“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
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