Massachusetts Environmental Police are investigating after the remnants of a vessel washed ashore this week that was believed to have broken loose from a mooring in Hyannis harbor.

There is a good reason the Martha’s Vineyard Museum has far more shipwreck artifacts than it can display in its new exhibit Shipwrecks! Stories from Beneath the Sea. It’s because we have a lot of shipwrecks around here.

The history of salvage operations around the Vineyard goes back to well-nigh the beginning of the Island’s history.

A manned submersible and crew, midway through an expedition surveying the famous shipwreck Andrea Doria south of Nantucket, paid a visit to Menemsha Monday.

Petrified wooden timbers and bent iron fastenings of a large sailing ship suddenly jutted out of the sands of East Beach on Chappaquiddick two weeks ago. So which unfortunate old schooner was she?

The storm that slammed the Island in early November cancelled ferry trips and eroded beaches on Chappaquiddick. It also unearthed a mystery.

Pieces of what appears to be a 19th-century shipwreck were exposed on East Beach at Cape Pogue.

A 36.5-foot sailboat that washed ashore on Norton Point July 5 is finally off the beach after a week of removal efforts, and Edgartown police reported that several people who stripped the boat of its contents have returned the items.

Edgartown police Det. Sgt. Christopher Dolby told the Gazette this week that Running Free, the sailboat belonging to Bill Heldenbrand, 67, of St. Joseph, Mo., was pulled off the beach last Friday. During an attempted transatlantic voyage, Mr. Heldenbrand encountered a severe storm and was forced to abandon his boat between Florida and Bermuda.

Running Free, a 36-and-a-half foot sailboat that ran aground at Norton Point beach on Friday, was still languishing on the beach nearly a week later after salvage and refloating efforts failed. Meanwhile, visitors to the site were reported to be stripping the boat of its contents as it remained lodged in its sandy berth, prompting the Edgartown police to open an investigation Thursday.

Running Free, a 36-and-a-half foot sailboat that ran aground at Norton Point beach on Friday, was still languishing on the beach Wednesday morning after salvage and refloating efforts failed. Meanwhile, visitors to the site were reported to be stripping the boat of its contents.

Salvage plans are under way for an abandoned 36-and-a-half-foot sailboat that washed up at Norton Point beach on Friday night.

No one was aboard the Running Free, which was abandoned in the Bermuda Triangle on Mother’s Day.