AH-WR-1459

John S. Dwight

Small Freighter · United States · Lost 1923 · Buzzards Bay & Vineyard Sound

A Prohibition-era rum runner vanished in fog off Cuttyhunk in 1923, and the violent deaths of her crew were never explained.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

John S. Dwight was a small wooden steamer converted to run illegal liquor from offshore supply ships into New York during Prohibition. On the morning of April 6, 1923, Coast Guardsmen at Cuttyhunk spotted her flying a makeshift distress signal in thick fog; she sank within minutes before help could reach her. In the following days, bodies of at least eight crewmen, some bearing marks of violence, washed ashore on Martha's Vineyard, but no full accounting of the crew or the cause of the sinking was ever produced. The episode became one of the enduring mysteries of the region's rum-running era.

Vessel

Built: 1896
Builder: Not established
Yard: Tomkins Cove, New York
Material: Wood
Length: 107.4 ft
Beam: 27.25 ft
Tonnage: 151
Propulsion: Steam, single screw
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: April 6, 1923
Cause: Not established
Location: Vineyard Sound, south of Nashawena Island, Massachusetts
Water: Vineyard Sound
Voyage: Newport, Rhode Island → New York, New York
Cargo: Bootleg ale
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 8
Master: Malcolm Carmichael

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Reported largely intact on the bottom with cargo of bottled ale still aboard, per a 1935 diving expedition.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 1935
Protection: Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources maintains a record of this site.