Carcass of presumed 19th-century ship revealed in Nantucket during nor’easter
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Wooden wreckage uncovered on Nantucket’s southern coastline by a severe nor’easter this weekend could belong to a 19th-century schooner that ran aground more than 140 years ago.
Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current, recorded video of the wooden beams and iron fastenings Saturday. The structure is suspected to be part of the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted wooden schooner that sank near Miacomet Beach on December 22, 1884.
“As far as I know, it’s the first time a piece of the wreck has resurfaced since 2022, early 2023,” Graziadei told NBC News. “It’s certainly possible it could be from another wreck, but given the location and appearance, we said it is most likely the Warren Sawyer.”
The ship was traveling from New Orleans to Boston carrying 28 tons of scrap metal and 1,115 bales of cotton when it struck land.
According to a January 10, 1885 report in The Inquirer and Mirror, the vessel endured “merciless billows” that snapped its mast in two before a crowd of onlookers who had been “excitedly watching it fall into the sea.” A rescuer threw a line from the shoreline, enabling everyone on board to survive.
State researchers previously examined historical, photographic and archaeological evidence after similar debris appeared on the island in December 2022 and February 2023, according to a report by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.
That board concluded earlier findings were “most likely” remnants of the Warren Sawyer.
Jascin N. Leonardo Finger, deputy director of the Maria Mitchell Association, said the remnants may indeed stem from the vessel, though “more investigation is necessary” to confirm the match.
“People sometimes forget that we live 28 miles at sea and also what life was like out here,” Leonardo Finger said in a statement to The New York Times. “I think this is an unfortunate but good reminder.”
More than 700 shipwrecks occurred near Nantucket during the 19th century, according to the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum.
Island residents historically scavenged items that washed ashore from damaged vessels, Leonardo Finger said.
