Fort Morgan mystery ship remains a mystery

Fort Morgan,Al.
Wreckage of a "Mystery Ship" has appeared and reappeared on the beach about 6 miles from Fort Morgan for some 40 years. No one is positive what it is or how long it's been there. Hurricanes Camille (1969) Fredrick (1979) and Ivan (2004) briefly uncovered portions of the ship but nothing like Hurricane Ike did in 2008. The wreckage was, again, uncovered by Tropical Storm Ida in 2009.

The roughly 150 foot long, 30 foot wide wooden ship appears to have been powered by steam. One of the artifacts of the ship's hull appears to be an old water pump. A long pipe runs down the center of the ship, with smaller pipes found nearby.
While no one knows for sure what ship this is, some historians speculate that the ship was the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the Union Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War. Others speculate it could be the Rachel, an early 20^th Century schooner that ran aground on the Alabama coast in 1933. Local legends even describe the ship as a rum runner seeking to smuggle liquor ashore during Prohibition.

TheMonticello was a pure sailing ship, whereas the wreck appears to be steam powered, which would seem to rule it out. Other aspects of the wreckage, such as steel cables and metal turnbuckles, lead many to believe the ship is the Rachel built years after the Civil War, rather than an1860s schooner.
TheRachel was designed and built in the John DeAngelo and Sons Italian American Shipyard in Moss Point, Miss., in 1919. She had three masts and a shallow draught. The De Angelo yard often included small diesel engines in their sailing craft, however none were steam powered. The wreck found on the beach in Alabama has what looks to be connection rods for an expansion steam engine as well as a long central condenser pipe. The true waterline length of the Rachel was only 93 feet, her schooner bow giving her a longer overall length. This would seem to rule out the Rachel.

A third possibility is the rum runner Aurora, found at sea with some 1400 cases of premium liquor at the tail end of prohibition. She was seized at the mouth of the Mississippi by the 100-foot US Coast Guard Cutter Forwardbased in Pascagoula. The ship was ordered towed to Mobile with her crew and part of the cargo put aboard the cutter. The rum runner became separated after it caught fire, sinking near Fort Morgan in 1933. The Aurora was a coaster registered in British Honduras, but little other information is available on her. The New York Timeslisted that she had only eight crewmembers aboard, making the ship unlikely to be a labor-intensive steam vessel. So, that would seem to rule out the Aurora.
So, for now, she's still the Mystery Ship. We all love a good mystery, anyway...don't we?