Nor’easter exposes possible 1884 shipwreck on Nantucket beach

A nor’easter battering Nantucket has exposed wooden ship remains on the Massachusetts island’s south shore, raising the possibility that a schooner wrecked there in 1884 has emerged from the sand again.

David DeHart, an island resident, spotted the timbers on a beach called Point of Breakers and tipped off Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current, according to NPR. Graziadei went to the beach Saturday and posted a video of the find.

“I drove out there with my son Owen and sure enough, it was right there where David said it was,” Graziadei told NPR in an email.

The timbers jutting from the sand resemble part of a hull and appeared in the same spot as fragments found in 2022, NPR reported. Graziadei believes the newly exposed wood is likely from the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted schooner that wrecked near Miacomet Beach 142 years ago. Its identity has not been confirmed.

“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 on Sunday. “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.”

A Nantucket resident first spotted fragments believed to be from the schooner while biking along the island’s southern shore in December 2022, NBC News reported. David Robinson, director and chief archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, inspected that find and spent months researching it with the Egan Maritime Institute and the Nantucket Historical Association, according to NPR.

A 2023 report from the state board concluded that the earlier wreckage was “most likely” from the Warren Sawyer, based on archival, photographic, historical and archaeological evidence. More debris thought to be from the schooner appeared in February 2023, about a half-mile west of the first find, the report said.

The Warren Sawyer was traveling from New Orleans to Boston with 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap metal when it wrecked on Dec. 22, 1884, according to the board’s report. NPR, citing the local newspaper The Inquirer and Mirror, reported that the captain and crew were rescued within hours and that islanders later salvaged much of the cargo.

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger, deputy director of the Maria Mitchell Association, which runs a natural history museum on Nantucket, said the newly exposed remains may belong to the Warren Sawyer but that “more investigation is necessary” to establish their origin, NBC News reported.

For Graziadei, the find offers a tangible link to the island’s maritime past. “I just think it’s fascinating to be able to see and touch a piece of Nantucket’s maritime history from 1884,” he told NPR, adding that cars had driven over that stretch of beach during the summer.