New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

shipwreck, sailing ship

Built:

Russell Ship Building Company, East Deering ME, 1873

Sunk:

Saturday December 14, 1907
ran aground 72 mph gale - no casualties (incredible)

Depth:

25 ft

The Edmund Phinney was a merchant sailing ship built in 1873 in Deering Maine, with its home port in Portland. J.S. Winslow & Co owned the 713-ton, 156-foot ship. J.S. Winslow & Co. of Portland controlled one of the largest fleets of sailing vessels on the Atlantic coast. Colonel Edmund Phinney, after whom this ship was named, served in the 18th Continental Regiment during the Revolution.

On December 17, 1907, the sailing ship Edmund J. Phinney wrecked during a fierce gale 300 yards off the Hook's North Beach area. Keeper Woolley's crew pulled their beach apparatus cart two and one-half miles against raging winds and over flooded beaches to meet Keeper Patterson's staff to save the crew of ten. Through freezing wind-swept waves, five seamen were laboriously hauled ashore by breeches buoy. With the ship on the verge of breaking up and no time to spare, the captain and first mate crammed themselves into the breeches buoy. They were just reaching the churning shore when the Phinney broke apart. The ten crewmen were wet, cold and dazed, but still alive.

According to diver Frank Litter, the Edmund Phinney is also called the Dead Eye Wreck. The wreck is inverted in approximately 25 feet of water about 300 yards off the beach at Sandy Hook. Divers have recovered dozens of dead eyes, brass spikes, blocks, bottles and the ship’s anchor that weighed about a ton. The anchor was a wood stock type. This wreck covers over with sand frequently which makes locating the site a little tricky.