After researching and writing about the 1854 Powhattan shipwreck, I wondered about other New Jersey shipwrecks. I was familiar with the 1934 image of the Morro Castle, a charred, moribund vessel washed ashore at Asbury Park. The ship caught in a September nor’easter encountered an onboard fire resulting in the loss of 137 passengers and crew.
But it wasn’t until I discovered the following map that I became more curious about these unfamiliar wrecks. The time spanned almost two hundred years and surprisingly, fewer than two dozen ships were listed.
I sought and soon found a theme. Most of the victims were clustered on the northern coast, which made sense given the traffic in the proximity to New York harbor. But I also found something curious; many of the wrecks occurred in the year 1846.
Really odd, I thought.
Further research revealed all 1846 wrecks occurred between 14-15 April. Could one storm be responsible for almost a third of the New Jersey casualties listed on the map?
The question was answered in the affirmative and resulted in my book, Undiminished Violence. The John Minturn Storm of 1846.
But what of the other shipwrecks on the map?
Some ships merited a tiny anniversary mention in a local newspaper while others in a short paragraph in an out-of-print book. None of these reports listed the names of those lost or who survived. And for some wrecks, nothing was ever published.
With this in mind, I set out to research and write about each of the notable New Jersey shipwrecks in book form.
So hence was born the New Jersey Shipwreck series.
I chose the ebook form rather than a paperback, unlike my earlier books Ebooks lend cross-referencing and links to the source material, adding greater depth and dimension. In addition, it allows me to easily update and enhance as new information becomes available. Depending on the research material available some ebooks will be longer than others.
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