Remarkable remnants believed to belong to a 142-year-old shipwreck have washed ashore on Nantucket as a powerful nor’easter pounds the East Coast.
Fragments of the three-masted schooner known as the Warren Sawyer were possibly discovered on the south shore of the Massachusetts island on Saturday, according to the Nantucket Current.
Video footage showed the decayed wooden remains of a vessel strewn with seaweed and rust-covered nails after the storm pulled them onto the beach.
Although the wreckage has not been conclusively identified, maritime experts with a keen eye believe it could be linked to the historic ship.
The possible discovery came as a nor’easter that arrived Friday battered parts of the East Coast, with the Tri-State area among the regions hit hardest by flooding and widespread power outages.
The storm has already killed one man who was struck by a falling tree, while another person is still missing.
The Warren Sawyer was lost on the night of December 22, 1884, after running into trouble near Miacomet Beach while traveling from New Orleans to Boston.
The vessel was carrying cotton and scrap iron when gale-force winds blew it off course.
Fragments believed to be from the Warren Sawyer were discovered along Nantucket’s south shore on Saturday, according to the Nantucket Current.
The Warren Sawyer sank near Miacomet Beach during its 1884 voyage from New Orleans to Boston. The ship was loaded with cotton and scrap iron when gale-force winds drove it off course.
Parts of the Warren Sawyer had already come to light in 2023, when a local woman found them while walking her dog.
Nantucket resident Jesse Ahern discovered the remains on February 9, 2023, and promptly contacted officials.
After examining several wooden beams and part of the ship’s stern, officials confirmed that the fragments belonged to the long-lost Warren Sawyer.
Ahern found the pieces roughly 300 yards west of the location where the ship is believed to have gone down.
The ship sank at about 11 p.m. that night in 1884 after gale-force winds rapidly surrounded the vessel, leaving “only the swaying masts visible in the blackness of the night,” according to a 1945 account of the wreck published in The Inquirer and Mirror.
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The report described how local lifesavers at a nearby station rescued the crew by fastening a line across the ship’s bow and bringing all eight men safely ashore.
“With the schooner lurching under the impact of the seas, it was a difficult task to keep a steady strain on the hawser, but the experienced life savers worked unceasingly and with the coming of the morning of the 23rd, all hands had been safely landed on the beach,” the 81-year-old account stated.
The discovery came as a nor’easter battered parts of the East Coast after arriving Friday. Floodwaters reached dangerous levels in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Large waves crashed over homes in Scituate, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
The rescued crew members and their positions were identified as follows: “Captain Edwin L. Saunders, of Boston; Andrew F. Coffin, Addison, Me., mate; seamen, Thomas Coleman, Boston, Alexander McLeod, Boston, John O’Daniel, London, Daniel J. Kane, Yonkers, N.Y., George Sibley, London, and Antone Swazey, New Bedford.”
Beyond bringing pieces of history to the shores of Massachusetts, the storm has also brought catastrophic damage.
Nor’easters typically form as the seasons transition from fall to winter, making the powerful early season storm a rare occurrence.
Massachusetts has also faced dangerous conditions, with massive waves seen crashing into a seawall in Scituate.
Saturday night’s full moon added to the massive waves battering the Northeastern coastline.
As of early Sunday morning, more than 131,000 Americans were without power, according to the live tracking site PowerOutage.
Connecticut had the most outages, with just under 30,000 homes without power. About 26,000 families in New York were without power, while roughly 18,000 in Virginia had lost power.
Massachusetts also had about 15,000 homes without power. Maine, Michigan and Pennsylvania had about 5,000 without power, while roughly 3,000 homes in New Jersey were in the dark.
Pieces of the Warren Sawyer had previously been discovered in 2023 by a local woman walking her dog
Power outages are expected to increase as wind gusts reach 60 mph, while New Yorkers can expect three to six inches of rainfall.
Northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley are expecting about two to six inches, while Cape Cod, Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut are expecting about four to six inches.
The storm has also disrupted Americans’ travel plans nationwide, with more than 2,000 flights delayed and over 430 canceled on Saturday.
The Global Citizen Festival in Central Park and the All Things Go Festival in Queens were also canceled this weekend because of the storm