ericfine50
Contributor
Saw this one the UW Explorer List:
SCHOONERS' DISCOVERY RECALLS WRECK
Author(s): Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff Date: December 17, 2002 Page: B1 Section: Metro/Region
One hundred years ago tonight, under clear skies turned bitterly cold by a howling westerly wind, two mammoth coal-laden schooners collided off Boston in a navigational error that sent both vessels plunging to the ocean floor in just 10 minutes.
Eleven of the 21 crew members perished, the rest huddled semiconscious in a single lifeboat, and one ship's captain even suggested cannibalism as frigid winds drove the survivors out to sea for 3 1/2 numbing days. Today, in an automated era when "iron men and wooden ships" are relegated to history, the tragic story of the schooners Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. Crary has resurfaced with stunning clarity.
In an unprecedented discovery, marine archeologists have identified the hulks of the giant schooners on the bottom of Stellwagen Bank, 400 feet deep. The ships remain joined in the deadly embrace that resulted when the Crary's mate apparently misjudged the position of the Palmer and crashed into the vessel between Cape Ann and Provincetown.
Bruce Terrell, a federal archeologist who also worked to raise parts of the Civil War ironclad Monitor, said no comparable discovery of multimast schooners has ever been made off the coasts of the continental United States. The vessels, identified in July with side-scan sonar towed by a research vessel, are remarkably well-preserved, Terrell said.
"The image started to read out a little bit at a time, and then we saw them sitting there on a flat keel, one impaling the other," Terrell recalled. "We were kind of speechless at first. I've been doing this for 25 years, and I've never seen an image like that before. The drama of it was apparent right away."
The Palmer was the largest four-masted schooner ever built. The five-masted Crary also was a giant in the unglamorous but vital coastal trade in Appalachian coal. Both schooners were built at the world-renowned shipyards in Bath, Maine, where wooden vessels still rolled down the slipways long after most ocean carriers had switched to iron and steel.
"They were pretty much the tractor-trailers of their day," said Terrell, a senior archeologist with the National Marine Sanctuary program in Silver Spring, Md. "They're not sexy like other, more famous wrecks, and wrecks that might have gold, but there's definitely a lot to be learned here."
The wrecks were positively identified last summer during a two-day trip in which researchers confirmed the location of the Portland, a passenger vessel that sank nearby in 1898 with the loss of all 192 passengers and crew. The National Marine Sanctuary program, which protects Stellwagen Bank and 12 other sites around the country, is charged with guarding the environmental, cultural, and historic elements of the ocean preserves.
Anne Smrcina, education coordinator for the Stellwagen Bank sanctuary, said the Palmer and Crary are believed to comprise the largest wreck site in the preserve, an area of 842 square miles that forms a large rectangle at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The wrecks' exact location was not disclosed.
Federal officials first had an inkling of the Palmer and Crary site about 12 years ago, when researchers with the US Geological Survey mapped the Stellwagen floor and found a significant "anomaly." The coordinates were recorded, but side-scan sonar was not used at the location until the Portland project provided a convenient opportunity to examine the area.
Sanctuary staff released official news of its discovery to coincide with the 100th anniversary of a sinking that could have been averted.
That night, after rounding Cape Cod on the final leg of a coal-carrying trip from Newport News, Va., the Palmer and the Crary, each about 270 feet long, headed into a northwest wind as they struggled to bring a total of 7,400 tons of coal to Boston. About 7 p.m., the ships were sailing opposite tacks, or courses, as they maneuvered within sight of each other.
Even though the Palmer had the right of way, the Crary's mate apparently thought he could remain on his tack and safely cross the bow of the Palmer without changing course. The decision proved disastrous, and the Crary fatally pierced the Palmer's side.
Six men from the Crary died in the immediate, frantic aftermath of the collision, as the ships filled with seawater and one lifeboat was launched from the Palmer. Fifteen men clambered aboard the small boat, but four died from exposure and exhaustion. The day after the collision, one survivor became insane and jumped overboard, witnesses said.
For more than three days, the 10 remaining sailors drifted farther into open ocean as they traveled at the mercy of the wind. A Palmer crew member later said that James Rawding, his captain, suggested that the survivors keep the body of his ship's cook, who had died in the lifeboat, instead of tossing it overboard.
Sven Rhienterson, a seaman from Providence, told reporters at the time that "before we tossed this body over the side, Captain Rawding of the Palmer said: `We may be here a few days more, and we had better keep the body. Some of the men may want to eat the flesh and drink the blood if they get any more hungry and thirsty than they are now.'
"But it was decided not to adopt the suggestion," Rhienterson said, "and before any of them could change their minds, we threw the body into the sea."
The misery would continue until Dec. 21, when the Duxbury fishing schooner Manhasset picked up the survivors about 60 miles southeast of Highland Light in Truro.
