The shipwrecks at Ipswich Bar

Featured image: Map from Plum Island: The Way It Was by Nancy V. Weare

The Ipswich Bar has a long history of tragic shipwrecks. Its swift currents and shallow waters are especially dangerous during storms, and many ships have gone aground. In 1802 and again in 1852 the Merrimack Humane Society of Newburyport constructed shelters at Sandy Point for shipwreck victims, and massive timbers can still be seen protruding from its dunes. Several ships that made safe passage between Sandy Point and Crane Beach went ashore at Steep Hill Beach, where the remains of two schooners can still be observed.

Schooner in the Ipswich River

Records of the loss of small boats began in the 18th century. They went aground on the beach or bar in winter. The boat’s complement attempting to reach shore died in the surf or on the beach. As those buried in the sand did not stay buried a cemetery was established for them on Bar Island.

Plum Island life saving station
The Plum Island Life Saving Station was constructed in 1890. Photo by George Dexter

Among the disasters of greater magnitude is the wreck of the Falconer, a 360-ton brig from Belfast captained by Joseph Rolerson, of the same city. She was transporting 350 tons of coal from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Boston when she encountered the northeaster of December 15, 1847. The ship carried 53 passengers and crew, and the wreck resulted in 17 deaths. After a funeral procession winding through town they were buried in Ipswich, except for the captain and his family, who were shipped back to Belfast.

LifeBoat

On December 3, 1849, the Nancy with a cargo of bricks went aground on Plum Island. The crew of five were lost.

On December 24, 1850, the Argus with a cargo of worked stone foundered on Emerson Rocks. The captain and some of the crew were lost. Two were trailed through the snow to a thicket, where they were found dead.

The Genealogy of the Wilcomb Family provides continues the list of Ipswich shipwrecks.

  • 1872.
    • Schooner “J. R. Lawrence” went ashore on Plum Island. The Schooners “J. A, Ford” and “Harriet Samantha” wrecked Oct. 26. The Schooner “James Freeman” sunk in Ipswich bay. The brig “Ida C.” went ashore on the beach February 20.
  • 1878.
    • A sand schooner was destroyed on Ipswich bar in a storm, April 20.
    • Schooner “Hop Vine'” went ashore on Ipswich bar, Sept 6.
    • Schooner “Sarah Ann” went ashore on Ipswich bar, November 2.
  • 1879. Schooner “G. F. Higgins” was driven ashore on the point, August 20.
  • 1881.
    • Schooner “Alice Oakes”‘ was wrecked on Ipswich bar, June 10.
    • Schooner “Lucy K. Cogswell” sunk by collision with Stmr. Wm. Crane.
  • 1883. Steamship “City Point wrecked on Plum Island and is a total loss.
  • 1884. Schooners “Alfaretta,” and “Ella M. Johnson,” wrecked on Plum Island.
  • 1885:
    • Schooner “Isabella Thompson” wrecked on Castle Neck and three drowned.
    • Schooner “Beta” wrecked on Plum Island, April 7, and three drowned.
    • Schooner “Lizzie” of Machias, Me., wrecked on Ipswich bar.
    • Schooner “Mark Gray” seriously damaged by collision.
    • Schooner “Franklin” wrecked on Plum Island, Nov. 13
  • 1886.
    • Schooner “Lizzie” of Machias, Me., wrecked on Ipswich bar.
    • Schooner “Mark Gray”‘ seriously damaged by collision.
    • Schooner “Franklin” wrecked on Plum Island, Nov. 13.
  • 1887: Schooner “E. M. Branscome” wrecked in Ipswich Bay.
  • 1889:
    • Schooner “Isaac Chaplain” went ashore on Bar Island end, Mar. 5.
    • A schooner loaded with sand for Boston sank in Ipswich river.
  • 1892:
    • Sand schooner W. H. V. Hackett went ashore on Little Neck, in Feb.
    • The schooner Jonathan Cone went ashore on the beach, Nov. 21.
  • 1893.
    • The schooner Celia went ashore on Ipswich bar April 18.
    • Schooner A. Baker went ashore on Ipswich bar, Dec. 15.
  • 1894. Schooner E. F. Willard, of Portland, wrecked on the beach, Feb. 5.

Wrecks of the sand schooners

Sand schooner, Sand Dunes and Salt Marshes, Charles W. Townsend, 1913

Sand schooners delivered sand from local beaches to Boston to be used in concrete for the construction industry. The captains would bring the schooners broadside to a beach at high tide and anchor the bow and stern. A long gangplank would be extended from the ship for men to roll wheelbarrows full of sand, which would be dumped into the hold.

