Historians are starting to piece together the history of the Bessie A. White, a four-masted coal schooner, after Hurricane Sandy left the nearly century-old ship exposed on New York’s Fire Island.
Built about 1919, the Canadian ship lost its way in a heavy fog about a mile from Smith’s Point, Long Island, according to the International Science Times. All of the men on the ship escaped, but one small boat capsized, injuring a crewmember, according to Long Island Boating World.
Believed to be one of the last four-masted coal schooners built, the 200-foot-long ship was owned by Charles T. White & Son of St. Johns and was only three years old. The crew set out from Newport News, Va., heading to St. Johns, Newfoundland, with 950 tons of soft coal. But at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 6, 1922, the boat was found at the bottom of Smith’s Point.
The Canadian schooner was not the only shocking discovery unearthed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation.
From Connecticut to Massachusetts, a skeleton, love letters and Pepsi bottles with notes have surfaced, lending an eerie and romantic twist to the tumultuous storm.
Click here for more on the unearthed items.
