Nantucket shipwreck uncovered by Nor'easter

A tip from a Nantucket resident led to the discovery of ship remains that may trace back to 1884. Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current hide caption

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Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current

As heavy winds and seas battered the Massachusetts island of Nantucket over the weekend, island residents discovered ship remains that may trace back to an 1884 shipwreck.

It all started when Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current who was covering the storm, received a tip from an island resident.

"I drove out there with my son Owen and sure enough, it was right there where David said it was," Graziadei told NPR via email.

David DeHart, who sent in the tip, had found the ship's remains on a south shore beach called Point of Breakers. The newly visible wooden timbers, jutting out of the sand in the shape of a hull, were in the same spot as ship fragments found back in 2022.

A resident of the Massachusetts island discovered the remains during the Nor'easter that pounded Nantucket on Sept. 26, 2026 Jason Graziadei /The Nantucket Current hide caption

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Jason Graziadei /The Nantucket Current

Back then, David Robinson, director and chief archeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archeological Resources, inspected the findings. He spent several months conducting research alongside the Egan Maritime Institute and the Nantucket Historical Association. He later determined that the remnants likely belonged to a schooner called the Warren Sawyer.

"As with most historical archaeological research," Robinson told the Current in 2023, "exploring the available literature, archival, photographic, and archaeological evidence we collectively assembled for the site to try to arrive at a conclusive determination as to whether or not the wreckage is from the tern [sailing vessel], Warren Sawyer."

The Warren Sawyer was a cargo ship traveling from New Orleans to Boston with bales of cotton and scrap iron; it crashed on the night of Dec. 22, 1884. According to local newspaper The Inquirer and Mirror, the captain and crew were rescued within hours, and islanders later salvaged much of the cargo.

The Warren Sawyer was a cargo ship that crashed near Nantucket in 1884. Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current hide caption

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Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current

Graziadei, who covered the discovery of the wreck several years ago, believes it's extremely likely these remains are from the same ship.

"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 said in his email.