AH-WR-1026

Horace

Barque · United States · Lost 1838 · Cape Ann & the Gulf of Maine

A cotton-laden barque driven ashore near Kennebunkport in a 1838 gale after her maiden voyage was already marked by a mid-ocean mutiny.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Horace was newly built at Scarborough, Maine, when a mutiny broke out among four crew members off the coast of Florida during her maiden voyage in 1838. Captain Leander Foss subdued the mutineers and sailed for Kennebunk to hand them to authorities, but while anchored outside the river a severe gale on May 5 parted her cables and drove her onto the ledges off Oakes Neck before she grounded near Lord's Point. All aboard escaped safely, and her remains still occasionally surface on the beach.

Vessel

Built: 1838
Builder: Not established
Yard: Scarborough, Maine
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: 389
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: Joseph Hatch Jr. and Orlando Perkins, part owners

Loss

Date: May 5, 1838
Cause: Storm
Location: Boothby's Beach near Lord's Point, Kennebunkport, Maine
Water: Gulf of Maine
Voyage: New Orleans, Louisiana → Liverpool, England (via Kennebunk, Maine, after a mutiny)
Cargo: About 1,300 bales of cotton
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: All persons aboard safely abandoned ship; no deaths documented in the grounding itself.
Master: Leander Foss