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Shipwrecks Around Nantucket Since 1940
Prize-Winning School Essay BY MICHAEL BACHMAN

In the history of Nantucket there have been between seven and eight hundred ships wrecked on the shores of the Island or in .surrounding waters. With the innovation of the gasoline and steam engines the number of yearly wrecks dropped down to almost nothing as compared to the number of wrecks among sailing craft.

As it would take a volume of several hundred pages to give an accurate report of the wrecks, I have narrowed my topic down so as to only include wrecks between 1940 and the present. Various reports show that there were between fifty and sixty wrecks in these years. As many of these include such trivial things as cat-boats running aground and rainbows sinking in the basin, I have picked eighteen of the more disastrous and interesting wrecks. They are as follows:

December 13, 1941: An average sized freighter, the "Oregon," with a cargo consisting mostly of manganese ore was running without lights (due to wartime) heading for a U. S. port. The weather was nasty, blowing a full southwest gale, the ship was near Asia Rip (a few miles from Nantucket Light Ship) when it was struck by a U. S. battleship, the "New Mexico," which was also running under blackout orders. Seventeen of the crew members were either killed in the collision or were drowned, the rest were rescued by a New Bedford dragger. Attempts were made to tow the disabled vessel to port but it sank soon after the collision.

January 3, 1947: Early in the afternoon the "Kotor," a Cunard Line freighter under Panamanian registry, (many shipping companies take advantage of the lax shipping rules of Panama by registering their old and decrepit vessels here) ran aground i shoal water about one hundred yards off shore, near Sheep's Pond on the south shore of the island. Believing themselves aground on Davis' Shoal they radioed this information and four Coast Guard Cutters were dispatched to that scene. When the fog cleared and their location was established the cutters were dispatched to the Sheep's pond area and the vessel was hauled off at high water. The vessel, then leaking badly, was then towed to Newport and later to New York.

May 31, 1948: The New Bedford fishing vessel "Etta K" caught fire and started to sink in Nantucket Sound, quite near Handkerchief Lightship. The vessel was brought alongside the lightship where unsuccessful attempts were made in quelling the fire. The crew of the fisherman boarded the lightship just before their own vessel sank. A Coast Guard cutter brought the crew to port.

August 31, 1949: The sea scalloper "Gay Head' was believed to have sunk off the "Corner" near Banana Buoy. A few days later the wreckage was found on the south side of Tuckernuck and in Muskeget channel. Many sharks were milling about the area but no bodies were found. The vessel was on its way from George's banks to New Bedford. (It was probably following the usual course, heading from George's for the "Corner," rounding it, heading for No Man's Land and then from there directly into New Bedford.)

September 9, 1949: Captain Russell Palmer, against advice of friends, started the return voyage from Nantucket to Falmouth (in the face of gathering thunder squalls) with his pleasure craft "Constance." On board were the nine members of the Allenby family and the fiance of one of the daughters.

The craft was near Tuckernuck Shoal when the engines quit from water from waves raised by a passing thunder squall. The party barely had time to don life preservers and tie themselves together before the vessel sank.

Palmer swam the eight miles to shore and started the search for the others. It wasn't until morning, however, that the rest of the party was found, all but one of them had died from either exposure or drowning.

In the year 1949, 155 lives were lost within an one hundred mile radius of Nantucket (this includes Nantucket drownings and main-and drownings along with Nantucket shipwrecks and mainland shipwrecks within this radius). This large number of fatalities instigated an inquiry by USCG, Admiral "Iceberg" Smith. As a result of this inquiry three eighty-three-foot Coast Guard boats were stationed in this area, one of them at Nantucket.

April 7, 1950: In the same storm two fishing vessels, the "William J. Landry" (Fairhaven was home port but it had a three-man Nantucket crew) and the "Four Sisters" (New Bedford, home port) were both sinking about one mile off Monomoy Point (Cape Cod). The two vessels had three alternatives: 1. Beach her on Monomoy Point (distance, one mile) probably wrecking the vessel but saving the cargo and crew. 2. Head for Nantucket (distance sixteen miles) and save vessel, cargo, and crew if the vessel could make it to port. 3. Head for home port, New Bedford (distance forty-five miles) under the same conditions as the second alternative.

The captain of the "Four Sisters" chose to beach his vessel at Monomoy Point, this done, the crew was saved and the following morning the cargo of scallops was saved at low water.

