A tip from a Nantucket resident led to the discovery of ship remains that may date back to 1884.
Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current
hide caption
toggle caption
Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current
As high winds and rough seas battered Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island over the weekend, island residents discovered ship remains that may date 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 there with my son Owen and sure enough, it was exactly where David said it was,” Graziadei told NPR via email.
David DeHart, who sent the information, had found the remains of the ship on a south coast beach called Point of Breakers. The newly visible wooden beams, protruding from the sand in the shape of a hull, were in the same location as the ship fragments discovered in 2022.
A Massachusetts island resident discovered the remains during the Nor’easter that struck Nantucket on September 26, 2026.
Jason Graziadei /The Nantucket Current
hide caption
toggle caption
Jason Graziadei /The Nantucket Current
At the time, David Robinson, director and chief archaeologist of the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological 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 remains likely belonged to a schooner called Warren Sawyer.
“As with most historical archaeological research,” Robinson told the Current in 2023“exploring the available literature, archival, photographic and archaeological evidence that we have collectively gathered for the site in order to try to reach a conclusive determination as to whether or not the wreck is from the tern (sailboat), Warren Sawyer.”
The Warren Sawyer was a freighter traveling from New Orleans to Boston with bales of cotton and scrap metal; it crashed on the night of December 22, 1884. According to the local newspaper The investigator and the mirrorthe captain and crew were rescued within hours, and the islanders later salvaged much of the cargo.
The Warren Sawyer was a freighter that crashed near Nantucket in 1884.
Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current
hide caption
toggle caption
Jason Graziadei/The Nantucket Current
Graziadei, who covered the discovery of the wreck several years ago, believes it is extremely likely that these remains came from the same ship.
“I just think it’s fascinating to be able to see and touch a piece of Nantucket’s maritime history dating back to 1884, and also amazing to think that it’s located in a spot on the shore that cars were literally driving on the beach this summer,” Graziadei said in his email.
Gn headline