In January 1894 the sand schooner A. Baker was lying sunk and abandoned in Plum Island Sound near the southerly end of Plum Island in Ipswich, and was an obstruction to navigation. Upon investigation it was found that the owner had no means of removing her. The matter rested for a while until Mr. Anton Graf of Georgetown removed the wreck for $195 on May 29, 1894. (from the Annual Report of the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners of Massachusetts). In October 1922 the Edward S. Evelyth rolled over when a wave rushed over her deck and pushed her onto the edge of the beach. Filled with sand, each tide buried her deeper. Her remains were visible for several years.

In 1909 Capt. A. K Brewster sold his farm in York, Maine and invested everything in the sand schooner Ada K. Damon. The ship was wrecked during the “Great Christmas Snowstorm” on his first trip for a load of sand from the plentiful supply on Plum Island. On the 26th of December she stranded 3.5 miles south-southwest of the Plum Island Coast Guard station. The gale swept down from the northeast thick with snow, the anchors dragged and parted, and the ship wrecked at Steep Hill Beach at high tide.

Wreck of the Edward S. Evelyth. Photo from Bill Varrell’s book Ipswich. A section of the bow or stern could be seen at the edge of the beach a few years ago, and the skeleton of the ship was visible nearby in 2′ of water. It has disappeared again.
The Ada K. Damon was stranded not far from where the Edward S. Evelyth went down a couple of decades later.
Laborers ran wheelbarrows loaded with sand from the beaches up long gangplanks to be loaded in sand schooners.
The Appleton family on an outing at Steep Hill Beach, exploring the wreck of the Ada K. Damon
Photo of the wrecked M. L. Wetherell at the northern end of Plum Island by Ipswich photographer George Dexter

The 66-ton schooner M. L. Wetherell was built in Essex, MA in 1865, owned or fitted by Henry Hardy and is among the 1887 Gloucester MA List of Vessels. M. L. Wetherell was a Gloucester MA pharmacist, and I assume that the ship was named after him. In the early years it fished in the Gulf of St Lawrence with hand lines along with the William W. Hutchins of Gloucester.

In the book Down to the Sea, we read that in October, 1870, Albert Faulk was lost overboard from the M. L. Wetherell. The following year, Finley McFadden, Michael Key and Thomas Mackay were lost as well. On April 11, 1872, George T. Sanford, of Deer Isle, Maine, and Alex McDonald, of Prince Edward Island were lost on Grand Bank from the schooner M. L. Wetherell.

There is an odd report by the Rye Beach Life Saving Service of a man who was adrift in a boat belonging to the schooner M.L. Wetherell, rescued near the Rye Beach Station on the coast of New Hampshire. “While going from Newburyport to Plum Island, the boatman broke an oar and was carried out to sea on the ebb tide, and drifted all night before a southwest wind. In the morning he was seen and rescued by the Rye Beach life-saving crew who gave him breakfast, provided spare oars, and replenished his supply of clothing. When he was sufficiently refreshed (the wind having hauled meanwhile and moderated) he left the station to pull down the coast to his vessel, the schooner M. L. Wetherell, 13 miles distant.”

In the History of Newburyport, John J. Currier wrote that on the sixth of December 6, 1891, the schooner M. L. Wetherell, loaded with sand, was stranded near Lighthouse Point at the northern end of Plum Island, MA. The vessel was a total loss.

The Thomas H. Lawrence

Coal schooners were generally larger with three masts. The 374-ton Thomas H. Lawrence stranded at Crane’s Beach on September 4, 1939. A channel was dug and the ship was refloated.

The Thomas H. Lawrence stranded in 1939 near the sandbar at Crane Beach, courtesy of Maisie Crowther.
In 1939, crowds went to Crane’s Beach to view the bleached schooner Thomas H. Lawrence, 374 tons, high and dry on the Ipswich sands, after it drifted from anchorage during a wild storm. Photo by Wilbur Trask, shared by Charlotte Lindgren
The Thomas H. Lawrence, photo courtesy of Dottie Dupray Greenleaf
Thomas H. Lawrence, photo courtesy of Dottie Dupray Greenleaf
The Thomas H. Lawrence
Photo by Wilbur Trask, in Bill Varrell’s book, “Ipswich.”
More shipwrecks from Plum Island: The Way It Was by Nancy V. Weare

