The shoreline of New Jersey was once called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” and is remembered for disastrous shipwrecks, with the loss of all hands on board or the daring rescues carried out by the crews of the life-saving stations, located along the coast. One wreck is known in the records of Long Beach Island as a treasure ship.

The Francis was launched in Bath, Maine in 1885. It was a three-masted wooden clipper ship that spent its first 12 years visiting ports from Japan and the Philippines…