Captain Hansen of the "Landry," after taking aboard a tow line from a Coast Guard cutter, chose to head for New Bedford. However, the tow line soon parted and the "Landry" tried to make it from Handkerchief Shoal into New Bedford on her own. It is believed the vessel sank somewhere between Stone Horse and Handkerchief Shoals, the wreckage was seen the next day off Great Point.

A short time later the "Four Sisters" drifted off Monomoy and sank inside Half Moon Shoal, northeast of Cross Rip.

The owners of both vessels were reimbursed by the insurance companies, but the lives of the crew of the "Landry" were lost seemingly needlessly.

August 17, 1950: At 12:20 a.m. the fisherman "Ellen H. Jean" struck an iron-bound hatch cover and stove in her largest watertight compartment and started slowly to sink. The vessel was then about twelve miles off Low Beach Coast Guard Station and headed directly for it. The vessel's radio wouldn't work and as it became evident that it wouldn't make it to shore Captain Clifford Smith fired off the six flares they had on board. When help didn't seem to be on the way Clifford and Byron Coffin, his only crew member, placed an empty fifty-gallon drum with one end out on the foredeck. They then filled it half way with fuel oil and rags and lit it. This gave off flames ten feet high and lasted till the craft sank about five miles off shore over Old Man Shoals (96 feet Of water). Getting into a rubber life raft they rowed ashore. They were tossed out of the boat at the surf line and had to swim ashore. Proceeding to the station at 8 a.m. they found the aftermath of a party and a sleepy watchman who wanted to know who they were and how they had gotten into the station.

The following day the Coast Guard officials at Low Beach denied there had been any party on the premises and claimed that if there had been a fire or flares they would have been seen. Things looked bad for Smith as the insurance company was withholding payment. However, that afternoon Miss Mildred Jewett called Smith and informed him that bows of his vessel were on Smith's Point.

Captain Smith and insurance officials rushed to the scene. There on the bows was the name of the vessel and on the foredeck was a ring the size of the fifty-gallon drum burned half an inch into the wood. That was enough for the insurance adjusters and a short time later there was a shakeup in Coast Guard personnel on the island.

February 17, 1952: In a fierce northeasterly storm two T-2 type tankers, the "Fort Mercer" and the "Pendleton," each 504 feet long with gross tonnage of 10,000, within six miles of each other split in two and started to sink. Coast Guard vessels arrived at the scenes and rescued all but seven of the eighty-four men aboard the two vessels.

The stern of the "Fort Mercer" was saved and was fitted with new bows in New York. It is now at sea under a new name.

March 11, 1952: A Nantucket dragger, the "Anna C. Perry," bound for New Bedford with a load of fish from George's Banks sank between the "Corner" and Davis Shoals. It was heavily loaded with fish when a heavy gale was encountered. All hands were lost.

September 6, 1952: A charter pleasure fishing boat, owned by Allen W. Holdgate and operated by Captain George Studley, was bluefishing on "Old Man" Shoal when it was struck and capsized by a blind swell. Captain Studley was struck by a deck chair and seen no more. The three other members of the party clung to the boat and were rescued twenty-four hours later off Miacomet Rip. The boat was also saved.

Summer, 1955: Gerald McCarthy, an early riser, got out of his bunk aboard the "Irene" and stepped knee deep in water. His cries soon aroused his shipmate, Bob Wilson, and they abandoned ship immediately. Evidently the "Irene," which was quite old, had given up the struggle, split her seams, and sank. The two shipmates were soon picked up by Morris Clatenbourg of the ship "Two Brothers."

Summer, 1955: The "Red Start," a New Bedford dragger, was lost between the "Corner" and "Old Man" Shoals. All ten of the crew were lost. Some wreckage was brought to Nantucket by the Coast Guard for identification and sale.

July 26, 1956: The Italian ocean liner, "Andrea Doria," sank several hours after being rammed (on the evening of the 25th) by the Swedish freighter "Stockholm" about forty-six miles ESE of Nantucket. Fifty-three of the passengers were killed.

 

Bibliography

Arthur H. Gardner: "Wrecks Around Nantucket' Reynolds Printing, Inc., Edward Rowe Snow: "Great Gales and Dire Disasters," Dodd, Mead, and Company, 19:52, pp. 2)30-237.

Dr. Luigi A. Ferrelli, "The 101st Crossing," Outdoor Adventures, April 1957, pp. 8-9, 76-61.

Part of my information came from the above reference material but most of it came from talks with the following men to whom I am grateful: Charles Sayle, Clifford Smith, John McDonald, Charles Fleming, Thomas Gordon Turner.