In 1884, Gale-Force Winds Ran a Ship Aground Near Cape Cod. Now, the Nor’easter Lashing the East Coast May Have Uncovered Part of It

The wreckage could belong to the “Warren Sawyer,” a three-masted cargo schooner that foundered more than 140 years ago September 29, 2026 8:00 a.m. Jason Graziadei, editor in chief of the Nantucket Current, snapped this photo after getting a news tip from a reader. Jason Graziadei / Nantucket Current On the evening of December 22, 1884, the Warren Sawyer ran aground on Nantucket, the island roughly 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Now, more than 140 years later, a piece of the three-masted cargo ship may have emerged from the sand. Nantucket resident David DeHart first spotted the remains—a section of wooden beams with iron fastenings—on the Point of Breakers beach, on the island’s south shore, on September 26. The wind and waves whipped up by the powerful nor’easter pounding the East Coast seem to have eroded part of the shore, revealing part of the historic wreckage. The Warren Sawyer was transporting cotton and scrap metal from New Orleans to Boston. Jason Graziadei / Nantucket Current DeHart sent a news tip to Jason Graziadei, editor in chief of the Nantucket Current, who went to check out the debris for himself. “I drove out there with my son Owen, and sure enough, it was right there where David said it was,” Graziadei tells NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. The remnants are in the same spot where portions of a vessel emerged in December 2022 and February 2023. Experts with the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources concluded that in those two instances, the remains “most likely” came from the Warren Sawyer. Graziadei sent photos and a video of the newly unearthed remnants to David Robinson, the director and chief archeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archeological Resources, who agreed they probably belong to the same wreck. “It’s certainly possible it could be from another wreck, but given the location and appearance, we said it is most likely the Warren Sawyer,” Graziadei tells NBC News’ Nicole Acevedo and Nollaig O’Connor. The Warren Sawyer ran aground on the island’s south shore in 1884. Jason Graziadei / Nantucket Current The three-masted schooner was transporting 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap metal from New Orleans to Boston when it wrecked on the island’s south shore, as John Stanton reported for the Inquirer and Mirror in 2023. Gale-force winds caused the ship to run aground on Miacomet Beach around 11 p.m. Rescuers stationed at the Surfside Lifesaving Station sprang into action, ultimately saving the lives of Captain Edwin L. Saunders and his seven-member crew. According to the Nantucket Historical Association, the island’s residents salvaged as much of the vessel’s cargo and equipment as possible—at least 700 bales of cotton—before waves destroyed the ship. “The sails, rigging and effects saved from the wrecked ... Warren Sawyer were sold by auction at Nantucket Jan 20, the aggregate proceeds amounting to about $600,” the New York Herald reported on January 25, 1885. “The wreckers have been awarded $4.75 per day for their services, and the salvors of cotton rescued since the vessel went to pieces will receive 55 percent salvage.” Did you know? The “Fame” Earlier this year, Storm Chandra may have exposed part of the Fame, a 17th-century ship that sank off the coast of southern England in 1631. For Jascin N. Leonardo Finger, the newly revealed wreckage is an “unfortunate but good reminder” of the island’s history. “People sometimes forget that we live 28 miles at sea and also what life was like out here,” Leonardo Finger, deputy director of the Maria Mitchell Association, a nonprofit that runs a natural history museum on Nantucket, tells the New York Times’ Mack Liederman. Moving forward, experts with the Egan Maritime Institute and the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources will work together to definitively identify the wreck, per NBC News. In the meantime, Graziadei is still reveling in the discovery, which he says connects the island’s past and present. “I just think it’s fascinating to be able to see and touch a piece of Nantucket’s maritime history from 1884, and also incredible to think that it is located in a spot on the shore that cars were literally driving over on the beach this summer,” Graziadei tells NPR. You Might Also Like Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. More about: American History Atlantic Ocean Beaches History Oceans Shipwrecks Weather