I felt the complete absence of any graphic compliment to the stories undermined what otherwise could be characterized as a first rate book. Downriver from the Defence, somewhere near the dangerous Triangles Ledge area of Penobscot Bay, rests whatever remains of a British ship that was key to the American debacle at Castine. (Photo: Serge Ouache), The wreck of the Dimitrios can be seen off the shore near the town of Gythio. But Desjardin, a historian who has led several ground excavations of the fort at Colonial Pemaquid, is hoping to pick up where Riess left off. Records from the 18th century show that Defiance was sailing out of Salem, Massachusetts for Portland, Maine, according to Claesson. Destruction to shipping was widespread, especially along the Massachusetts shore. The river seems to be a graveyard of sorts: According to estimates by the General Company of Ports of Iraq (GCPI), around 36 sunken ships lie in the Shatt al-Arab, according to niqash.org. But some, like the wreck of the Bohemia, are more awful than others. I wish to thank the Maine Historical Society, the Museum at Portland Head Light, the Vinalhaven Historical Society, and all the organizations and institutions that provided information and photos for this book. "This graveyard of coastal steamers was quite picturesque," especially for people fishing for striped bass, which were abundant in the area, Harbor's website said. For the past 400-plus years, Maine has been a hub of maritime activity and industry on this side of the Atlantic. Use the form below to reset your password. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Most of the 400 wrecks in. But countless other shipwrecks are much more accessible, so long as you have Google Earth. With all that water and coastline, it's no wonder that Maine has an abundance of shipwrecks. After a decades-long career, the ship encountered stormy weather while being towed to Thailand in the early 1990s, where it was meant to be retired and converted into a 5-star floating hotel. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. The Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor in Richmond, California, contains a sunken vessel that was purposefully placed there as a breakwater a barrier that protects the harbor from San Francisco Bay's never-ending waves. . Mural of the Bohemian Wreck from South Portland Post Office. The Wandby. A sloop in His Majestys Royal Navy, the HMS Albany successfully defended Castines narrow harbor entrance for days until reinforcements drove the American forces upriver. . (Photo: Jim Fischer), Once a major fishing port, Moynaq is now 150km away from the shore of the present-day Aral Sea. Photo courtesy: Brick Store Museum Collection, Kennebunk, Maine, The Canadian freighter Cornwallis was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat southwest of Mount Desert Rock on Dec. 3, 1944, while nearing the end of a cargo run from Barbados to St. John, N.B. 10. Constructed with local lumber from the Gold Beach area, the Mary D. Hume worked in several capacities, first as a cargo ship, then as a whaling ship up in Alaska. Plus, while the Defiance seems to fit every description of the shipwreck, Claesson said additional historical research and archaeological investigations are needed to confirm it as fact. At low tide, visitors can still see the bottom timbers of what was once a regal, 209-foot boat hailing from an era when Maine-built schooners plied the worlds oceans. In addition to the cold and the snow, coastal Maine has some pretty significant fog that rolls in during the morning and night. Often, we can never know the whole story with any certainty; the 1941 loss of the Don in Casco Bay is a prime example. Many images on this website are for sale on VintageMaineImages.com. We may not have too many opportunities to document marine architecture of this vintage and tell the story of these early American seafarers.. Shipwrecks are like submerged time machines that offer insights into history but also into that primal form of human drama, writes Jeremy DEntremont in his 2010 book Great Shipwrecks of the Maine Coast., People in shipwrecks often exhibit the greatest in human heroism but also the opposite, so it illustrates the best and worst of humanity, DEntremont, who is president and historian of the Owls Head-based American Lighthouse Foundation, said in an interview. Please try again. However, watermarked Maine Memory Network images may be used for educational purposes. A chief reason is that shipwrecks represent a pure, primal form of human drama. Maine, click on the thumbnail image at right. It was commissioned as the USS YP-414 patrol boat during World War II. Taryn Plumb is a freelance writer and former Boston Globe correspondent whose topics have ranged from ghosts and goblins to the intricacies of finance (which subject frightens you more?). The sampled timbers matched a New England tree-ring