Friday, January 30, 2026

Fierce Storms Expose Nineteenth-Century Maritime Thriller on Jersey Shore : ScienceAlert


The highly effective storms battering the Jersey Shore this winter have revealed the ruins of an outdated picket ship buried beneath sea and sand for almost 140 years.

The vessel, referred to as the Lawrence N. McKenzie, was touring from Puerto Rico to New York Metropolis when it out of the blue sank in 1890.

The crew and passengers all survived, however the ship was by no means seen once more.

Seems, it was hiding beneath a blanket of sand.

Associated: Deep-Sea Shipwreck Hidden For Millennia Is The Oldest Ever Discovered

In a Fb publish on January 23, officers on the New Jersey Island Seashore State Park introduced that the long-lost schooner had out of the blue appeared on the dunes.

Its wreckage had been there all alongside; it had simply taken “weeks of seashore erosion brought on by tough surf and protracted wind and wave motion” to disclose itself, in keeping with park officers.

What’s left of the ship’s picket body now lies in tatters on an undeveloped stretch of the Jersey Shore, awaiting professional evaluation.

“Seashore erosion through the winter months is frequent at Island Seashore State Park and is a part of a pure, cyclical course of. Annually, high-energy waves and seasonal storms take away sand from the shoreline, leading to narrower seashores and steeper profiles,” reads the Island Seashore State Park announcement.

“Most seashores get well from the erosion through the calmer summer season months – however for now, this winter’s erosion has revealed a glimpse into the park’s maritime historical past.”

Whereas seashore erosion is pure through the winter months on Island Seashore State Park – an undeveloped barrier island – scientists have discovered that local weather change might be accelerating the phenomenon.

As sea ranges rise and storms intensify, sea surges threaten to drag away extra sand, and these dunes are an integral barrier towards future storms.

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In the previous few years alone, a number of shipwrecks have been discovered all over the world after excessive climate occasions.

In 2024, coastal storms revealed the remnants of one other outdated schooner in Australia, and in 2025, a shipwreck was uncovered on a seashore in Vietnam after a storm.

Associated: ‘As If Time Froze’: France’s Deepest Shipwreck Stuns Archaeologists

Maybe that is a coincidence, or possibly it is a pattern. This is probably not the final shipwreck that lands in our laps.



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