Strong crashing waves from the violent nor’easteruncovered a 19th-century shipwreck buried under Nantucket sand as the storm battered the Northeast with heavy rain, gale-force winds and coastal flooding.
A pallet of waterlogged timber held together by rusted nails and strands of seaweed was discovered on a beach on the south shore of the famed Massachusetts Island Saturday, according to video shared by the Nantucket Current on Saturday.
The wooden segment is believed to be from the Warren Sawyer, a New Orleans-bound schooner that crashed on nearby Miacomet Beach in 1884.
The ship, carrying cargo consisting of cotton and scrap iron, was struck by gale-force winds and veered off course and crashed onto Nantucket around 11 p.m. on Dec. 22, 1884, according to the outlet.
Additional pieces of the shipwreck had already been uncovered in the area in December 2022.
Scientists determined the pieces most likely belonged to the Warren Sawyer after months of research.
“As with most historical archaeological research, exploring the available literature, archival, photographic, and archaeological evidence we collectively assembled for the site to try to arrive at a conclusive determination as to whether or not the wreckage is from the tern, Warren Sawyer, was a bit like pulling a thread on a sweater,” Massachusetts Archeologist David Robinson told the Nantucket Current. “The more interesting information I looked at, the more that I found.”
Scientists at the time couldn’t definitively declare the shipwreck was the Warren Sawyer because of an inconsistency between the fastening hardware found and records for the ship.
The nor’easter lashing Nantucket with wind and rain this weekend has uncovered the remains of a shipwreck along the island’s south shore. The fragment is likely from the 19th century schooner Warren Sawyer, a wooden ship that wrecked near Miacomet Beach on December 22, 1884. pic.twitter.com/s7FNnXbhNr
— Nantucket Current (@ACKCurrent) September 26, 2026
Outside of uncovering the shipwreck, the storm caused notable erosion to beaches on the island, according to the outlet.
The rare September nor’easter in Nantucket left a trail of destruction as it washed over a large portion of the eastern seaboard stretching from Massachusetts down across Long Island, New York City, New Jersey and Delaware.
Hundreds of thousands were left without power across several states.
Over 27,600 customers in New York were in the dark as of 2 a.m. Sunday, according to tracker Poweroutage.us.
Another 26,000 in Connecticut were also powerless.
Massachusetts reported 11,500 without power.
The storm turned deadly Saturday afternoon when New York City Housing Authority worker Leighton Brown, 56, was killed when he was struck by a fallen tree in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills Houses, NYC Mayor Mamdani announced.
Brown, 56, was rushed to a hospital but pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m. after sustaining “trauma throughout his body.”
New York State Police also reported an unidentified missing swimmer had disappeared while in the waters off of Long Island’s Robert Moses State Park.
“On Saturday, September 26, 2026, at approximately 2:30 p.m., a white male wearing dark colored shorts was seen in the ocean water when he disappeared from view and was not seen exiting the water,” troopers said.
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