The Tay Is Gone
Sea reclaims shipwreck on Sand Beach
BAR HARBOR—The shipwreck on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park has been washed back out to sea Saturday afternoon during the second of a one-two punch of storms that pummeled the Maine coast this week.
The January 10 storm exposed the wreck of the Tay on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park. The Tay was a total loss after a July 29, 1911 storm pounded the two-masted schooner ashore by Great Head. Saturday afternoon, rangers said that the wreck was approximately 100 feet out from shore.
The Saturday storm brought icy road conditions across Mount Desert Island and Hancock County. Predictions for 50 mph wind gusts and 15 to 16 foot water levels in Frenchman Bay worried many oceanfront property owners as the astronomical high tide occurred around 11:45 a.m. This occurred after the January 10 storm eroded beaches and dunes, breaking buildings and wharves and piers and roadways. Propane tanks venting, beach and road closures occurred throughout the island.
According to the Lewiston Saturday Journal’s July 29, 1911 edition,
“J.B. Whelpley of St. John, N.B., cook on the two masted schooner Tay, commanded by Capt. I.W.Scott, lost his life when the vessel went ashore on the sand beach at Great Head early today. The schooner is a total loss and the captain, his son, and the other members of the crew escaped by half scrambling, half swimming to the shore.
“The Tay was bound from St. John to Boston with lumber, owned by the Stetsons of Bangor, and when she sprung a leak at sea during the southeast gale that prevailed that night, Captain Scott attempted to make Bar Harbor. He lost his main boom tho, was carried into the breakers and the schooner was dismantled at the first schock.
“The captain’s son, Erving Scott, was a passenger and there were six in the crew besides the captain. With the exception of Whelpley, their names could not be learned. The Tay was owned by Peter McIntire of St. John and her cargo of lumber is safe on the beach.
“The gale played havoc here last night. A 40-foot cabin launch owned by Capt. A.E. Connors, some cat boats and other craft broke away from their moorings and were smashed to pieces on the rocks at Rodick’s Island, and the schooner Island Belle, owned by Nickerson, Spratt and Greeley also parted her lines at the wharf and went onto the island but she was damaged very little.”
J. R. Libby has an accounting on his blog History of Mount Desert Island of the wreck from The Bar Harbor Record’s 1911 edition.
That storm that took the Tay and the life of Whelpley, also caused a Northport man to die. John Wade had been blown off a wharf during his attempt to rescue another boater. Multiple yachts were wrecked off South Petit Manan, one a three-masted schooner that sprung a leak after drifting toward Mount Desert Rock.
Destruction was not confined to the water. A falling wall crushed a 21-year-old man from Thomaston, and in an unrelated incident, two trains collided in Grindstone, killing eight. The Lewiston paper wrote, “In the height of a raging storm, in one of the wildest parts of the big Maine woods last night, eight persons were crushed to death and sixteen others badly injured when a train load of excursionists and a heavy passenger train met in a head-on collision at this little station on the Bangor & Aroostook railroad.”
UPDATE AT 4 P.M., January 13: There are reports that the ship has moved quite a bit, potentially come back toward shore and spun around. It’s currently too dark for us to verify, but we will find out tomorrow, and thank you to everyone who has reached out for this post and our other storm updates! You really put the community in what we do and that’s our whole goal. Thank you!
We’ll have a roundup of storm photos and damage tomorrow after we dry out a bit. A multitude of photos and video on our Facebook page (linked below).
Please stay safe if you’re in a coastal area—or any area, and please know that we are here with you. If you have images that you’d like to share, or questions you have, you can email us here or on Facebook or Instagram.
Any updates