"Mystery Ship" on Charlestown Beach
 

“Mystery Ship” at Charlestown Beach

A few weeks back I was in soco doing some early season scouting for the upcoming season and I stopped at Charlestown Beach to have lunch. After I walked over the dunes I noticed something I had never seen there before, the remnants of an old ship, which has clearly been there for a long time. I only fish this area in the late fall and have never seen it uncovered before.

The beams are big about 14” x 16” and the part of the structure that is exposed is about 40 to 60’ long. The main beams and held in place with 4” round wooden spikes. Its tough to get an idea of how big the ship actually is seeing most of it is still covered.

I tried doing some research online and found every little.

Yesterday I was back on the beach trying to get my first fish of the season and ran into a local gentleman who has lived the last 56 years in Charlestown. I asked him about the structure and this is some of details:

Its know as the “Mystery Ship”, the name of the boat is unknown, and so is every other detail about it, why it washed up, when, where it was coming from, etc.

The story he had heard is that it was sailing to New York and the some of passengers and crew caught yellow fever so the captain decided to head in to get help, the boat ran aground then settled on the beach, it was unable to be freed, so its was emptied and abandoned.

After I got home I went back online and found the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project website, (RIMAP) but they also had very little info on the ship online, so I emailed the director and got a response this morning, which reads:

Hello Mr. Blouin:

Thank you for your inquiry. The vessel to the east of the Charlestown Breachway has been studied by Charlestown Historical Society members and others for more than 30 years. The structure is revealed at intervals when the dune erodes, and I saw it earlier this winter. RIMAP had also done some remote sensing three years before to locate it while it was still covered. Unfortunately the part of the structure that was visible earlier this winter did not give any clues to the vessel's identity. There are a number of different possibilities, but in the absence of diagnostic features on the ship itself, or the discovery of some reliable historical material, we may have to accept the fact that we may never securely know what it was. Meanwhile, we continue to monitor the site, and to ask the public not to disturb it.

D. K. (Kathy) Abbass, Ph.D., Director
Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP)


Figured I’d share as I’m sure other people have seen the remnants of the ship and wondered what it was.

Enjoy,
Chef

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...2/afee8a8f.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...2/908e5375.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...2/cfffe761.jpg

Very cool.

Thanks for sharing

I never noticed it before- Very interesting info.

Bones - yes, very cool!

I think maybe that's the ship Clammer came to America on.

30 years and no one has a clue? Time to send in the "History Detectives" Submit your Story | History Detectives | PBS

I was on the one NEXT to that one .........:smash:

This guy would know: "Wrecks Along the Shore" at Cross' Mills Public Library in Charlestown, RI - Zvents

Already emailed him. No one seems to know any actual facts. He's part of the RIMAP group as well.

Sgt Striper I sent an email to the link you posted too.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Its cool to see this ship come and go every few years.. sometimes is burried under sand and other times its exposed.

To clarify...
the ship doesn't come and go, the sand on top of the ship comes and goes....

How can you be so sure?

Very cool!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

get the shovels out boys!

I've seen that. And I believe it's from a time long ago!

No #^&#^&#^&#^& Sherlock!! ;)
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

See, there's the scientist in Bryan. Never can leave well enough alone.

It's a good thing he doesn't have a cat. He'd be taking core samples of the litter box and trying to tweak the cats diet to create different sedimentary or igneous formations in the litter.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Igneous and sedimentary formation isn't practical in a little box. I think you meant to say conglomerate.

-spence

youve never had a cat with the hershey squirts... :yak5::yak5::yak5:

Conglomerate is a sedimentary rock Jeff...
happy Easter boys....

:rotfl:

I was going to use metamorphic rock as an example, but couldnt find a good metaphor....

Hershey squirts would be a better metaphor for mudstone... and if they got a running start, maybe you could make some sedimentary features (i.e. cross-bedding) or trace fossils (paw prints)

The Battle of Semantics
In this corner, with a slightly above average IQ, and a highly above average degree of hubris....

Don't you think I don't know that?

Quite obviously, my statement was to infer that the formation wasn't practical, but the presence of a conglomerate would be likely. Thus, the conglomerate being produced outside of the little box.

-spence

sure jeff.. :drevil:

I heard the ship belonged to the Knights Kemplar and they buried the Holy Grail somewhere in the area.

It's important not to lose sight of the fact that the chair you are sitting on will last longer than you.

This is why I am a Surfcaster- ships tend to sink on ocassion.