Powerful winds and rough seas battering the Massachusetts island of Nantucket over the weekend revealed ship remains that may date back to 1884. The discovery was prompted by a tip from a local resident, according to Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current.
Graziadei, who was covering the storm, drove to the site with his son Owen to verify the find. The tipster, David DeHart, located the remains on a south shore beach known as Point of Breakers. New wooden timbers, arranged in the shape of a hull, are now protruding from the sand in the same location where fragments were previously uncovered in 2022.
In 2022, David Robinson, director and chief archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, examined the earlier findings. After several months of research conducted with the Egan Maritime Institute and the Nantucket Historical Association, Robinson concluded the wreckage likely belonged to the schooner Warren Sawyer.
“As with most historical archaeological research,” Robinson told the Current in 2023, “exploring the available literature, archival, photographic, and archaeological evidence we collectively assembled for the site to try to arrive at a conclusive determination as to whether or not the wreckage is from the tern [sailing vessel], Warren Sawyer.”
The Warren Sawyer was a cargo vessel traveling from New Orleans to Boston, carrying bales of cotton and scrap iron, when it wrecked on the night of December 22, 1884. According to the local newspaper The Inquirer and Mirror, the captain and crew were rescued within hours, and residents salvaged much of the cargo.
Graziadei believes it is highly probable that the newly exposed timbers belong to the same ship. “I just think it’s fascinating to be able to see and touch a piece of Nantucket’s maritime history from 1884, and also incredible to think that it is located in a spot on the shore that cars were literally driving over on the beach this summer,” he said.
Point of Breakers is always rough, but this timing seems wild. Hope they protect the site from further erosion soon.
I wonder if the current nor’easter will wash more of the Warren Sawyer away before archaeologists can properly document it.
How amazing is that the crew survived? Losing a ship is terrifying, but everyone made it back safely.
Fascinating that cars were driving over these 140-year-old timbers just this summer. Nature is truly unpredictable.