Tay
Schooner · United Kingdom · Lost 1911 · Penobscot Bay & Midcoast Maine
A lumber schooner broke apart on the ledges off Sand Beach in a 1911 gale, and her buried remains still resurface after big storms.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
The wooden schooner Tay, built in 1887 in New Brunswick, was carrying spruce lumber from Saint John to Boston when a southwest gale drove her onto the ledge known as Old Soaker off Sand Beach, Mount Desert Island, on July 28, 1911. She broke to pieces quickly; most of the crew clung to the mast until the tide fell, but the ship's cook was lost. Her cargo washed ashore and was salvaged by islanders, and her buried hull has resurfaced at Sand Beach repeatedly over the following century, most dramatically after a January 2024 storm.
Vessel
- 1887
- J. & R. McLeod
- Black River, New Brunswick, Canada
- Wood
- 93.7 ft
- 27.7 ft
- 133
- Sail
- Peter McIntyre, Saint John, New Brunswick
Loss
- July 28, 1911
- Storm
- Sand Beach, near Great Head, Mount Desert Island, Maine
- Gulf of Maine
- Saint John, New Brunswick → Boston, Massachusetts
- Roughly 90,000 feet of spruce lumber and shingles for the Stetson company of Bangor
- Not established
- 1
- I. W. Scott
The Wreck Today
- 0 ft
- Remains lay buried in the sand berm at Sand Beach for decades, periodically exposed by storms; a January 2024 storm eroded most of the surviving structure and scattered it along the shoreline.
- Not established
- Not established
- Within Acadia National Park; protected archaeological resource, disturbance prohibited by federal law
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Sand Beach, Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
National Park Service, Acadia National Park
Build data, Lloyd's Register description, loss narrative, and post-2024-storm condition.
National Park Service, Acadia National Park (Places page)
Loss date, cause, cargo, and crew survival account.
Captain's name, casualty detail citing an August 1911 Bar Harbor Record article.
