La Jenelle was a passenger ship that went aground and wrecked in 1970 on Silver Strand at Port Hueneme, a sandy beach created partly from dredged harbor sand about 1 mile (1.6 km) long and 450 ft (137 m) wide, about 33 miles (53 km) south-east of Santa Barbara and 3.3 miles (5.3 km) south of Oxnard, California. Silver Strand is situated between the north breakwater for the Port of Hueneme, formed mostly from the remains of La Jenelle, and the south jetty of Channel Islands Harbor. The name Port Hueneme is derived from the Spanish spelling of the Ventureño phrase wene me, meaning “resting place”. Ventureño is one of the extinct languages historically spoken by the Chumash people along the coastal areas of southern California between San Luis Obispo to the north and Malibu to the south-east.
The Coast Chumash inhabited the Oxnard Plain for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence, such as fire-affected rocks, shellfish, and vertebrate faunal remains, suggests that Native Americans visited the area during late spring and summer to gather marine and terrestrial foods. In 1837, Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Rancho El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia—44,883 acres (18,164 ha)—to seven former soldiers from the Presidio of Santa Barbara, including Valentine Cota, Salvador Valenzuela, Vicente Pico, Rafael Valdez, Vincent Feliz, Leandro Gonzales, and Rafael Gonzales. The grant extended from the Santa Clara River in the north to the present-day Point Mugu Naval Air Station in the south, encompassing much of the Oxnard Plain. In the 1860s, Thomas R. Bard, an agent for the Philadelphia and California Petroleum Company, purchased five-sevenths of the land grant from the Gonzales family and built a wharf to exploit the naturally deep submarine canyon. Hueneme soon became the largest grain-shipping port south of San Francisco, with the wharf extended to 1,500 feet (457 m) in 1897. In 1939, excavation of the harbor began, and the US military took control during World War II, significantly enlarging the port. In 1960, the US Army Corps of Engineers excavated Channel Islands Harbor from sand dunes and wetlands, depositing the surplus sand on nearby beaches.
La Jenelle was originally built in 1931 as the passenger liner SS Borinquen by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1941, the US Army requisitioned the ship for the war effort as a transport. It had a capacity of 1,289 troops and 404 medical patients. The ship participated in the Normandy invasion and continued military service until 1949, when it was sold and renamed the Arosa Star. It then served passenger routes in the Atlantic and later the Caribbean as the Bahama Star. In 1964, the Western Steamship Company purchased the vessel, renaming it La Jenelle. The new owners brought it to Port Hueneme for conversion into a floating restaurant and casino. By 1970, to avoid expensive docking fees, it was anchored outside the harbor. A severe north-west gale caused the ship to drag anchor and run aground on Silver Strand. Instead of salvaging the wreck, the US Navy removed the superstructure and filled the hull with rocks, creating a breakwater that still protects the port entrance today. Read more here and here. Explore more of Silver Strand here: