Jason Graziadei, editor-in-chief of the Nantucket Current, spotted the wreckage on Saturday and posted video of it. He believes the fragments likely belong to the Warren Sawyer, a wooden schooner that wrecked near Miacomet Beach 142 years ago.
This isn't the first time pieces of the ship have surfaced. Similar fragments first appeared in December 2022, when a Nantucket resident spotted them while biking along the island's southern shore. Researchers have since examined archival records tied to the wreck.
For an island where storms regularly reshape the coastline, this kind of discovery is a reminder of what sits buried just beneath the sand. Nantucket's south shore has a long history of shipwrecks. Each new storm has the potential to drag old history back into view, at least for as long as the waves allow before covering it again.