January 8th, 1884 - 139 years ago, the barquentine ( a sailing ship of three or more masts with the foremast square-rigged and the others fore-and-aft rigged) Elmina ran up onto the sands of Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Despite the local life saving stations doing everything in their power to save those on board, everything was against them. The ship was lost in the rising
surf with not a single survivor. Please refer to the link above for the complete story.
Thank you for posting this link Peter
NJ has a LOT of maritime history, from the pirate haunts on the Raritan River and Middletown to the shore around Sandy Hook and all the way to Cape May. NJ is often the butt of jokes, but NJ maritime history is second to none in the US, right down to characters from Edward Teach to Bull Halsey.
Allan
Allan,
Thank you.
Absolutely. I have lived here on the Jersey coast for 40 years. Just a simple walk on the beach could result in wonderous finds.
We have the NJ Maritime Museum here on LBI (https://njmaritimemuseum.org/), countless ship wrecks just off the beaches and a rich maritime history of wooden ship building, just a few miles from my front door.
All of this history can be found at the Tuckerton Seaport, (https://tuckertonseaport.org/).
Notes of interest for New jersy wooden ship history:
For the span of about three decades in the middle of the nineteenth century the mainlandtowns of Ocean County foundthemselves circumstantial beneficiaries of a nearly unlimiteddemand for firewood in rapidlygrowing New York City.The vast pinewood forests ofsouthern New Jersey were certainly no nearer at hand than thehardwood timber of the upperHudson River Valley but hardwood was preferred for housing,whereas pine was better for theproduction of charcoal which waslighter, less bulky and made ahotter fire.This brief bonanza for thetowns along Barnegat and LittleEgg Harbor Bays came on the evethe development of railroads andthe discovery that the hugereserves of anthracite coal in eastern Pennsylvania made an infinitely superior fuel.Until a practical method wasdiscovered to burn anthracite andto transport it overland, all attention was focused on the virginpine and cedar forests of southernNew Jersey, the density andby JohnBailey Lloydextent of which is virtuallyimpossible to imagine today.The average first growth pinewas as big around as a barrel, buteven so, a good chopper working entirely with hand tools in thedays before the steam-poweredsawmill could cut and pile anywhere from four to six cords ofmarket wood in a 12-hour day. Itwas then hauled by mule to thenearest creek and loaded aboarda schooner bound for New York.To take advantage of NewYork's need for cordwood andcharcoal, the coastal towns ofToms River, Forked River,Barnegat and Tuckerton becamelively centers for shipbuilding.The cedar for building the basictwo masted schooner or "twosticker" came out of the woodsand swamps near the mainlandvillages. The size of the vesselsbuilt was governed by the depthof the inlet they used to get out ofthe bays.A lighter draught and consequently smaller tonnage wasrequired for the Barnegat Inletand the entrance to Toms River.Tuckerton with its deeper inletA typical two sticker lumber schooner of tyhe middle nineteenth century. Nearly 40 ofthese vessels were built at Tuckerton to handle the growing demand for cordwood andcharcoal in New York City.and bay had the advantage andmost of the ship buildingbetween 1835 and 1867 took placethere.The mid-nineteenth centurywas was the golden age of thecoastwise lumber schooner. Therewas a steady return trade ingoods from New York, and smalltowns like Tuckerton andBarnegat prospered.The decks of Vessels lackingsufficient cargo space were oftenloaded as well. The cordwoodwas sometimes piled so high thatthe sail was kept reefed nearlyhalf way so the boom could passover the load, should they haveto turn about. This situation of aperpetually shortened sail wasknown in the trade as a lumberreef. It could be very awkwardwhen a lot of tacking was neededin unfavorable winds but the oneadvantage to shipping aboard aschooner with a cargo of cordwood was they could not sinkwith all that wood aboard.There were so many sails on thehorizon in those years that theycould often not evenbe counted.Old diaries and lighthouse keepers records mention as many as200 a day off Long Beach Island.And there were easily that manyat night in good weather. Thisprofitable coastwise trade incordwood, charcoal and lumberwas not limited to New Jersey butthe great volume of sailing shipsslowed dramatically in the decade after the Civil War with theadvent of steam powered vesselsand, of course, the discovery ofthe technology of burning anthracite coal for fuel.Of the 86 vessels built in that30-year span, 40 were built atTuckerton, 17 at Forked River, 14at Toms River, 11 at Barnegat, 2 atWaretown and one each at Manahawkin and West Creek.(Co
I am surprised you call it the Jersey coast. I would bet you know it better as living "down the shore" Then again, I think that term is strictly used by folks in NJ and eastern Pennsylvania. You live in a great place.
Allan
Then again, I think that term is strictly used by folks in NJ and eastern Pennsylvania. You live in a great place.