index indicating a felling date of approximately 1753, Claesson told CNN. Cannons from the HMS Albany were reportedly still visible at low tide among the ledges until a few decades ago, when some local fishermen allegedly retrieved them. . To prevent environmental disaster, its remaining fuel was drained in 2004, according to NavSource Online. Im deeply indebted to Snow and the other authors who have sailed these waters before me, particularly Peter Dow Bachelder, whose Shipwrecks and Maritime Disasters of the Maine Coast is comprehensive and compelling. The recent discovery this summer of a Navy patrol boat sunk by a German submarine off Cape Elizabeth drew international attention and offered a reminder about how Maines coastline was an active front during World War II. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She is also the author of the Down East Books titles, Haunted Maine Lighthouses and New England UFOs. During the war, there were concerns about steel shortages. Capt. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. . . Wrecks are like submerged time machines or windows to another world. As Lord Byron wrote in The Dark, Blue Sea, Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore.. Many shipwrecks were scattered and eroded by waves, rocks and time. //]]> Just a few corrupt harbor officials who allowed ships to be discarded here for a cheap price. Also, a nice bit of history without being too didactic was nice to give context when called for. For two or three wonderful months, we have weather to rave about. The crew abandoned the ship, and because the ship's owners never came forward, the ship was left in the lake, where it is now home to birds, including cormorants and gulls. My biggest criticism about the book is that there are zero graphics to accompany any given story related within. With many shipwrecks, theres also great mystery involved. It capsized in the Shatt al-Arab, also known as the Arvand Rud, a river that runs through southern Iraq and forms the border between Iran and Iraq near the Persian Gulf. Riess spent several decades searching for wreckage from the Angel Gabriel, the British galleon which reportedly sank with all of its cargo in Pemaquid Harbor one day after arriving with new settlers from Bristol, England, in 1635. Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt. This rusty shipwreck sits on the Skeleton Coast, just north of Luderitz in Namibia. I dont tend to think of shipwreck sites as being particularly convenient places to visit: there are diving lessons, boat charters, and submarines that all need to be sorted out first. , Paperback In a storm, the boat was forced into this sandy cove, where the crew allegedly fled, evading capture. Seventy-five years ago visible hulks like Wiscasset's Hesper and Luther Little were a common sight. & South Coast Maine, Historian Jeremy DEntremont has a new book and we have the introduction. Until verifiable facts about the Dimitrios surface, this shipwreck remains a mystery. Then, it sailed down to Miami, where it was repurposed as a floating cabaret during the Prohibition era. The SS Francisco Morazan sits at the Bottom of Lake Michigan, after it ran aground during a wild snowstorm in 1960. My personal fascination with maritime disasters has its roots in my childhood in the 1960s, when I enjoyed hearing the popular historian Edward Rowe Snow (1902-1982) spin his salty yarns on Boston television and radio. . Jeremy DEntremontPortsmouth, New HampshireVisit Jeremy's WEB SITEVisit Jeremy's Lighthouse Section on SeacoastNH.com, (c) 2010 Published by Commonwealth Editions, an imprint of Applewood Books, Carlisle, MA. Twenty-five years ago they were a novelty. It contained 894 tons of hard and soft coal as it came up the coast from Philadelphia to Portland. The ship was carrying a cargo of flour, pork and English goods along with a four-man crew. : A federal database of navigational wrecks and obstructions lists hundreds of known and suspected wreckage sites along Maines coastline. THE DEADLY REALITY OF SEA TRAVEL This wreck is unusual for being buried entirely in the sandit's now stranded about a quarter mile away from shore. Exactly what happened is unclear, although several accounts from the time say the 240-ton ship was cast away by the hurricane, Riess writes in his book. But the group found cannons, cannonballs, lead shot, fishing weights and other items believed to be from the 1710 wreck. The importance of the ship, and the reason it gets peoples attention, is not because it has $20 million in gold, Tom Desjardin, a historian and former director of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. Photo courtesy: Wreckhunter.net; Paul Sherman collection, The wreck of the Wandby, a British freighter that ran aground near Walkers Point in Kennebunkport in 1921, was a tourist attraction for years until a storm knocked it back into the ocean. