Merchant
Brig · United States · Lost 1820 · Cape Ann & the Gulf of Maine
A Kennebunk-built trading brig cast away on her home port's sandbar in 1820 after a career in the West Indies trade, her ribs still occasionally surfacing on Gooch's Beach.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Merchant was built at Kennebunk, Maine, in 1804 and spent years in the West Indies trade before running aground on the sandbar at the mouth of the Kennebunk River in April 1820 while returning from Havana, Cuba. Cargo and rigging were salvaged from the wreck, and her buried hull has periodically re-emerged from the sand at Gooch's Beach during storms in the decades since.
Vessel
- 1804
- Nathaniel Gilpatrick
- Kennebunk, Maine
- Wood
- Not established
- Not established
- 139
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- April 1, 1820
- Grounding
- Kennebunk sandbar, Kennebunk, Maine
- Kennebunk River mouth, Gulf of Maine
- Havana, Cuba → Kennebunk, Maine
- West Indies trade goods
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Hull remains periodically visible in the sand at Gooch's Beach
- Not established
- 1958
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Gooch's Beach, Kennebunk, Maine
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (62/100)
The specific hull remains seen periodically at Gooch's Beach cannot be conclusively distinguished from those of another candidate vessel, the brig Aurelia, in the sources reviewed.
Aleteia, citing Seacoastonline research
Vessel build, trading history, and stranding
Vessel ownership and voyage records
