A nor'easter storm that affected New England over the weekend looks to have uncovered significant parts of a 19th-century schooner shipwrecked in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Marine investigators are now examining splintered timbers fastened by rusted iron that emerged from the sand during the storm.
These newly exposed fragments are close to where smaller remnants of the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted wooden vessel that ran aground on 22 December 1884, have been found previously. The Warren Sawyer was carrying cotton and scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston when it was shipwrecked.
The Egan Maritime Institute, a Nantucket-based educational non-profit, stated on Monday that it would send staff in the coming days to examine the site and fragments. The institute will also prepare a report for state archaeologists to assist in identifying the vessel. However, the institute noted it is currently too soon to confirm if the newly emerged segments are definitely from the Warren Sawyer.
Journalist Jason Graziadei, editor of the Nantucket Current, believes the proximity to the recorded site of the Warren Sawyer's demise suggests it is likely the same ship. Massachusetts law prohibits removing, damaging, or displacing underwater archaeological resources, and the Egan Institute has urged visitors not to disturb the wreckage.