Rhode Island’s Perilous Coast
This article was contributed by Jim Jenney, BLMA Maritime Historian
The subject of this story will be a bit different from previous articles about shipwrecks that have appeared in the Lighthouse Log. While those have dealt with individual maritime disasters of interest, this article will give an overview of the top sites along our shoreline where vessels have met their end.
The statistics presented are based on confirmed incidents in which the final status of the vessel is either total loss, wrecked, went to pieces or simply lost. What is interesting to note is that the number of vessels lost does Judi Slot Online Jackpot Terbesar not equate to the number of vessels imperiled; thus, this ranking of totally lost vessels would not match the statistics regarding vessels that have been threatened and were subsequently rescued or retrieved. Let’s look at these in countdown fashion starting from the eleventh most dangerous site in Rhode Island.
With six (6) losses, the area known simply as “The Bonnet” has had an interesting history starting with one of the earliest documented wrecks in Rhode Island but it is most well known for the loss of the side-wheel steamer RHODE ISLAND in 1880. In the tenth position are two sites – the immediate vicinity of Lion’s Head/Hull Cove on Beavertail Neck and a prominent offshore rock on the south side of Block Island known as Black Rock. Each of these areas can claim nine (9) vessels that h a v e b e e n totally lost, the m o s t prominent being a four-masted schooner named POCAHONTAS lost off Black Rock in 1890.