The Many Lives of the 'Lottie Carson' - Unsung Screen Hero of the Seas
Eureka's Carson Mansion, appearing in 2015 much as it did in its movie appearances in both the 1919 and 1927 versions of 'The Valley of the Giants'. Author's photo.
On 19 October 1941, the Mexican steamship Baja California collided with the steamer Campeche in Mexico’s Mazatlan Harbour. An attempt to drag Campeche to safety failed, and the ship was cut adrift. It soon collided with and destroyed a third ship, the Lottie Carson, a decaying schooner which had recently been refitted as a shark fishing vessel. The accident was the subject of a landmark legal case, Republic of Mexico v Hoffman, which established that a merchant vessel owned by a foreign government was not immune from litigation when being operated by a private corporation.
Constructed by the Hall Brothers Shipbuilders as a 287-ton, three-masted schooner, the Lottie Carson was launched on 11 July 1881, only the second ship completed at the company’s new facilities at Port Blakeley, Washington. Her maiden voyage was to the town of Eureka, California, headquarters of the major lumber firm Dolbeer and Carson, for whom she had been commissioned. She was named for the daughter of company partner William Carson, whose palatial mansion remains one of Eureka’s best-known landmarks, having also made screen appearances of its own in The Valley of the Giants (1919) and its 1927 remake.
The Lottie Carson spent her first few decades as a lumber vessel, trundling back and forth between her home port of Eureka and various timber ports such as Aberdeen, Washington; Coos Bay, Oregon and San Pedro, California, as well as occasional trip to Honolulu. Steam technology made the older timber schooners obsolete in the early 1900s, and in 1912, after several years in dry dock, the Lottie Carson was sold to a shipping company. Under Captain Fred Jebsen, a former officer of the German navy, the ship was fitted with gasoline engines, renamed the Leonora, and relocated to Mexico’s Mazatlan Harbour.
At the outbreak of World War I, Jebsen suddenly disappeared from San Francisco, where he had been a well-known socialite. All efforts to find him failed, and it was revealed that he was in fact a German agent who had secreted guns and ammunition in number of his vessels, which he had intended to smuggle into the hands of German-aligned Hindu dissidents in India. Later known as the Annie Larsen Affair and arguably the centrepiece of the wider Hindu-German conspiracy, it was one of the great sensations of World War I.
Though she was ultimately not used for gun-running, the Leonora was seized by British forces off the coast of Mexico in 1916 and auctioned off in British Columbia, where she returned to her original name. The Lottie Carson next came to attention in 1925, when she was discovered with a voluminous illegal cargo of whiskey destined for America, then in the midst of Prohibition.
The Lottie Carson as she appeared in 'Windjammer' (1937).
After once again being seized and sold, she sat idle at San Pedro for several years, occasionally being used as a tourist charter vessel, until Universal Pictures leased the ship for their serial Danger Island (1931) - the one production in which the Lottie Carson actually played herself. She subsequently appeared in Larry Darmour’s Sea Devils (1932), a second Universal serial, Pirate Treasure (1934), their feature East of Java (1935), the independent films Danger Ahead (1935) and Mutiny Ahead (1935). The following year, she was taken to the dry docks of San Pedro and transformed to a full-rigged vessel.
In 1937, the ship was central to the seagoing tale Windjammer, made by the RKO-affiliated independent producer Condor Pictures, which also used it as the production’s location headquarters while shooting off Catalina Island. According to the film’s leading lady, Constance Worth, the elderly vessel ‘wasn’t any too seaworthy’ and filming was often dangerous. Leading man George O’Brien injured his back whilst on the ship, and a unit director fractured his hip. At one point, the ship lost power and drifted at sea for three hours.
The Lottie Carson in her final screen appearance, in 'South of Pago Pago' (1940).
Following her appearance in Windjammer, the Lottie Carson was seen in Grand National’s Wallaby Jim of the Islands (1937), and remained in high demand. When Paramount required a 19th century bark for Souls at Sea (1937), they redressed the vessel for their purposes. Soon afterwards, she was re-rigged as an 1850s slaving vessel for Twentieth Century-Fox’s Slave Ship (1937). She made a few last screen appearances, including in the British feature Rulers of the Sea (1939) and Edward Small’s South of Pago Pago (1940), before being refitted as a fishing vessel. On 9 October 1941, she began her final journey to Mazatlan Harbor. Here, she was expected to see out her days transporting shark carcasses from ocean to shore, where their livers were to be processed for use in vitamin supplements.
Less than a fortnight later, the Lottie Carson's retirement was cut short by the Campeche, and the old ship drifted into Davy Jones' Locker. Some may have heard of her history as a rum-runner, others may have been aware of her wartime escapades - but few would have recognised her as a legitimate movie star.