AH-WR-1128

Princess Augusta

Merchant Ship · Great Britain · Lost 1738 · Narragansett Bay & the Rhode Island Coast

A disease-stricken immigrant ship driven ashore on Block Island in a 1738 snowstorm, later immortalized as New England's ghostly 'Palatine Light'.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

The Princess Augusta sailed from Rotterdam in 1738 carrying some 340 German Palatine immigrants bound for Philadelphia. Contaminated water brought disease that killed roughly 200 passengers and half the crew, including the captain, and storms pushed the damaged ship far off course. In late December 1738 she grounded in a snowstorm at Sandy Point on the northern tip of Block Island; only about 105 survivors reached shore. The wreck became the historical seed of the 'Palatine Light,' a phantom-ship legend recounted in island folklore and in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: 220
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: Parties in Ramsgate, England

Loss

Date: December 27, 1738
Cause: Storm
Location: Sandy Point, northern end of Block Island, Rhode Island
Water: Block Island Sound
Voyage: Rotterdam, Netherlands (via Cowes, England) → Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: 340
Lives lost: 200
Master: Andrew Brook (replaced George Long, who died at sea)

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Sandy Point, Block Island, Rhode Island
Region: Narragansett Bay & the Rhode Island Coast

Evidence

Overall confidence: Partially documented (62/100)

Exact casualty totals, the precise wreck position, and the details behind the later 'looting' legend are not firmly established in the sources reviewed.