Sprung leak, pump out of order, and sunk--tried to pump by hand, but were unable to save boat.

Wreck Report

This short article in the Los Angeles Times succinctly describes the end of the Adriatic, a sardine fishing boat. "The San Pedro fishing boat Adriatic, a sixty foot purse seiner owned by Dick Perica, struck a log, the seams opened up, and she sank at 9 AM Sunday five miles off Santa Barbara Island. Perica and his crew of eight abandoned the craft in a skiff, rowing for perhaps an hour before they were picked up by the purse seiner Georgia and brought to San Pedro, arriving yesterday morning. Nets and twenty tons of sardines also went down with the ship, the loss being estimated by Perica at $20,000, most of which was covered by insurance" (LAT 30 Dec 1930).

The wreck report gives the location as "five miles southwest ...Santa Barbara Island.." and attributes the sinking to a defective pump which was unable to contain a leak, saying nothing about a log. Powered by a diesel engine, Adriatic was built in Los Angeles in 1920, originally named Carl F. Lehmers, and had been powered originally by a gas engine (MVUS 1930).

If these accounts are accurate, the wreckage is well outside the boundary of the park, but inside the sanctuary. Waters five miles from Santa Barbara Island range in depth generally from 67 to 657 fathoms, except on top of Osborn Bank, a popular fishing locality, where a minimum depth of 19 fathoms barely falls within normal scuba depth limits. Morris & Lima