W.R. Grace
Sailing Cargo Ship · United States · Lost 1889 · Delaware Bay & the Approaches
A wooden cargo ship destroyed in an 1889 hurricane, its intact hull rediscovered by university researchers more than a century later.
Become Captain of RecordSee Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in Bath, Maine, the three-masted wooden ship W.R. Grace was carrying thousands of empty petroleum barrels toward Philadelphia when a hurricane drove her ashore near Cape Henlopen, Delaware in September 1889. The wreck went unrecorded in navigation databases for over a century until University of Delaware researchers surveying the area with sonar in 2010 discovered an unusually well-preserved hull. Comparing sonar imagery, video, and historical records, they confirmed the wreck's identity as W.R. Grace in 2012.
Vessel
- Not established
- Not established
- Bath, Maine
- Wood
- 215 ft
- Not established
- Not established
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- September 12, 1889
- Storm
- About 200 yards off Cape Henlopen, Delaware
- Atlantic Ocean
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- About 7,000 empty petroleum barrels bound for refilling and export to Japan
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 23 ft
- Remarkably intact wooden hull, preserved by burial in shifting sand near Cape Henlopen.
- Not established
- 2010 (located by University of Delaware students); identified in 2012
- Not established
Position
- 38.79° N 75.09° W
- Approximate position
- Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware
General nearshore location as described by the University of Delaware survey team.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (84/100)
Precise crew and casualty details from the 1889 loss are not established in the sources reviewed.
University of Delaware, UDaily
Discovery, identification process, dimensions, and cargo.
Narrative account of the discovery and identification.
