AH-WR-0103

H.P. Kirkham

Schooner · United States · Lost 1892 · Cape Cod & Nantucket Shoals

A Nova Scotia schooner wrecked on Nantucket's Rose and Crown Shoal in an 1892 blizzard, saved in a legendary 26-hour Life-Saving Service rescue.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

H.P. Kirkham was a three-masted schooner carrying salt and pickled fish from Halifax to New York when a January 1892 blizzard drove her onto the Rose and Crown Shoal east of Nantucket. Her crew burned mattresses in the rigging as distress signals through the night. Sankaty Head's lighthouse keeper spotted the wreck at dawn and alerted the Coskata Life-Saving Station, whose keeper Walter Chase led a surfboat crew that rescued all seven men after an overnight ordeal at anchor. The rescue became one of the most celebrated in U.S. Life-Saving Service history.

Vessel

Built: 1891
Builder: Not established
Yard: Nova Scotia
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: January 21, 1892
Cause: Grounding
Location: Rose and Crown Shoal, east of Nantucket
Water: Atlantic Ocean
Voyage: Halifax, Nova Scotia → New York City
Cargo: Salt and pickled fish
Aboard: 7
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 41.18° N 69.80° W
Accuracy: General area only
Nearest: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Region: Cape Cod & Nantucket Shoals

General area only: coordinate of the Nantucket Shoals feature (encompassing Rose and Crown Shoal) from the US BGN Advisory Committee on Undersea Features gazetteer, marking the named place of loss recorded for this vessel, not a surveyed wreck position.