Nor'Easter Uncovers Large Shipwreck Fragment On Nantucket's South Shore

The nor’easter that lashed Nantucket with wind and rain over the weekend also uncovered a piece of island history.

The storm caused erosion along the south shore that revealed the remains of a shipwreck that has already made national headlines. The large fragment that became exposed at the drive-on beach access near the sewer beds is likely from the 19th-century coastal schooner Warren Sawyer, a wooden ship that wrecked near Miacomet Beach on December 22, 1884.

The section of the shipwreck that was spotted first on Saturday by David DeHart is located in the same area where sections of the Warren Sawyer were uncovered in December 2022 and early 2023. This weekend's nor’easter caused significant erosion in that area, and may have uncovered the same large pieces that were found nearly four years ago and determined to be the wreck of the Warren Sawyer by local and state maritime agencies.

"See how the wreckage extends from the base of the eroded bluff? That’s exactly the same situation that the wreckage we saw in 2022 was in," David Robinson, the director and chief archeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archeological Resources (BUAR), told the Current. "And it’s in the same place, so, yes, the logical conclusion based on what I’ve seen thus far in photos and your video is that this is the same wreckage we identified in 2022 as the partially preserved remains of the wrecked schooner, Warren Sawyer."

Here's our video that Robinson referenced: 

The Warren Sawyer wrecked on Nantucket on the night of Dec. 22, 1884, around 11 p.m., loaded with a cargo of cotton and scrap iron. It had been bound for Boston from New Orleans, but was blown off course by gale-force winds.

The following account of the shipwreck was printed in The Inquirer and Mirror newspaper in 1945, and recounts how the Nantucketers assigned to the Surfside lifesaving station jumped into action to save the crew of the Warren Sawyer:

“Patrolman Eugene Clisby sighted the schooner’s lights of Miacomet Rip and hastened to the station to ‘call all hands.’ The surf was raging, completely enveloping the craft with only the swaying masts visible in the blackness of the night. Capt. Veeder shot a line over the jib-stay, putting it this far forward to avoid hitting anyone on board. But the sailors were too numbed with the cold to attempt going forward to secure it. Finally patrolman Williams, during a smooth sea, rushed down the beach and with a hand-line swung a line over her bow. The sailors made their way across the sea-washed decks and secured the line. A hawser was made fast and a breeches buoy rigged.“With the schooner lurching under the impact of the seas, it was a difficult task to keep a steady strain on the hawser, but the experienced life savers worked unceasingly and with the coming of the morning of the 23rd, all hands had been safely landed on the beach.”

According to the Nantucket Historical Association, “Captain Edwin L. Saunders and his seven men were rescued within an hour by the crew of the Surfside Lifesaving Station, despite the schooner rolling violently in the surf. Over the next two weeks, before the wreck broke up, islanders worked to discharge the vessel’s cargo and salvage its equipment and spars, while the curious turned out to take in the dramatic scene. Artist Wendell Macy, always looking for subject matter that would sell, painted at least seven versions of this scene. He exhibited this one (below) at Congdon’s Pharmacy on Main Street and later shipped it to New Bedford for exhibition. The Inquirer and Mirror praised it as one of the artist’s ‘finest efforts in marine work, in which he has been so successful heretofore’.”