USCG HISTORY: On this day, January 12, 1850 -The wreck of Ayrshire on occurred on Squan Beach, New Jersey on this date in 1850. All but one of the 202 persons on board were saved by a life car. This was the first recorded use of a life car in the U.S. ----------------------------------------------------------- First-hand Accounts of the Wreck of the Ayrshire Wreckmaster John S. Formans report: From two to four came off the ship at a time in the car. They were thus landed and the car sent back. It took about 15 minutes to land a car and send it back. About four or five trips were made in an hour. [I] was there about daylight and about 11 oclock commenced landing the passengers and at night landed 120. The wind hauled in more to the northward and westward in the afternoon and the snowing ceased about the middle of the day. Near 6 oclock the sea fell and it was found the passengers could remain on board during the night and exertions to land during the night were suspended. On the last trip one of the men passengers got on the outside (of the car), contrary to [my] wish and expectations. (The mans children had been put in the car and he panicked, grabbed a boltring but was swept away to his death, the only fatality, an unnecessary one.) The captain and the mate superintended the putting of the persons in the car . . . The next morning sent the government large boat under the lee of the ship, but the passengers preferred coming off in the lifecar. Finished landing the remainder the next day at 11 oclock. Then left the hawser hanging for a day or two. She had only on board 37 tons of coal. Was consigned to Geo. Miller and the whole sold down there after survey of Capt. Bell, Maxon (sic) and [myself]. Saved Passenger Mrs. Bell: All the passengers who were down below when the ship struck were obliged to come on the upper deck in freezing weather with scant clothing on them. About fifty women and children were in the mates house on deck, a room hardly twenty feet square, and the water got in there after a while, so that the children were in water up to their knees. It was about one oclock or two when we saw a flash from the shore, followed by a report and a line which fell across the ship, through which means the lifecar was afterwards hauled back and forth from the ship to the shore. The ship lay over so that one side was almost under water and men were compelled to come and pass strips of blanket and rope around the women for fear they would slip overboard. The waves beat against the weather side of the ship with fearful force, keeping a continual shower of water flying over everybody who was on deck. The last of the passengers were taken off the ship on the following day, nearly everyone having been carried ashore in that little lifecar, which could carry only four at each trip. lehsd.k12.nj.us/summerseaportproject/Thulin/1st%20Hand%20Accounts.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wreck of the Ayrshire The Ayrshire, a Scottish ship, ran aground in a storm off of Absecon Beach in December of 1849. It lost its mast and rudder on December 9, 1849. The wind changed and pushed the ship away from land and caused the ship to drift for one month and three days. The ship drifted northward parallel to the shore. It could see the shore but could not go in or out because it had no mast or rudder. On January 12, 1850, the Ayrshire ran aground on Squan Beach(now known as Manasquan). A fisherman saw the ship through break in the storm. He ran for help. Volunteers brought equipment that oxen pulled on a beach cart. The volunteers lit a flare to let the passengers on the ship know that help was on the way. The first shot of the Lyle Gun overshot the wreck. The second shot took the line to the brig. The livesavers attached the lifecar to the Ayrshire. This was the first time the lifecar was used was to save lives in a shipwreck. There were 202 passengers on board. Four people were allowed in the life-car at a time. The passengers lay down inside the 8-foot long metal car. A hatch was then bolted on from the outside. Men on shore used a pulley to move the car back and forth to the wrecked ship. They completed four trips in an hour. There was only one life lost during this rescue. A mans children were put into the lifecar. Their dad panicked when the lifecar was pulled away from the brig. He jumped on top of the lifecar, and a wave washed him away. Two hundred one people were saved. lehsd.k12.nj.us/summerseaportproject/Thulin/wreck_of_the_ayrshire.htm --------------------------------------------------------------- MANTOLOKING – — Scientists still dont know if the ship wreckage found on the beachfront is from a 164-year-old Scottish boat, but they could know soon. The wreckage, which some believe to be The Ayrshire — a Scottish boat that was carrying immigrants that wrecked and ran aground in January 1850, was discovered last month during the construction of a steel coastal sea wall at the beach along the border of Mantoloking and Brick. The wooden ruins are being examined by marine archaeologists. The unknown wooden boats parts were strew all around the piles of unused steel, that waits to either be planted into the dunes or moved to the side. They are in the middle of an investigation that will include background research into archival sources to get a better idea of both the landscape and the shoreline and how its changed over time, said Kate Marcopul, a supervising historic preservation specialist for the State Historic Preservation Office. Theyre going to look at ships from the time period to see what information they might be able to find on those registers. Marcopul would not say that wreckage was from the Ayrshire, but did say that it appears to be from the mid-19th century. The determination on where the wreckage came from will be in known in about two weeks. If it turns out that this was the Ayrshire, she said that a determination would be made on whether the remains could be removed or if the project would continue around the wreck. It is still unknown whether there is more wreckage buried within the 15 to 20 feet of sand along the wall. The goal is to determine what the physical limits of the wreck are in an effort to figure out whether the project can avoid further impact, Marcopul said. Working around it and essentially preserving what remains of the wreck beneath the grounds surface. In historic preservation, keeping it in place and avoidance of impacts is always the ultimate goal, she added, and this is what this investigation is going to determine. Erick Doyle, the manager of the sea wall project, says that the site is 96 percent complete, except for the section where the wreckage was found. Doyle said that working around the wreckage would lead to other options of completing the wall without damaging its integrity. Theres a potential that we might end up installing stone in this area, which will give you a similar level of protection, Doyle said. The exact specifics of how big the stone has got to be and how deep down you have to put it, and how big the pile would be in order to give a similar level of protection, wed have to go through an engineering analysis and we havent gotten to that point yet. Its up in the air as to if we can shift this alignment to go out a couple of feet to get around this thing depending on where it actually lays, where the bough is, and which way its facing, he added. If we can work around it, thats the ideal situation from our perspective. Doyle said the wall only has a few feet of wiggle room to work with in order to comply with restrictions set by the Army Corps of Engineers. We dont want the sheet pile wall being so far out there on the ocean side of the dune so we had to use some common sense, he said. The entire project, including the investigation on the wreckage, is initially being paid for by the state, but they are looking to have those costs reimbursed by the Federal Highway Administration and would not speculate on the cost at this time. Email Jay Scott Smith at JSmith14@gannett app/story/news/local/brick-point-pleasant/2014/11/20/mystery-shipwreck-brick-examined/70026870/
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:02:03 +0000
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