Lost and Found Shipwreck

Every few years, a nor'easter or rough seas unearths a shipwreck in York Beach, Maine. The sight of the wooden skeletal remains of the ship has become a local oddity and attraction because as soon as it appears, it eventually disappears, thanks to help from Mother Nature and the town.

But no one has really known how old the vessel is or where it came from until now.  Stefan Claesson, a marine archaeologist, has spent the past two years studying the age of the wood from the hull and historical records in New England.  His research has led him to believe that the 50-foot ship was a cargo vessel named The Defiance that set sail from Salem, Massachusetts in 1769 before crashing ashore in southern Maine.

I wrote a story about his research and the history of the shipwreck recently in The New York Times.

(Photo above and below from York, Maine Police Facebook account.)