Shipwreck unearthed on Nantucket shore likely a 100-year-old schooner

Over the weekend, Nantucket resident Matthew Palka discovered what appears to be the remains of an old ship during a morning bike ride. The remains came to the surface due to erosion of the island's shoreline. The boat is thought to have been there for more than a century. Carlisle Barron Jensen, executive director of Nantucket's Egan Maritime Institute, and Evan Schwanfelder, the director of education and public programs, joined GBH’s Morning Edition co-hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to talk about the remains and the process of tracing their history. This transcript has been lightly edited.

Paris Alston: So, Carlisle, what do we know about this ship so far? I mean, is it a pirate ship or are we a little too far off?

Carlisle Barron Jensen: Well, you know, we really don't know much. Right now, we're operating under the assumption that it is late 19th century or early 20th century schooner that was probably carrying cargo to and from the island.

Jeremy Siegel: And for someone who doesn't know what a schooner is, Evan, can you just briefly explain that?

Evan Schwanfelder: A schooner is a multiple masted ship. It could be two, three, four masts. Basically, these were the tractor-trailer trucks of their day, carrying freight up and down the shoreline and up and down the East Coast. They were moving cargo and goods, timber, coal, sugar, livestock, any number of things. So those were the ships that we saw most often in our waters. And in the period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, those would be the ships that we would have seen run aground in shallow waters around the island for the most part. So it is an assumption, but that would be sort of our first guess.

Alston: So how do you go about determining exactly what this is? I mean, because you see these wooden planks coming up out of the sand. But what happens next?

Barron Jensen: We have been in touch with a couple of different Massachusetts state groups. One is the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the other is the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archeological Resources. And they're actually going to be sending an archeologist out to the island. And we're going to go survey the scene and collect some samples and take some photos and really start the research process.

Siegel: Carlisle and Evan, this is one of several things that have happened like this before. Nantucket is nicknamed the graveyard of the Atlantic. Can you tell us a bit more about why that is? And if each of you have a notable shipwreck that you remember that's been discovered in this area, or piques your interest?

Barron Jensen: Well, I think for starters, Nantucket being an island, we're very exposed to the elements. And the infamous nor'easters made it very treacherous for boats and for sailors. The Nantucket shoals are infamous for shipwrecks. So that's really why it's called the graveyard. There are so many incredible stories. This summer, in fact, we had a great opportunity to hear about the Andrea Doria, which is which is truly one of the great ones. Evan knows a little bit more as well.

Schwanfelder: The Doria was a luxurious ocean liner that was actually a bit further south from the shipping lane south of the island. But we know of over 800 shipwrecks on record in our sort of immediate area. The waters around us in Nantucket Sound and then off to the south and the east are sort of littered with shallow shoals. And in the age of sail, where, you know, sailing ships didn't have modern navigation, radio equipment, weather forecasting or even engines or electricity, going back a couple hundred years — if you're caught in fog or storms or misread your charts and you get caught in severe weather, which typically happened in our late fall, winter, and spring period, your ship would run aground on the shoals or around the shores of the island. So for that reason, this specific area saw a lot of shipwrecks. It was an area of higher ship traffic, too. You have the ships coming over from the Atlantic, trans Atlantic from Europe over to the major ports of Boston and New York, then to Cape Cod Canal, you'd have to go through Nantucket Sound or down around the island, which sort of puts you in this initial water. And with thousands of ships coming through our waters per year, encountering inclement weather or, you know, misreading charts, a number of different circumstances could cause the ship to run aground and wreck around the island.

Alston: Well, that's a fascinating, all the things you can learn from a shipwreck, it sounds like. I'm thinking about this guy who was, you know, thinking he was out for a normal bike ride and then comes across this. And one thing that was notable here is that he said he didn't see it two weeks prior. It sort of just came out of nowhere. And he ended up taking a picture of it on his phone, like many of us do when we see things out of the ordinary these days. But for people like him, first of all, I'm wondering how often would it be that someone would come across a shipwreck? And then what is the protocol for what happens next if you do?

Barron Jensen: I wouldn't say it's normal to come across a shipwreck. This is very unusual. But it is normal, particularly during the winter storm cycles, to have debris wash up. And our beaches do change often, and erosion is a big issue out here. We see the sea level rise and the changing of our beaches often. So it's not unusual that you would happen upon a beam, or you would happen upon some debris, a lot of ropes and anchors and things like that you would happen upon on the beach. You probably wouldn't see a ship every day. So the next steps really are following the lead of the professionals: Due to overlapping jurisdiction, both the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the Underwater Archeological Resources Board. They're the ones who are really going to guide the way, as well as working with local town officials. We've been in touch with our preservation planner as well as our harbormaster to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're protecting that vulnerable environment because it changes every day. And Mother Nature has a mind of her own. And we're just here to kind of watch it evolve.