Lost sunken gambling ship owned by the Mob reappears 80 years later off Coronado

The wreckage of a legendary gambling and prostitution ship has washed up at Coronado, California, as a result of thrashing El Nino storms.

The S.S. Monte Carlo, owned by mobsters, sank on New Year’s Eve roughly 80 years ago and was allowed to decay on South Coronado Beach. Parts of the wreckage might be seen from time to time at high tides, but El Nino has made it appear once more.

The S.S. Monte Carlo’s history may be traced back to 1921, when it was built in Wilmington, North Carolina. It began as the SS McKittrick, a concrete oil tanker, and was one of twelve experimental ships built of concrete during and after World War I.

Due to steel shortages in the United States during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson authorized the building of 24 concrete ships. The boat was utilized by the United States Quartermaster Corps until 1923, when it was bought by the Associated Oil Company in San Francisco, California. It was purchased by Ed Turner and Martin Schouwiler in 1932 and later transformed into a gambling den.

It may be said that Prohibition essentially created organized crime in America, yet the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 did not signal the end of organized crime in the states. Profits from beer and liquor supply were so large at the start of the 1930s that gangsters grew more powerful than before.

It marked the end of an era but also the start of a new one for organized crime in America, which reassembled and shifted its emphasis. Many gangsters utilized their “earned” money from Prohibition to enter the legitimate and licensed liquor industry, while others turned to prostitution and gambling.

Because gambling and prostitution were outlawed in the United States, the S.S. Monte Carlo was anchored in international seas approximately three miles off the coast of Coronado, California. It was not the first nor the final gambling ship on the coast between San Diego and Long Beach, but it was the largest, and it accommodated over 15,000 gamblers every week in its early days.

Joe Ditler, executive director of the Coronado Museum of History & Art, has been investigating the wreckage for 30 years and he told NBC San Diego that “in the Prohibition days, the ship was anchored in foreign seas to dodge U.S. rules. People looking for gambling, prostitution, or bootleg whiskey would board smaller boats and go to the “sin ship” for a night of fun.”

“Throughout San Diego County and Southern California, evangelists devoted their entire sermons to sin ships, ‘May God unleash out His fury!'” Ditler stated to NBC San Diego “They took credit when it broke moorings and crashed.”

The mobsters understood how to earn quick money, and they enticed people to visit the S.S. Monte Carlo by providing free water taxi trips to the boat as well as free cocktails. The renowned gambling ship is thought to have made roughly $3 million each year (nearly $52 million in today’s money).

Of course, this could not stay long, and on New Year’s Day 1937, at 3 a.m., a heavy storm sent the ship adrift, and it landed up on South Coronado Beach, where it still stands today.

There is a simple explanation for why no one was bold enough to step forward and claim ownership: the boat was no longer on international seas, making it illegal.