As World War I raged in far-off France, Ocean County residents were dealing with a growing problem – the hulk of the once-elegant Army transport Sumner. The ship had stranded in December 1916 and been abandoned by the government. Over the next months it began breaking up, but not before it created a sandbar that threatened to close Barnegat Inlet and caused the channel that ran through it to shift its location.

Meanwhile, the wreck itself was causing problems for navigation. The New Jersey Courier reported that on Sept.