This is worth getting mix certified!
Eric
SCHOONERS' DISCOVERY RECALLS WRECK
Author(s): Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff Date: December 17, 2002 Page: B1 Section: Metro/Region
One hundred years ago tonight, under clear skies turned bitterly cold by a howling westerly wind, two mammoth coal-laden schooners collided off Boston in a navigational error that sent both vessels plunging to the ocean floor in just 10 minutes.
Eleven of the 21 crew members perished, the rest huddled semiconscious in a single lifeboat, and one ship's captain even suggested cannibalism as frigid winds drove the survivors out to sea for 3 1/2 numbing days. Today, in an automated era when "iron men and wooden ships" are relegated to history, the tragic story of the schooners Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. Crary has resurfaced with stunning clarity.
In an unprecedented discovery, marine archeologists have identified the hulks of the giant schooners on the bottom of Stellwagen Bank, 400 feet deep. The ships remain joined in the deadly embrace that resulted when the Crary's mate apparently misjudged the position of the Palmer and crashed into the vessel between Cape Ann and Provincetown.
Bruce Terrell, a federal archeologist who also worked to raise parts of the Civil War ironclad Monitor, said no comparable discovery of multimast schooners has ever been made off the coasts of the continental United States. The vessels, identified in July with side-scan sonar towed by a research vessel, are remarkably well-preserved, Terrell said.
"The image started to read out a little bit at a time, and then we saw them sitting there on a flat keel, one impaling the other," Terrell recalled. "We were kind of speechless at first. I've been doing this for 25 years, and I've never seen an image like that before. The drama of it was apparent right away."
The Palmer was the largest four-masted schooner ever built. The five-masted Crary also was a giant in the unglamorous but vital coastal trade in Appalachian coal. Both schooners were built at the world-renowned shipyards in Bath, Maine, where wooden vessels still rolled down the slipways long after most ocean carriers had switched to iron and steel.
"They were pretty much the tractor-trailers of their day," said Terrell, a senior archeologist with the National Marine Sanctuary program in Silver Spring, Md. "They're not sexy like other, more famous wrecks, and wrecks that might have gold, but there's definitely a lot to be learned here."
The wrecks were positively identified last summer during a two-day trip in which researchers confirmed the location of the Portland, a passenger vessel that sank nearby in 1898 with the loss of all 192 passengers and crew. The National Marine Sanctuary program, which protects Stellwagen Bank and 12 other sites around the country, is charged with guarding the environmental, cultural, and historic elements of the ocean preserves.
Anne Smrcina, education coordinator for the Stellwagen Bank sanctuary, said the Palmer and Crary are believed to comprise the largest wreck site in the preserve, an area of 842 square miles that forms a large rectangle at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The wrecks' exact location was not disclosed.
Federal officials first had an inkling of the Palmer and Crary site about 12 years ago, when researchers with the US Geological Survey mapped the Stellwagen floor and found a significant "anomaly." The coordinates were recorded, but side-scan sonar was not used at the location until the Portland project provided a convenient opportunity to examine the area.
Sanctuary staff released official news of its discovery to coincide with the 100th anniversary of a sinking that could have been averted.
That night, after rounding Cape Cod on the final leg of a coal-carrying trip from Newport News, Va., the Palmer and the Crary, each about 270 feet long, headed into a northwest wind as they struggled to bring a total of 7,400 tons of coal to Boston. About 7 p.m., the ships were sailing opposite tacks, or courses, as they maneuvered within sight of each other.
Even though the Palmer had the right of way, the Crary's mate apparently thought he could remain on his tack and safely cross the bow of the Palmer without changing course. The decision proved disastrous, and the Crary fatally pierced the Palmer's side.
Six men from the Crary died in the immediate, frantic aftermath of the collision, as the ships filled with seawater and one lifeboat was launched from the Palmer. Fifteen men clambered aboard the small boat, but four died from exposure and exhaustion. The day after the collision, one survivor became insane and jumped overboard, witnesses said.
For more than three days, the 10 remaining sailors drifted farther into open ocean as they traveled at the mercy of the wind. A Palmer crew member later said that James Rawding, his captain, suggested that the survivors keep the body of his ship's cook, who had died in the lifeboat, instead of tossing it overboard.
Sven Rhienterson, a seaman from Providence, told reporters at the time that "before we tossed this body over the side, Captain Rawding of the Palmer said: `We may be here a few days more, and we had better keep the body. Some of the men may want to eat the flesh and drink the blood if they get any more hungry and thirsty than they are now.'
"But it was decided not to adopt the suggestion," Rhienterson said, "and before any of them could change their minds, we threw the body into the sea."
The misery would continue until Dec. 21, when the Duxbury fishing schooner Manhasset picked up the survivors about 60 miles southeast of Highland Light in Truro.
This is worth getting mix certified!
Eric
