The sea is very good at keeping secrets, until the day it decides not to. A calm beach can look the same for years, with people walking dogs, kids building sand castles, and toys rolling over the sand in summer. Nobody thinks about what might be lying just below their feet.Then one fine day a big storm hits the shore, unravelling years of hidden ‘treasure’ as the sand pulls away.That is what happened recently on an island off the coast of Massachusetts during a weekend of bad weather.Let’s dig in to find out what ‘treasure’ these storms revealed on the bay
A Nor’easter Brings a 142-Year-Old Shipwreck Back Into View on Nantucket
Recently, a rare, early-season nor’easter, a massive extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean, hit Nantucket. The Nantucket Current reported that erosion along the south shore exposed a large wooden fragment, which it said is likely from the Warren Sawyer, a 19th-century three-masted ship.The schooner wrecked near Miacomet Beach on December 22, 1884. The Current’s footage showed several large wooden beams held together by big nails, with waves crashing behind them.
What happened to the Warren Sawyer, and what was it exactly
The Warren Sawyer was a three-masted wooden schooner carrying cotton and scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston. Fox Weather reports that it was blown off course by strong winds, and everyone aboard survived even though the ship was wrecked.The Nantucket Current says parts of the ship were also found on Nantucket’s south shore in 2022, on the same stretch of beach where Saturday’s wooden fragment turned up. The outlet added that the ongoing nor’easter “has already caused significant erosion in that area,” in its X post.
Is it really the Warren Sawyer?
The Boston Globe reports that state archaeologist David Robinson concluded in 2023 that pieces found in 2022 were “most likely” part of the ship’s lower bow. The Egan Maritime Institute said at the time that it could not be completely certain.As for the parts that came ashore recently, Jascin N. Leonardo, Finger of the Maria Mitchell Association, told NBC News that “more investigation is necessary.”
Why do shipwrecks keep coming across over and over again
Erosion is the main reason. Egan Maritime’s website says wrecks usually surface on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts when erosion strips away the sand. Referring to the storms, according to CNN, wind gusts of up to 60 mph caused flooding along the New Jersey shore, left tens of thousands of homes without power, and delayed more than 1,900 flights.