A powerful nor'easter that battered the East Coast over the weekend has uncovered remnants of a 19th-century shipwreck on Nantucket's southern shore.
The exposed wooden structure is believed to be part of the schooner Warren Sawyer, which ran aground on the island in 1884, according to multiple sources.
The wreckage emerged near the Point of Breakers and the Sewer Beds, areas hit hard by coastal erosion during the storm, as reported by the Nantucket Current and others.
The Warren Sawyer and Its Dramatic Rescue
The Warren Sawyer was a three-masted wooden schooner built in 1869.
It was carrying 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston when gale-force winds blew it off course.
The vessel grounded near Miacomet Beach on the night of December 22, 1884, according to the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.
A 1945 article in The Inquirer and Mirror documented the rescue, noting that Patrolman Eugene Clisby first spotted the vessel's lights and alerted the lifesaving station.
Despite raging surf and freezing conditions, the lifesaving crew worked through the night, rigging a breeches buoy to bring all crew members ashore by morning.
Patrolman Clisby's account described the surf as raging, completely enveloping the craft with only the swaying masts visible in the blackness of the night.
The sailors were too numbed by the cold to secure a line until patrolman Williams rushed down the beach and swung a line over the bow during a smooth sea.
A hawser was made fast and a breeches buoy rigged, and with the schooner lurching under the impact of the seas, the experienced life savers worked unceasingly until all hands were safely landed on the beach by the morning of December 23.
Jason Graziadei, editor of the Nantucket Current, discovered the newly exposed timbers on September 26, 2026, while visiting the south shore beach with his son.
He noted the wreckage appeared in an area where beachgoers had driven all summer, beneath a route known locally as the "Sewer Beds."
"Given where it was and where it emerged, it means that everyone who was driving onto the beach this summer was just directly over this," Graziadei said.
"I just think it is so funny and so cool."
Graziadei's excitement extended to his son, who was curious about the ship's fate and the crew's rescue.
Graziadei remarked, "It's amazing to think from, you know, over 100 years old that it's still there."
The Egan Maritime Institute, which manages the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum, announced plans to inspect the site and report findings to state underwater archaeologists to confirm the wreck's identity.
Representatives from Egan cautioned that the newly exposed wreckage has not been definitively identified, although it likely belongs to the Warren Sawyer.
State archaeologists previously documented exposed sections of the schooner in 2022 and early 2023, though shifting sands reburied the remains.
The nor'easter also caused heavy rain, strong winds, dangerous surf, and power outages affecting more than 100,000 customers from New Jersey to New England.
Flooding occurred in low-lying areas, and multiple boats washed ashore in Massachusetts.
Nantucket is part of the so-called "graveyards of the Atlantic," an area known for over 750 shipwrecks.
Last year, divers identified a World War I-era fishing boat wreck near the island, underscoring the region's rich maritime history.
Massachusetts law prohibits disturbing underwater archaeological resources, and the institute urged visitors not to touch or remove any part of the exposed wreckage.
