In January 1941, the two masted fishing schooner Mary O’Hara collided with a barge in Boston Harbor. At least 18 sailors died in the ice cold waters of Boston Harbor, while they were almost in sight of their own homes. Only five members of the crew managed to cling to the exposed mast for hours until help arrived. At the time, headlines called it Boston Harbor’s worst disaster.
The Wreck of the Mary O’Hara
- News accounts of the disaster from the Associated Press, United Press, Gloucester, and Australia.
- Storms and Shipwrecks of New England, by Edward Rowe Snow.
- Newsletter containing an account of the wreck by Lorraine Hynes Louanis.
- Information for SCUBA divers about the barge Winifred Sheridan.
- An ice-encrusted fishing schooner in 1923 reminds us why launching the dories was no simple task.
- Special thanks this week to the Graves Light Station blog for pointing us toward many of our sources.
- Photos (including header photo) of the Mary O’Hara via Digital Commonwealth.
Featured Historic Site
This summer, tour a retired station of the US Lifesaving Service, where crews once stood ready to row small, wooden boats into the teeth of the worst New England storms to rescue sailors from their sinking ships. Today, the old Lifesaving Station is the Hull Lifesaving Museum, whose wooden observation tower is the perfect vantage from which to view Boston Light, while the boathouse is home to the museum’s collection. View logbooks, photographs, and diary entries from the station’s most amazing rescues, as well as period lifesaving equipment, like an original surfboat or a breeches buoy.
To get the full Boston Harbor experience, take the Hingham and Hull ferry from Long Wharf to Pemberton Point in Hull. This summer on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of August, the town of Hull is operating a free trolley that will pick you up at the ferry dock on Pemberton Point and drop you off at the doorstep of the lifesaving museum. The trolley runs 7am to 9pm. During July and August, the museum is open weekends 10am to 4pm, and Monday through Thursday 10am to 2pm. It’s closed on Monday holidays. Museum admission is $5, and the ferry ride costs $9.25 each way.
Upcoming Event
For our upcoming event this week, we have a much less tragic story from Boston Harbor. This summer, the National Park Service remembers the efforts of civilian workers who worked around the clock during World War II to build US Navy and civilian ships in the Boston Naval shipyard. Take a special walking tour called “In the Yard: Boston Navy Yard in World War II,” which celebrates the 200 ships civilian workers built at the shipyard, including 14 Fletcher class destroyers. The tour meets at the large flagpole near Pier 1 in the Charlestown Navy Yard at 6:30pm on August 3. It will last about 60 minutes and conclude with a visit aboard the Cassin Young, a Fletcher Class destroyer identical to those that were built in Boston.