Ms. & AL. Gulf Coast Realtor: Supermoon on the MS Gulf Coast. Moss Point MS. Rachel's Widows Walk

This photo was taken by a friend of mine on FB. It was taken from the  deck of Rachel's Widows Walk in Moss Point MS. A great place to eat, listen to live music, Karaoke, and enjoy the view of the Escapawpa River. Another spot to check out while visiting the Ms. & Al. Gulf Coast, (you may even get to smell the poggy plant.) Located close to the foot of the HWY 63 bridge in the background. 

Taken on 03/20/2011, known as the super moon, when its suppose to be the closest to the earth.   

 Racheal's Widow Walk is located : 5542 Main Street Moss Point, MS. 39564 (at the foot of Hwy 613 Bridge)  Phone: 228-475-4885

The Story of Rachel

The schooner ship simply known as "Rachel" was built in 1918 as a 3-masted sailing lumber barge. It was 134 footstem to stern with 99 feet of water line and a 50 foot beam. The hull, in which drew 12 feet, was a cypress over white oak. The ship was to be a lumber carrier that routed from Moss Point, Mississippi to the California Bay area by the way of a Panama Drop. The lumber was to be mule-trained over land to the Pacific Ocean and to be reloaded on to a sister ship - which was to be known as "The Rachel Ann" - on the west side of Panama. However, the Rachel Ann was never built.

This sailing trade was the brainstorm of Captain John Riley Bless McIntosh (April 5th, 1819 - May 10th, 1901.) Born in Green Country, Mississippi, Captain John Riley was a noted and admirable schooner captain during the "Freeman Shipping Wars of 1865." Additionally, he was a blockade runner for the Southern Merchants during the Civil War and served as a Captain for the Schranten Shipping. He never, however, owned his own vessel.

Captain John Riley McIntosh was educated in the waters of the Sound and Horn Island Pass. With many trips to countries such as France and South America, he traded goods to help build the confederacy. He was never captured and, despite their attempts, could not be halted by Mark Freeman's team of wreckers that stationed themselves out of the Pascagoula River. When Captain John Riley McIntosh passed on, he left the wealth he did have to his daughter - Rachel. The Schooner "Rachel" was financed by Rachel McIntosh McInnis (Born in the year 1841; died 1992.) After her father's death in 1901, Rachel decided to pursue and carry out her father's dreams. Rachel's husband, Laughlin McInnis, found her ideas to be crazy for "this day and time," as he called it, and told her that the time for this type of sailing venture was over and her money would be better spent on something more practical.

No ship builder wanted to take on the job for an old woman such as her, and found it hard to believe that, such a woman like her, would have one-hundred thousand dollars for the job to get done. Tragically, Rachel could not find the money she needed in these first proceedings. She had hit it when her father died only to forget where she had stashed it. She began to fear that her husband Laughlin found the money and spent it himself. However, in 1916, she opened an old family Bible and, as if it were an act of God, there the money lay. There was also a note from her late husband Laughlin, in which it read: "God bless you and build your Rachel" - Dated 1903. . . The year Laughlin had died.

Rachel contracted John De Angelo and the De Angelo and Son's Shipyard located in Moss Point, Mississippi. However, De Angelo told her that the construction of the ships was a bad investment and in good faith, as a Christian man, he could not build the Rachel for her. As the years went by, John De Angelo died and his son's fell on hard time while trying to keep their business alive. Due to this, they took the contract from Rachel and made plans to build the Rachel and her sister ship, The Rachel Ann.

Completed in 1919 and with no contracts to haul any cargo, The Rachel sat at the dock for three years. Rachel McInnis paid dock fees and upkeep to the De Angelo Brothers so they would keep the Rachel appearing just like new.

In 1922, Rachel McInnis died at the age of 81. The Rachel was taken for dock fees by the De Angelo Ship Yard in the December of 1922 and was later sold to the highest bidder. (The auction price and buyer was and is still currently unknown. Shortly after the sale, The Rachel was renamed, which is sad to be bad luck among sailors and the sea. After the renaming, she set sail to South America but never made it past Griffin Point where she ran aground and damaged he rudder. After repairs were made, she set sail again and grounded near Fort Morgan, Alabama. Only three of the seven men escaped with their lives. With the Rachel grounded and severely damaged, it was burned. Why? Some say for insurance money.

Some people say that Rachel McInnis' spirit would not give up her Father's dream; that she caused the Rachel's grounding, then stood idly by as it burned. Today, many people say the schooner Rachel has been seen, time and time again, on cold winters nighters in December. The rumor is if you really want to find it, you will be able to see the Rachel set sail once again, making her way down the Pascagoula River filed with long-leaf yellow pine.

They say you should never change the name of a ship or a boat - it brings those aboard it bad luck and worse, strips the ship of its dreams.