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page. The first recorded wreck on the barren, 5-acre island was the trading vessel Increase in 1682. The ship continues to weather damage. Both ships went down in the same storm on New Years Day, 1920. But a New York Express report claimed the elephant survived by swimming to a nearby island, where he went into a barn-yard, and after frightening the cattle there out of their wits, was taken care of by the proprietor of the farm until a circus hand came to take care of him.. This would ensure, even if it is taken one day by the ocean, that we have preserved its memory for future generations. More than 40 of the ships 62 crew members died in what was initially attributed to a boiler explosion. This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. Log in to join the discussion. Please try again. Videos. These moldering boats sit in the Thames River, just off the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Ive presented a greatest hits (no pun intended) collection here, focusing on the most celebrated and dramatic stories. The cost of archaeological excavation to document and reconstruct the vessel is very doable, Claesson said. Some of the wrecks described were modern enough to imagine that there must be some pictures of the subject vessels. Consequently, we can also locate cultural objects - like shipwrecks - sitting on the bottom of oceans, lakes and other bodies of . Click Here to Download. The coast of the Gower Peninsula is scattered with the remains of over 250 shipwrecks in varying stages of decay. (Photo: Brent Pearson), The coast of the Gower Peninsula is scattered with the remains of over 250 shipwrecks in varying stages of decay. For more information, please contact the contributing organization. Published He then looked through nearly 50 years of notary records to discover that a sloop called Defiance had wrecked at the York Beach location in 1769. Below is a partial list of the wrecks located in the coastal and inland waters of Maine. The amount exposed depends on the amount of beach sand from tides and ocean storms. See Terms of Use. mobile app. The crew's belongings and most of the cargo were taken to other ships but the Howard H. Middleton could not be saved . *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A 2272-ton cargo ship that wrecked off Namibia's . : Other wrecks are rotting or rusting away for anyone to see. One of these items ships sooner than the other. With breakthroughs in remote sensing technology (specifically sonar and radar), researchers have been able to acquire highly resolved maps of ocean floors. Shipwrecks & Salvage Wrecks and abandoned hulks of historic vessels dot the coast of Maine. (Continued below), This excerpt published exclusively on SeacoastNH.com with permission of the author and publisher, Introduction toGREAT SHIPWRECKS OF THE MAINE COASTBy Jeremy DEntremont BUY THIS BOOK. Michelle has lived in many places, but counts Maine as one of the best. It had just the right amount of spooky touch when the particular tale called for it. In subsequent years, the Albany seized ships throughout the midcoast and launched raiding parties before the ship by then relegated to a prisoner transport ran aground and sank on the ledges near Vinalhaven in 1782. Maine has thousands of miles of coastline owing to its craggy peninsulas and hundreds of islands, most uninhabited. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. Purchase a reproduction of this item on On August 10, 1897 this schooner was under full sail despite the near zero visibility. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! In this initial study, we now have tree-ring data for multiple species from the early 1600s to the 1750s, Claesson said. During World War I, New Zealand converted this passenger ship the SS Maheno into a floating hospital, according to New Zealand History. Mr. Claesson said his research found that the Defiance was traveling from Salem and headed for Portland when it encountered a storm. At least three such wrecks can be found on Rhossili Beach, including the remains of the Helvetia, a Norwegian vessel that washed ashore in 1887. Thomas Reed and Howland Dyer, the captain of the Castine-based cutter Veto of the U.S. Revenue Service (todays Coast Guard), with saving at least 40 lives. return here. That's when the captain, who had 22 years of skipper experience, realized that the Bohemian was off course by more than 6 miles. And somewhere in Penobscot Bay south of Hampden is whatever remains of the USS Adams, a 28-gun frigate scuttled during the War of 1812. But the ship's journey wasn't complete. Learn more. The ship encountered a fierce storm and never made it to its destination. 2000-2023 Maine Historical Society . In 1930, a pier was constructed to reach the boat, and it became a popular tourist destination, as well as an environmental hazard that was finally cleaned up in 2006.