Sometimes as you dig into one chapter of history you stumble onto another. That’s what happened when researching the sinking of the 132-foot Coast Survey vessel Robert J. Walker off the Jersey Shore in 1860. Some may say the story is a curse, others a coincidence. I will simply say interesting, very interesting.

The story starts around 1779 with the birth of Richard Somers at Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, today Somers Point.