Cape Cod & Nantucket Shoals
Sand that moves faster than the charts
The outer arm of Cape Cod and the shoals off Nantucket sit directly in the coastal shipping lane between New York and Boston.
Nantucket Shoals shift with the seasons, the outer beach shelves steeply and offers no harbor for forty miles, and northeast gales drive vessels ashore where surfmen could only watch. Before Cape Cod Canal opened, every coasting schooner and steamer had to round the cape itself. Hundreds of documented losses line the backshore, some buried and uncovered again by a single winter storm.
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Records in These Waters
AvailableAlbert L. Butler
AH-WR-1033Peaked Hill Bars, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1898 · Schooner
AvailableAlice M. Lawrence
AH-WR-1618Tuckernuck Shoal, Nantucket Sound
1914 · Six-Masted Schooner
AvailableAlva
AH-WR-0328Chatham, Massachusetts
1892 · Steam Yacht · 50 ft deep
AvailableAnnie L. Spindler
AH-WR-1460Race Point, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1922 · Schooner
AvailableAransas
AH-WR-0523Chatham, Massachusetts
1905 · Passenger Steamer
AvailableBellmont
AH-WR-1032Peaked Hill Bars, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1894 · Barkentine
AvailableCastagna
AH-WR-1037Marconi Beach, South Wellfleet, Massachusetts
1914 · Bark (or Barque)
AvailableDixie Sword
AH-WR-1621Butler Hole, Monomoy
1942 · Coastal Freighter
AvailableDorothy Palmer
AH-WR-1039Monomoy Island, Chatham, Massachusetts
1923 · Schooner
AvailableElva L. Spurling
AH-WR-1856Nauset, Cape Cod
1922 · Fishing Schooner
AvailableFranklin
AH-WR-1028Newcomb Hollow Beach, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
1849 · Full-Rigged Ship
AvailableFrench Van Gilder
AH-WR-1622Tuckernuck Shoal
1885 · Three-Masted Schooner
AvailableGeneral Arnold
AH-WR-1027Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts
1778 · Privateer Brig
AvailableH.P. Kirkham
AH-WR-0103Nantucket, Massachusetts
1892 · Schooner
AvailableHannah E. Shubert
AH-WR-1030High Head, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1886 · Schooner
Historical ListingHMS Somerset
AH-WR-0327Provincetown, Massachusetts
1778 · Ship Of The Line
AvailableJason
AH-WR-1036Pamet River, Truro, Massachusetts
1893 · Full-Rigged Ship
AvailableJosephus
AH-WR-1029Highland Light, Truro, Massachusetts
1852 · Bark
AvailableKate Harding
AH-WR-0525Cape Cod Light, Truro, Massachusetts
1892 · Bark
AvailableLackawanna
AH-WR-1626Southwest of Handkerchief Shoal
1915 · Steam Tug
AvailableLe Lyonnais
AH-WR-1543Nantucket, Massachusetts
1856 · Screw Steamer
AvailableLucy Jones
AH-WR-1034Nantucket Harbor entrance, Nantucket, Massachusetts
1887 · Schooner
AvailableMary Anne
AH-WR-1419Eastham, Massachusetts
1717 · Pirate Vessel
AvailableMertie B. Crowley
AH-WR-1038Wasque Point, Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
1910 · Schooner
AvailableMontclair
AH-WR-0330Orleans, Massachusetts
1927 · Schooner
AvailableMonticello
AH-WR-0526Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Date of loss not established · Ship
AvailableNantucket Lightship LV-117
AH-WR-0782Nantucket Shoals, Massachusetts
1934 · Lightvessel
AvailablePinthis
AH-WR-0102Scituate, Massachusetts
1930 · Tanker · 100 ft deep
AvailablePlymouth Rock
AH-WR-1031High Head, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1888 · Schooner
AvailablePort Hunter
AH-WR-0709East Chop, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
1918 · Freighter · 30-70 deep
AvailablePottstown
AH-WR-1629Northeast of Scusset Breakwater, Sandwich
1944 · Schooner Barge
AvailableRMS Republic
AH-WR-0101Nantucket Shoals, Massachusetts
1909 · Ocean Liner · 270 ft deep
AvailableSparrow-Hawk
AH-WR-0032Orleans, Massachusetts
1626 · Small Merchant Ketch
RegisteredSS Andrea Doria
AH-WR-0036Nantucket Island, Massachusetts
1956 · Ocean Liner · 160 ft deep
AvailableSS Black Point
AH-WR-0787Point Judith, Rhode Island
1945 · Collier · 85-95 deep
AvailableSS City of Columbus
AH-WR-0788Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
1884 · Passenger Steamer · 0-50 deep
AvailableSS Fort Mercer
AH-WR-1040Off Chatham, Massachusetts
1952 · Tanker
AvailableSS Horatio Hall
AH-WR-0329Chatham, Massachusetts
1909 · Passenger And Freight Steamer
AvailableSS James Longstreet
AH-WR-0331Wellfleet, Massachusetts
1943 · Liberty Ship · 20 ft deep
AvailableSS Pendleton
AH-WR-0035Chatham, Massachusetts
1952 · Tanker
AvailableSS Portland
AH-WR-0034Provincetown, Massachusetts
1898 · Side-Wheel Paddle Steamer · 400 ft deep
Historical ListingU-853
AH-WR-0784Block Island, Rhode Island
1945 · German Submarine · 121-130 deep
Historical ListingUSCGC General Greene
AH-WR-0332Sandwich, Massachusetts
1960 · Coast Guard Cutter
Historical ListingUSS Bancroft
AH-WR-0524Off Cape Cod, Massachusetts
1945 · Destroyer
Historical ListingUSS Bass
AH-WR-0785Block Island, Rhode Island
1945 · Submarine · 120-155 deep
AvailableWadena
AH-WR-1035Monomoy Island, Chatham, Massachusetts
1902 · Coal Barge
RegisteredWhydah Gally
AH-WR-0033Wellfleet, Massachusetts
1717 · Galley/Slave Ship, Later Pirate Vessel · 16 ft deep
AvailableWyoming
AH-WR-0783Monomoy Island, Chatham, Massachusetts
1924 · Six-Masted Schooner · 65-70 deep
