High seas and gusting winds over the weekend prevented the safe
removal of a 71-foot fishing boat that washed onto Norton Point Beach
Saturday morning.
High seas and gusting winds over the weekend prevented the safe
removal of a 71-foot fishing boat that washed onto Norton Point Beach
Saturday morning.
The luxury steamship The City of Columbus sleeps deep in the shifting sands at the edge of Devil's Bridge, about a mile from the Gay Head Cliffs. The 275-foot vessel sank more than a century ago in one of the worst maritime disasters to occur in Vineyard waters, and last Sunday, on a clear autumn morning, three divers went down to see her for the first time.
Buried mostly, the ship is a shadow of herself, and only a few on the waterfront know precisely where she sits.
The sloop Silver Heels, Capt. Eugene Nohl, returned to Vineyard Haven on Tuesday after spending more than two weeks in investigating the wreck of the rum runner John Dwight off Cuttyhunk and reported rather discouragingly that the hull is filled with bottles. Nohl, who has done most of the diving, said he had completed a thorough examination of the wreck, which he found damaged but slightly and sanded scarcely at all. But to the height of his shoulders, the entire cargo space is filled with empty beer bottles and rotted barrel staves.
With the eyes of the Atlantic seaboard directed toward the Vineyard this week, the twelve-year-old mystery of the sinking of the rum runner John Dwight began to unfold. The investigation has progressed to a point where it is definitely established that the wreck lies undisturbed with but slight damage to the hull, and that, presumably, her cargo of liquor, her store of wealth and the bones of the victims of violence are still in the decaying hull.
A survey of the sunken wreck of the steam rum-runner John Dwight will begin today, weather permitting; Eugene Nohl and David J. Curney of Vineyard Haven having made their plans to begin the work. This same crew has completed its survey of the Port Hunter, and has reported that salvaging her cargo of steel is feasible.
