Before she was a wreck, the Catala was a floating hotel. Brought in for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, she closed before the fair ended, was reclaimed, and was moved to Ocean Shores as a boatel.
A winter storm drove her into the sand, and for decades she was the most famous shipwreck on the Washington coast. She lay at Damon Point from 1965 until her removal in 2006–07.
The book's Catala artwork shows her floatel days, name visible — because the late wreck carried no legible name, and the heyday is the story worth picturing.