Carleton Watkins documented the wreck of the British ship Viscata, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of wheat. The ship drifted ashore on March 7, 1868 at Baker Beach just south of Fort Point. "It foundered like a beached whale for three weeks while various attempts to pull it free failed...Workers managed to unload most of the wheat by way of chutes, and soon after, waves pummeled the Viscata until its sides broke apart and timbers scattered over the beach. Watkins was the only photographer who took pictures of the vessel over several days at various stages of its deterioration." ¹

¹ Crain, Jim, California in Depth - A Stereoscopic History (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1994) p 107.