Schoolboy spots American Revolution warship on beach after storm uncovers 230-year-old wreck

A long-lost warship connected to the American Revolution has resurfaced off a Scottish island, courtesy of a well-timed storm — and it tells “a fascinating story,” those involved said. 

The wreckage was first spotted by a schoolboy in Feb. 2024. He noticed the ruins after a storm swept away sand on a beach in Sanday, one of Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands.

After over a year of research by historians and local residents, Wessex Archaeology recently identified it as the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship. The group shared the news in a Facebook post and on its website. 

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Pictures show the wooden ribs of the ship poking out of the dunes, still miraculously well-preserved 230 years later.

The ship was built in Chichester, England, in 1749. It traveled widely across the Atlantic, from Canada to Greenland.

The vessel was used as a convoy escort by the British during the American Revolution before it was sold off to whale hunters in 1784, the reports noted. Whale oil, an essential source of fuel during the Industrial Revolution, was coveted at the time.

In 1788, the ship met its end during a period of bad weather near Sanday – but all 56 crew members survived.

“Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts.”

Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, told The Associated Press (AP) the identification required a process of elimination.

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“You remove ones that are Northern European as opposed to British, you remove wrecks that are too small or operating out of the north of England and you really are down to two or three … and Earl of Chatham is the last one left,” he said.

A schoolboy discovered the wreckage on the beach, where the storm had revealed the wooden ribs of a buried ship. (Fionn McArthur/Wessex Archaeology via AP)

The Sanday community, made up of 500 people, was thrilled about the discovery. 

The island has been the site of around 270 shipwrecks since the 1400s.

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Local farmers quickly got involved in the archaeological efforts.

They used their tractors and trailers to haul roughly 12 tons of oak timbers off the beach.

“I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that’s wrecked.”