1924 — March 11/12, schooner Wyoming sinks in blizzard off Nantucket, MA         –13-18

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 9-7-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

—  18  Capecodtoday. Cape Cod Hist. “1924: one of…last six-masted schooners…lost.” 3-15-2010

–~15  Daily Kennebec Journal, ME. “Wreckage Indicates Loss…Wyoming…,” 3-14-1924, 1.

—  14  Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 100. (March 12)

—  14  Daily Kennebec Journal, ME. “Wreckage Indicates Loss…Wyoming…,” 3-14-1924, p. 1.

—  13  Lowell Sun, MA. “No Trace of Missing Crew. Six-Master Wyoming…,” 3-14-1924, p. 35.

—  13  Snow, Edward. Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, p. 235.

Narrative Information

Capecodtoday: “On this day in 1924, the Coast Guard discovered the wreck of one of the last six-masted schooners ever built. The Wyoming, launched from the Percy & Small shipyard in Bath, Maine, had sunk off Pollock Rip[1] in a terrible gale with the loss of her entire crew of 18. Lifebelts bearing the name of the Wyoming ‘were found among heaps of wreckage washed ashore on Thursday in Madaket Harbor on Nantucket Island,’ according to the Lima (Ohio) News….” (Capecodtoday. Cape Cod Hist. “1924: one of…last six-masted schooners…lost.” 3-15-2010.)

Snow, Edward. Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, p. 235:

“A terrific blizzard swept the coast [Nantucket] on the night of March 11, 1924, sending the great six-masted schooner Wyoming to her doom, with all the members of her crew, thirteen in number, going down with the vessel. The Wyoming had last been seen at anchor that afternoon near Pollock Rip lightship.[2] The next day her quarterboard came ashore, followed by much wreckage from the 305-foot schooner, and it was feared that she had pounded to pieces during the night. No additional information about the Wyoming was ever revealed by the sea.”

Newspapers

March 13: “Nantucket, Mass., March 13 – Evidence of a shipping disaster involving the probable loss of a score of lives, was discovered by coastguardsmen of the Madaket station, on the north shore of Nantucket Island today when masses of wreckage drifted in from sea in Madaket Bay. A vessel’s name plate found floating among the debris indicated that the wreckage was from the six master schooner Wyoming of Portland, Maine, bound from Norfolk for St. John, N.B., with a cargo of coal.

“Boston, March 13 – Fourteen men, including the captain, went down when the six masted schooner Wyoming of Portland, Maine, went to pieces off Nantucket in the gales of this week, according to William Whicker, a Boston Shipping Agent, who shipped the vessel’s crew here….

“Portland, Maine, March 13.—The Wyoming left Boston about a month ago for Norfolk, Va., where she took on a cargo of about 5,000 tons of coal for St. John, N. B. She had a crew of about 15 men. She was reported on Sunday [March 9] as having passed Vineyard Haven on Saturday bound east; and her owners supposed she had come over the shoals, but Captain Hanson, of the steamer Absecon who arrived here on Tuesday, reported that the day before he sighted a six-masted schooner, and a five master, anchored about eight miles east northeast of Pollock Rip light ship, the two evidently being the Wyoming and the Oakley C. Curtis, the latter bound here from Norfolk, with coal…

“The Wyoming was in command of Captain Charles Glaesil, one of the old J. S. Winslow company shipmasters, who has sailed out of this port for many years, and is one of the most skilful navigators on the coast. The schooner registered 3,730 gross tons, 3036 net, and was built at Bath in 1909. 

“The six master Edward L. Lawrence, now in this harbor, is the only survivor of the large fleet of her type formerly owned in Boston, Portland and Bath, the Ruth E. Merrill, another local six-sticker, having been lost only a month ago on Nantucket Shoals.”  (Daily Kennebec Journal, ME. “Wreckage Indicates Loss…Wyoming…,” 14 Mar 1924, p. 1.)

March 14: “Boston, March 14.—Driftwood pounded up on the storm swept shores of Nantucket last night brought in from out of the swollen seas a story of destruction in the fierce blizzard of the six-masted schooner Wyoming of Portland, Me., with the probable loss of 13 Boston men – its entire crew. The coast guard cutter Tampa left ort today to search for possible survivors from the Wyoming.

“Capt. Clark of the steamer Quincy, which arrived today from Sewall’s Point, Va., reported that while his vessel was anchored southwest of Handkerchief Lightship on Wednesday, he saw a mass of wreckage drift by.  It included a large lifeboat bottom up and a half of another lifeboat…

“Nantucket, March 14.—A mast 72 feet long, supposed to have come from the wrecked schooner Wyoming was picked up by coast guardsmen near shore off the West End of the island today.  They also found a part of a schooner’s stern with a hawser attached.  No bodies have been found and there is no trace of lifeboats….” (Lowell Sun, MA. “No Trace of Missing Crew. Six-Master Wyoming…,” 14 Mar 1924, 35.)

Dec 15, 1909: “Bath, Me., Dec. 15 [1909]. – The largest wooden sailing vessel in the world is the six-masted schooner Wyoming, which was launched here to-day. The Wyoming, which is also the largest American sailing craft of either wood or steel, has a gross tonnage of 3,730, or twenty-two tons greater than that of the six sticker William L. Douglas, the more recent title holder.” (New York Times.  “Big Schooner is Launched,” Dec 16, 1909, p. 4.)

Sources

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Capecodtoday.com. Cape Cod History. “1924: one of the last six-masted schooners is lost.” 3-15-2010. Accessed at:  http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2010/03/15/1924-one-of-the-last-six-masted-schooner?blog=161

Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME. “Wreckage Indicates Loss of Sch Wyoming and Death 14 Aboard,” March 14, 1924, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=30582864

Lowell Sun, MA. “No Trace of Missing Crew. Six-Master Wyoming Lost With 13 Boston Men, Its Entire Crew,” March 14, 1924, p. 35, col. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=61810150

New York Times. “Big Schooner is Launched; The Wyoming…,” 12-16-1909, p. 4. Accessed at:  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9903E2D61731E733A25755C1A9649D946897D6CF

[1] “Running almost 9 miles from the elbow of the Cape at Monomoy to the northern tip of Nantucket, the Rip is a ridge of shifting sand, cut through with a handful of shifting channels. Strong tidal currents flowing in and out of Nantucket Sound meet weather from the open ocean to generate conditions that range from merely disorienting to completely treacherous.”  (Capecodtoday. Cape Cod Hist. “1924: one of…last six-masted schooners…lost.” 3/15/10.)

[2] We speculate that the lightship was stationed off Pollock Rip Shoals, about 3 miles east of south end of Monomoy Island, Chatham, MA.