On the trail of the Water Witch
By Michael J. Reinhart
It was the winter of 1882. Captain Conley, of the schooner Water Witch, felt the ominous winds from the South. An experienced sailor on Tulare Lake, the Captain knew he and his crew had a short time to find safe anchorage. The gale came on with heavy waves pushing the boat into the shallows of the Northern shore. A fatal flaw in her re-fitment caused her to be top heavy. She capsized and sank at a point three miles southeast of the mouth of the Kings River.
It seems hard to imagine as I looked out across the fields of cotton in the Valley’s summer heat. But somewhere close, I knew was the final resting place of the Water Witch. Here, south of Stratford, more than a hundred years ago the Water Witch sailed the waters of Tulare Lake. I came across this story searching for the location of a shipwreck off the coast. The State of California maintains a data base of shipwreck locations searchable by county. Just for fun, I entered Kings County and lo and behold, it displayed a short entry stating a steamship named Alcatraz sank in the waters of Tulare Lake. A steamship in Kings County seemed pretty far fetched, but I was hooked.
Originally christened Alcatraz, the Water Witch was a stout vessel built in 1872 at the Nare Island Navy Yard as a dispatch boat. Contrary to the State’s data base, the Alcatraz was originally an oar boat, sprit sail rigged, constructed of wood with copper fasteners. Measuring six feet in the beam and thirty-two feet in length, she worked carrying mail and goods in San Francisco Bay.
In 1878, she was brought to Tulare Lake by a singular fellow known as “eating Smith”. So named for his enormous appetite. The boat had by this time been renamed the Water Witch and fitted out with a jib and mainsail. Tulare Lake was one of the largest lakes west of the Mississippi, stretching from Stratford more than 20 miles southward into Kern County. It was home to large schools of Terrapin and abundant in waterfowl. Though large in surface area, the lake was remarkably shallow and subject to fierce winds from the South. Smith tried, but failed to make a go of it as a fisherman and sold the boat to the Mc Coy brothers. The McCoy’s used the boat to fish for Terrapin until that fateful storm sank her. Her shallow draft and large sails had doomed her.
After many hours of research in the library, I came across an account of the ships demise recounted by Captain G. W. A. Wright in 1883. Captain Wright described the ship and the location of the wreck in good detail. His description and location were supported by other evidence I found in my research. The only problem was, the Captain’s description of the wreck’s location was tied to the location of the mouth of the Kings River. The river’s course has changed over the years. It varied greatly back then with the cycles of droughts and floods. So next I went in search of maps dating to the time of the wreck. The nice people at the Carnegie Museum and a close friend, who happens to work as a hydro engineer, came through with the appropriate cartographs. A few calculations and I had my search area. Driving miles of dusty back roads and canal banks, I finally tracked down the site of the wreck described by Captain Wright. Using Captain’s Wright’s description, period correct maps and modern day topographical and aerial photographs, I was confident I found the area of the ship’s wreck site. There is just one problem. There is no way to prove it. Her wooden hull, mast and her sails have long since rotted away. The Water Witch has disappeared into the old lake bed like the pioneers who came to settle this land. But on cold winter nights, when the storm clouds come roaring from the South, it’s hard not to imagine seeing those tough men of the Water Witch feverishly battling against wind and water.
Postscript. There was in fact a stern wheel steamboat named the Mose Audross that sailed the waters of Tulare Lake. She was reportedly lost in 1879 not far from where the Water Witch went down. In the end, the lake dried and the era of Kings County’s pioneer sailors came to an end.