AH-WR-1081

S.S. Edwin Thatcher

Concrete Cargo Ship · United States · Lost Scuttled in 1948 to form a breakwater · The Potomac & the Virginia Chesapeake

A WWII concrete cargo steamer that now sits weathered and half-submerged as part of the Kiptopeke breakwater at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Documented Likeness. Drawn from surviving builder's plans or clear photographs of this vessel. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Edwin Thatcher was built in 1944 by McCloskey and Company in Tampa, Florida, one of two dozen reinforced-concrete cargo ships ordered by the U.S. Maritime Commission during a wartime steel shortage. She served as a transport and training vessel in the Pacific during World War II. In 1948 she was towed to the Virginia side of the Chesapeake Bay mouth and scuttled with eight sister ships to form a breakwater protecting the Little Creek-Cape Charles ferry terminal, where her hull remains today within Kiptopeke State Park.

Vessel

Built: 1944
Builder: McCloskey and Company
Yard: Tampa, Florida
Material: Composite
Length: 366 ft
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam
Owners: U.S. Maritime Commission

Loss

Date: Scuttled in 1948 to form a breakwater
Cause: Intentional sinking
Location: Kiptopeke, Northampton County, Virginia, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay
Water: Chesapeake Bay
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Partially submerged, part of the fixed breakwater line; interior bulkheading and ladders visible in places
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Within Kiptopeke State Park, Virginia