Other sources:

Shipwrecks

Wrecks of the coal schooners - Walking near Steep Hill Beach, you might be surprised to see lumps of anthracite coal lying on the sand. This would be a mystery were it not for the tragic history of brigs and schooners transporting coal in the 19th century.… Continue reading Wrecks of the coal schooners
Wreck of the Watch and Wait Wreck of the Watch and Wait, August 24, 1635 - Many ships and lives were lost in the Great Colonial Hurricane, including 21 passengers who had set out from Ipswich on August 21, 1635 on a small bark named "Watch and Wait." As they rounded Cape Ann they were suddenly met by the force of the winds.… Continue reading Wreck of the Watch and Wait, August 24, 1635
Wreck of the Hesperus, Dec.15, 1839 - "It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr, To bear him company."… Continue reading Wreck of the Hesperus, Dec.15, 1839
Tombstone at the Old North Burying Ground in Ipswich from the wreck of the Falconer in Ipswich Bay Wreck of the Falconer, December 17, 1847 - On December 17, 1847 the brig Falconer, loaded with bituminous coal, wrecked at Crane Beach during a fierce winter storm. A dozen of the crew and passengers are buried in a common grave at the Old North Burying Ground. … Continue reading Wreck of the Falconer, December 17, 1847
Wreck of the Edward S. Eveleth, October 1922 - In October 1922, the sand schooner Edward S. Eveleth rolled over when a wave rushed over her deck and pushed her onto the edge of Steep Hill Beach. Filled with sand, each tide buried her deeper. Her remains were visible for several years. The skeleton of the hull is just off-shore a short distance from the wreck of the Ada K. Damon.… Continue reading Wreck of the Edward S. Eveleth, October 1922
Wreck of the Deposit in Ipswich Bay Wreck of the Deposit, December 23, 1839 - Dec. 23, 1839 two days before Christmas a storm caught the schooner "Deposit" on her passage out of Belfast, Maine. Capt. Cotterall was lost, and several of the crew were buried at the Old South Cemetery.… Continue reading Wreck of the Deposit, December 23, 1839
The Ada K. Damon, April 2020 Wreck of the Ada K. Damon - Christmas, 1909 witnessed the heaviest storm in many years. The ship was wrecked during the captain's first trip for a load of sand from the plentiful supply on Plum Island.… Continue reading Wreck of the Ada K. Damon
The spectre ship of salem The Spectre Ship of Salem - On the fourth day after the ship left port, the sun came out and in the distance could be seen the same ship sailing effortlessly back into port directly into the wind. As the Noah’s Dove approached, its passengers including the young couple were visible but ghost-like.… Continue reading The Spectre Ship of Salem
The shipwrecks at Ipswich Bar - The Ipswich Bar has a long history of tragic shipwrecks. Its swift currents and shallow waters are especially dangerous during storms, and many ships have gone aground. The hull of the Ada K. Damon sits on Steep Hill Beach.… Continue reading The shipwrecks at Ipswich Bar
Benjamin Ellsworth at the Ipswich Lighthouse The Ipswich lighthouse - In 1881, a 45-foot cast iron lighthouse was erected at Crane Beach, replacing an earlier structure. By 1913, the sand had shifted so much that the lighthouse was 1,090 feet from the high water mark. Use of the light was discontinued in 1932 and in 1939 the Coast Guard floated the entire lighthouse to Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard.… Continue reading The Ipswich lighthouse
The Great Colonial Hurricane and the wreck of the Angel Gabriel - In August 1635, the 240-ton Angel Gabriel sank in Pemaquid Bay after sailing into the most intense hurricane in New England history. Among the survivors were members of the Cogswell, Burnham and Andrews families, who settled in an area of Ipswich known as Chebacco.… Continue reading The Great Colonial Hurricane and the wreck of the Angel Gabriel
Hurricane Carol Union Street Ipswich MA Hurricanes and winter storms - Massachusetts has the highest probability of all of the states to be hit by an ocean storm, which includes hurricanes and nor'easters.… Continue reading Hurricanes and winter storms
Ships off Liverpool in the Great Storm of 1839 Awful Calamities: the Shipwrecks of December, 1839 - Three gales of unequaled fury and destructiveness swept along our coast carrying desolation and death in their stormy pathway, and overwhelming many families in the deepest mourning.… Continue reading Awful Calamities: the Shipwrecks of December, 1839

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