Fanny shipwreck

Nature of Casualty

Abandoned after trapped in ice and crushed. Tornfelt, Evert E., Burwell, Michael, Shipwrecks of the Alaskan Shelf and Shore, U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Alaska OCS Region, 1992

The five northernmost ships, the Roman, Comet, Concordia, Gay Head, and George, were completely surrounded. Slightly to the south the John Wells, Massachusetts, Contest, J. D. Thompson, Henry Taber, Fanny, Monticello, and Elizabeth Swift were not as tightly gripped... Masses of whaleboats were already heading south, relaying provisions to the ships in clear water, when on Wednesday, the thirteenth, the ice crushed the bark Fanny and dragged the bark George past the Gay Head, smashing her jib-boom on the way. Bockstoce, John R., Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic, University of Washington Press, Seattle Washington, 1986:154, 157-158

Official Number: 9681

Type: Bark (formerly Ship-rigged)

Length: 112 Feet

Home Port: New Bedford, MA

Place Built: Nyack, NY

Date Lost: Sept. 13, 1871

Captain When Lost: Lewis W. Williams

Where: 6 Miles South of Point Belcher and ¼ Mile From Shore

Cause: Trapped in Ice and Crushed

Cargo: 300 Barrels of Whale Oil