Maritime experts travel to Nantucket to investigate shipwreck remains exposed by nor’easter

BOSTON (AP) — A maritime expert is set to visit a Nantucket beach on Monday to examine weathered wooden beams that have been exposed by the recent powerful nor'easter. These beams may be remnants of a 19th-century shipwreck buried along the island's southern shore.

The Egan Maritime Institute plans to send its exhibits and collections manager to survey the site and submit a report to state underwater archaeologists. These experts will then collaborate with the institute to identify which vessel the wreckage belongs to.

The exposed splintered timbers, secured by rusted iron, were found near a location where remains of the Warren Sawyer, a wooden schooner that sank in 1884, have been discovered previously. Officials from the Egan Institute, a nonprofit operating the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum, stated that the newly exposed wreckage has not been definitively identified.

The Warren Sawyer encountered difficulties while en route from New Orleans to Boston, carrying 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap iron. The ship ran aground on December 22, 1884, with its captain and seven crew members ultimately being rescued. The schooner remained intact on Nantucket's Miacomet Beach for two weeks, enabling islanders to salvage 700 bales of cotton using skids and oxen. However, on January 6, 1885, another storm dismantled the ship, scattering its remains across more than half a mile of beach.

Decades later, fragments believed to belong to the Warren Sawyer continue to emerge from the sand. In late 2022, state archaeologists examined a roughly 42-foot section of hull exposed on Miacomet Beach and concluded it was likely part of the Warren Sawyer. A roughly 15-foot-square section of the lower stern appeared nearby in February 2023, but shifting sands covered it before archaeologists could document it again.

Nantucket is part of the "graveyards of the Atlantic," with over 750 estimated wrecks in the surrounding waters. The slow-moving nor'easter battered the Northeast coastline over the weekend, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, and dangerous surf. The storm led to flooding in low-lying communities from New Jersey to New England and knocked out power to over 100,000 customers at times.

Coastal erosion concerns arose as waves crashed into beaches and seawalls. The institute advised visitors not to disturb the newly exposed wreckage, as Massachusetts law prohibits removing, damaging, or displacing underwater archaeological resources.