Jennie R. Dubois
Schooner · United States · Lost 1903 · Narragansett Bay & the Rhode Island Coast
A record-sized five-masted coal schooner sunk in a foggy collision off Block Island in 1903 and not rediscovered by divers for more than a century.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Launched in 1902 at West Mystic, Connecticut, the five-masted schooner Jennie R. Dubois was the largest coasting schooner built on the Mystic River. Only nineteen months later, on 5 September 1903, she was rammed in dense fog by the German steamship Schoenfels and sank within minutes several miles southeast of Block Island; all eleven crew were saved. The Army Corps of Engineers dynamited the wreck as a hazard to navigation, scattering the site and complicating its rediscovery, which divers finally achieved in 2006-2007.
Vessel
- 1902
- Holmes Shipbuilding Company
- West Mystic, Connecticut
- Wood
- 249 ft
- 46 ft
- 2227
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- September 5, 1903
- Collision
- About 6-7 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island
- Block Island Sound / Atlantic Ocean
- Not established
- Coal
- 11
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 90 ft
- The wreck was dynamited by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shortly after sinking as a hazard to navigation, leaving a scattered, broken-up site; located and identified by divers in 2006-2007.
- Not established
- 2006 (located), identified September 22, 2007
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island
Divers who located the wreck in 2006-2007 did not publish exact coordinates in the sources reviewed.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (78/100)
A precise wreck coordinate has not been published in the sources reviewed.
Build details, dimensions, loss cause and date, rediscovery narrative.
Hunting New England Shipwrecks (wreckhunter.net)
Vessel specifications, loss cause, casualty figures, water depth.
Associated Press via recordonline.com
Confirmation of the 2006-2007 discovery and identification, general loss location.
