Lost Again: Percy Payne Shipwreck's Hidden Past Revealed

PANAMA CITY, FL - For decades, a shipwreck located between the jetties and pier at St. Andrews State Park off Panama City has been known as the Percy Payne. The wreck appears and disappears intermittently in the shifting sand over the years and has been a popular diving and snorkeling site. With the recent State Park beach renourishment, the wreck has again disappeared under the sand, but its history has just been uncovered.

Local historian and author Nancy Hudson tried to research its history in November 2022, but found no record of a vessel named Percy Payne. Hudson found, however, records of a vessel named Percy R. Pyne II that visited St. Andrews Bay in the early 1900s. Earlier this year Capt. Zach Johnson of Captain Zach’s Adventures contacted Hudson with a missing piece of information. Capt. Zach found the Percy R. Pyne II listed in a document of Northeastern Shipbuilders. Built by the Oneida Navigation Corporation in 1917, the name of the 1,337-ton vessel was changed to Cornelius H. Callaghan in 1923, before it wrecked on the beach in a storm on January 11th, 1924. The loss was front page news in the Bay County Beacon-Tribune on January 18th, 1924. Also on that front page was the news that the St. Andrews Bay Lumber Company purchased the beached vessel for $1,500 and would salvage rigging, engines, and other components. A poem about the vessel and her demise was published in the St. Andrews Bay News on January 22nd, 1924.

This and other information have been gathered and submitted to the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Archaeological Research. The shipwreck is documented in the State’s Florida Master Site File, but the only information there is the name Percy Payne. Johnson and Hudson speculate that over time due to dialects, “Pyne” became “Payne”. The vessel’s name-change in 1923 also made it difficult to trace the history until more recently.

After receiving copies of historical documents from Hudson and including them in the Florida Master Site File, the Division of Historical Resources noted ““Florida’s past is rich and complex,” said Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd. “It is through the dedicated efforts of citizens like Nancy Hudson and Captain Zach Johnson that we learn more about Florida’s history. I am grateful to Mrs. Hudson and Captain Johnson for their contributions to updating the listings in the Florida Master Site File to reflect the story of the Percy R. Pyne II, and I encourage other citizens to become good stewards of their community and its history as well.”