J.R. Moffett
Schooner · United States · Lost 1919 · The Potomac & the Virginia Chesapeake
A small oyster-shell schooner capsized and sank with both hands in a 1919 Potomac River gale, later immortalized as the folk legend of the 'Ghostship Morphy.'
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1893 at Pocomoke City, Maryland, the 70-foot schooner J.R. Moffett spent its career in the coasting trade before settling into Rappahannock River service out of Tappahannock. On March 27, 1919, while carrying a cargo of oyster shells from the Piankatank River to Alexandria, she was struck by a violent gale near St. Catherine's Island and capsized, drowning her captain, John Rainier, and crewman Chris Brooks. The nearby steamer E. Madison Hall witnessed the capsizing and searched in vain for survivors. Decades later, Calvert Marine Museum research confirmed that a widely told regional ghost-ship legend, of a schooner called the "J.R. Morphy," was based directly on this real wreck and its lost crew.
Vessel
- 1893
- Not established
- Pocomoke City, Maryland
- Wood
- 70 ft
- Not established
- 44
- Sail
- Capt. John Rainier
Loss
- March 27, 1919
- Storm
- Potomac River near St. Catherine's Island (Kettle Bottom Shoals), Maryland
- Potomac River
- Piankatank River, Virginia → Alexandria, Virginia
- Oyster shells
- 2
- 2
- John Rainier
The Wreck Today
- 30 ft
- Settled upright on the river bottom with about a third of its masts initially visible above water; later became known locally as the source of a persistent ghost-ship legend
- Not established
- 1919
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- St. Catherine's Island, Potomac River, Maryland
Contemporary accounts place the wreck between Nomini, Virginia, and St. Catherine's Island, Maryland, in about 30 feet of water, but no precise coordinates were published.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (80/100)
Build details, ownership, date, location, cause, casualties, and archival newspaper corroboration
