the wreck:

"Half the Town Would Run toward the Pier", by Bill Manson (San Diego
Reader
5-8-97) [about 2/3 down the page]
SS Catalina
http://www.escapist.com/sscatalina/mirror/reader050897.htm

The follow two pages mention the Monte Carlo in connection with other
ships on Gamblers Row, and in particular with Tony Cornero:

"Article #7" [seventh paragraph] 
The Dice Man
http://www.diceman.net/Articles/article7.htm

"Celebrities C" [under "Tony Cornero"]
WHO Online
http://who.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,278%257E27315%257E1204059,00.html

Finally, there is an intriguing reference to an investigation of "the
Monte Carlo gambling ship hi-jacking".  Unfortunately, I have not seen
additional material about this event.

"Genealogy and Family History by Terry Kneen" [under "Obituary"]
An Iowa Family
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kneen/kneen/hkneen.html

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott


I searched for the following terms, in various combinations, on Google
and Ixquick:

"monte carlo"
shipwreck [s], [ed]
wreck [s], [ed]
coronado
"san diego"
"gambling ship" [d]
ship
cornero
1936
"31 1936"
"dec 1936"
"december 1936"
rescue [s}, [d]
hi-jack [s], [ed], [ing]
hijack [s], [ed], [ing]

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 15 Sep 2003 07:03 PDT

Oops, in my list of terms, I meant:

"gambling ship" [s]  (The letter "d" would not make it plural!)

Very good work. Found a good number of items I couldn't find. Nicely
presented. Thank you.