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Erosion from a powerful nor’easter exposed a section of wooden ship remains shaped like a hull on Nantucket’s south shore near Miacomet Beach over the weekend. Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current, followed a tip from resident David DeHart to the site at Point of Breakers with his son and confirmed the presence of the timbers jutting from the sand. The location and appearance match fragments found in the same area in 2022 and 2023 that a 2023 report from the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources determined were most likely from the Warren Sawyer.
The three-masted wooden schooner wrecked on December 22, 1884, after gale-force winds drove it aground while carrying 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap metal from New Orleans to Boston. Crew members were rescued within an hour by the Surfside Lifesaving Station as onlookers watched the vessel break apart in the surf over the following weeks. Islanders salvaged much of the cargo before the ship scattered along the shore, according to accounts compiled by the Nantucket Historical Association.
Nantucket’s surrounding shoals and unpredictable storms have contributed to more than 700 shipwrecks since the island’s early settlement, a comprehensive list published in the late 19th century by Arthur H. Gardner documented. The Nantucket Current reported that the latest nor’easter generated 62-mile-per-hour wind gusts at the local airport, more than 2.4 inches of rain across two days and waves that caused notable beach erosion without inflicting widespread damage or power outages on the island. Similar discoveries have occurred periodically at the site, with the wreck appearing to resurface roughly every two decades.
Researchers with the Egan Maritime Institute previously collaborated on the identification of the 2022 fragments by cross-referencing archaeological details, historical photographs and archival records of vessels lost in the vicinity. The latest exposure follows the same pattern of storm-driven sand displacement that has revealed other pieces of the Warren Sawyer roughly a half-mile away in subsequent years. State archaeologist David Robinson, who led the earlier assessment, noted that the timbers’ construction and the wreck’s position supported the connection to the 1884 incident.
This weekend’s storm disrupted ferry and flight services to Nantucket for several days while producing minor flooding at the town pier and boat basin. The south shore bore the brunt of the wave action that uncovered the wreck close to the island’s sewer beds, the Nantucket Current reported. Local officials indicated the precipitation may help alleviate ongoing drought conditions in the region.
Historical accounts from the Egan Maritime Institute detail how a comparable Great Gale in 1879 wrecked at least a dozen vessels around Nantucket and nearby islands with significant loss of life and cargo. Such events underscore the hazards that defined the area’s maritime traffic in the era of coastal schooners. Preservation specialists often race to document and protect newly exposed artifacts before subsequent tides rebury or destroy them.
