Josephus
Bark (or Barque) · United Kingdom · Lost 1852 · Cape Cod & Nantucket Shoals
A British bark bound for Boston broke apart on the Peaked Hill Bars in fog and gale, leaving a lone survivor found alive on a scrap of wreckage by the lighthouse keeper.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
The British bark Josephus (also recorded as Josepha), carrying iron rails and other cargo from Bristol to Boston, struck the Peaked Hill Bars near Highland Light in fog and an easterly gale on April 20, 1852. The heavily laden vessel broke apart quickly, spilling most of her company into the surf. Two local men who launched a rescue boat also drowned. Highland Light keeper Enoch Hamilton later found a single surviving sailor alive on a piece of wreckage.
Vessel
- Not established
- Not established
- Prince Edward Island (Yeo shipyards)
- Wood
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Sail, bark rig
- Not established
Loss
- April 20, 1852
- Grounding
- Peaked Hill Bars, about a mile north of Highland Light, Truro
- Atlantic Ocean, outer Cape Cod
- Bristol, England → Boston, Massachusetts
- Iron rails, skins, and white lead
- 18
- 17
- John Cawsey
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Highland Light, Truro, Massachusetts
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (70/100)
The precise number aboard and lost is reported inconsistently between about 17 and 25 across sources.
Wicked Local / Cape Codder (Don Wilding)
Wreck narrative and survivor account.
New England Lighthouse Stories
Keeper Enoch Hamilton and wreck details.
Crew roster, build origin, and voyage details.
Isaac M. Small, Shipwrecks on Cape Cod (1928)
Period eyewitness-informed account of the wreck.
