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- Dan DeButts of Lebanon checks out a shipwreck at Short Sands Beach in York on Monday. The shipwreck was uncovered over the past three days of coastal flooding. The last time it was revealed was in 2013. (Gregory A. Rec/Portland Press Herald)
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- People check out a shipwreck at Short Sands Beach in York on Monday. The shipwreck was uncovered over the past three days of coastal flooding. The last time it was revealed was in 2013. (Gregory A. Rec/Portland Press Herald)
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- Rebecca Dugas, left, and Jayan Landry check out a shipwreck at Short Sands Beach in York on Monday. The shipwreck was uncovered over the past three days of coastal flooding. The last time it was revealed was in 2013. (Gregory A. Rec/Portland Press Herald)
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- The decaying bones of a 51-foot sloop have resurfaced on Short Sands Beach in York. (Photo by York Police Department via Facebook)
A shipwreck that appears from time to time on Short Sands Beach in York was uncovered by rough seas that pounded the shore all weekend.
The skeleton of the ship, believed to be more than 160 years old, was clearly visible in the sand Monday morning, according to the York Police Department.
What’s left of the wooden hull – listed by the state as the Short Sands Beach Wreck – made news in the 1950s after being exposed by a storm. It last appeared after the powerful Patriots Day storm in 2007 and following a storm in March 2013.
The 51-foot-long hull is believed to be from a late colonial or early post-colonial sloop, which means it would date from 1750 to 1850, according to the Maine Preservation Commission. A sloop is a sailing vessel with a single mast. Such vessels were common along Maine’s coast and were used for fishing and for hauling cargo such as dried fish or lumber.
There are 1,595 known shipwrecks along Maine’s coast, including 66 in York and its coastal waters.
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