(CNN) — The remains of a 100-year-old ship showed up on a Surf City beach in North Carolina on Monday afternoon.
The town of Surf City announced in a Facebook post that the wreckage of the William H. Sumner appeared about 150 yards north of the old Barnacle Bill's Pier.
Tides reveal the ship's remains once or twice a year, the town said.
The part that wound up on Surf City's beach is believed to be the ship's inner shell.
What happened to the schooner a century ago remains fuzzy. Capt. R.E. Cochran killed himself after the ship ran aground, according to a 1919 article in The New York Times. It had been his maiden voyage as skipper.
The schooner's remains are protected under the state's laws, which prohibit shipwrecks from being removed or damaged.
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