AH-WR-1105

Carrie L. Hix

Schooner · United States · Lost 1900 · Cape Ann & the Gulf of Maine

A lime-laden schooner mistook a fog-shrouded construction buoy for a shore light and broke apart on Gloucester's unfinished Dog Bar Breakwater.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Carrie L. Hix was a wooden coasting schooner owned by A. F. Crockett, carrying a cargo of lime toward Gloucester. On New Year's night 1900, her captain mistook the gas buoy marking the still-unfinished Dog Bar Breakwater for a light on shore, and the vessel struck the breakwater's outer ledge. Pounded by heavy seas over the next two days, she broke apart from the keel upward and was declared a total loss. The Boston Globe covered the wreck as an early example of the hazard the incomplete breakwater posed to shipping.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Sail, schooner rig
Owners: A. F. Crockett

Loss

Date: January 1, 1900
Cause: Grounding
Location: Dog Bar Breakwater (then under construction), Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts
Water: Gloucester Harbor
Voyage: Gloucester, Massachusetts
Cargo: Lime
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 0
Master: Capt. Hatch

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Broke apart on the breakwater ledge within two days of grounding.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established