Mertie B. Crowley
Schooner · United States · Lost 1910 · Cape Cod & Nantucket Shoals
One of the largest wooden schooners ever built ran aground on Wasque Shoal off Martha's Vineyard, saved entirely by a local fisherman's daring rescue rather than the Coast Guard.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
The six-masted schooner Mertie B. Crowley, launched in 1907 at Rockland, Maine, and among the largest wooden sailing vessels ever built, left Newport News, Virginia, on January 18, 1910, with roughly 5,000 tons of coal for Boston. Disoriented by fog and battered by rising seas, she grounded on Wasque Shoal off Chappaquiddick on January 23, 1910, and began breaking apart. Edgartown fisherman Capt. Levi Jackson and a four-man crew braved the swells in the 32-foot sloop Priscilla to rescue Capt. William Haskell, his wife, and all thirteen crew, an act later honored with Carnegie medals.
Vessel
- 1907
- Not established
- Rockland, Maine
- Wood
- 296 ft
- 48 ft
- 2824
- Sail, six-masted schooner rig (auxiliary steam engine for handling sail)
- Coastwise Transportation Company
Loss
- January 23, 1910
- Grounding
- Wasque Shoal, off Wasque Point, Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard
- Nantucket Sound / Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard
- Newport News, Virginia → Boston, Massachusetts
- Coal (approximately 5,000 tons)
- 15
- 0
- William Haskell
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Largely broken up; pieces of the hull have periodically been exposed by storms and beach erosion on South Beach near Wasque.
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Wasque Point, Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
Present condition and precise remaining extent of the wreck are not established; wreckage fragments have surfaced periodically after storms.
Full narrative, captains' names, rescue details, cargo, and route.
Vessel dimensions, tonnage, build year and location, cargo.
Vessel length and mast height detail, voyage narrative.
Vineyard Gazette (wreckage resurfacing report)
Present-day wreckage condition and periodic exposure by storms.
