West Marin shipwreck has seen better days
A world-famous shipwreck on the Marin County coast that’s not really a shipwreck is close to vanishing altogether — but it’s still drawing visitors to photograph its decay and display their pictures and posts on social media.
The abandoned fishing and transport boat in Inverness known as the “Point Reyes shipwreck” has been the subject of many photographs and stories on Instagram, other social media sites and travel blogs in the past several years and has gained at least a modicum of international fame.
Instagram alone features more than 5,500 photographs of the S.S. Point Reyes, a vessel built in 1944, according to various historical accounts.
But the days of the big old beached boat being a social media star could be numbered.
The West Marin Feed, a media outlet for Marin County’s coast, recently posted on X, formerly Twitter, its own photo of what little remains of the boat — a sunken hull, twisted wreckage and the collapsing wooden remains of what was once the cabin. It looks like a dilapidated shack being consumed by the sea.
“Things changing in Inverness,” the post read. “The shipwreck’s days are numbered. If you want a final photo, might want to get out there soon.”
Jim Fox, chief of the Inverness Volunteer Fire Department, is quite familiar with the Point Reyes, which he described as “a dangerous nuisance.” He said he worries that in its advanced state of decay, it’s going to seriously injure someone with its rusty nails, splintered wood and other hazards.
“It’s completely falling apart. It’s much more dangerous than it used to be,” he said. “As the fire chief, I would just as soon people not come out because someone’s going to get hurt.”
But even with the vessel’s slow demise turning it from a once-scenic old boat into an unsightly pile of rubble, people were still coming out to take photographs over the holidays, he said.
“There were a whole lot of pictures (taken) this weekend,” he said. “People still come out to view it because it has achieved worldwide prominence. I’m still at a loss to know why.”
The Point Reyes, whose name was prominently displayed on the ship for many years, had a fairly modest history, according to various accounts.
Roadside America, a travel site featuring oddball attractions, says the ship was built in 1944 and used to transport military troops between their ships and San Francisco near the end of World War II.
It later became a fishing boat used to catch salmon before being bought for rehabilitation, likely sometime in the late 1990s, and moved to Tomales Bay, where it eventually washed up on a sandbar in Inverness, which became its final resting place.
Who owns the boat and why it never got fixed up has been lost to sands of time — like the vessel itself. But the beached old boat soon became a tourist attraction, drawing photographers who captured it in various stages of its decay.
A 2016 fire, rumored to have been started by someone trying to photograph the boat with sparks in the background, caused significant damage. But it failed to stop the interest — and the photographs.
The boat’s fame seemed to peak along with the advent and growth in popularity of Instagram. The thousands of posts feature many photos of the old ship, leaning to its starboard side with its wooden hulls and walls eroding and its white paint fading.
Some feature people or their pets posing in front of the wreckage, others with sunsets or starry nights in the background. Most just feature the tilted old boat.
Gina Marr-Hiemstra, vice president of the Marin Convention & Visitors Bureau, said she was aware the boat was popular among photographers but said: “I had no idea that it’s considered internationally famous, considering all the shipwrecks that have happened out there in the last 100 years.”