Blog de Puree

Not one to pass up a salty good story involving local nautical history, I want to share this news item about Graham McKay, a 1997 Amesbury High School graduate.

The Newburyport Daily News reports that McKay, studying marine archaeology at the University of Bristol, England, is investigating the ruins of a ship that is half submerged in mud on the Merrimack River in Haverhill, Mass. as part of his thesis for a master’s degree. The hulk has been lying on the bank so long that trees, shrubs and grass are growing from it.

The working theory at this point is that the ship is a circa-1855 Nantucket lightship. McKay is trying to determine what ship it is and how it came to its final resting place, just downriver from the bridge that connects Haverhill to Groveland. According to official documents, it’s the LV-1 Lightship, 103 feet long, built in Portsmouth in 1855, and stationed for many years on the South Shoals of Nantucket. The problem for McKay is that the wreck on the Merrimack is only 80 feet from bow to stern.

He’s got his work cut out for him, and he’s been busy taking measurements and observations with Victor Mastone, director of the state’s Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

We wish you smooth sailing, Graham.

Graham McKay takes notes from the deck of the wreck. (Photo by Roger Darrigrand/Newburyport Daily News)

Anyone with any information on the ship is asked to contact McKay at grahamamckay@yahoo.com.