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A Hard-Luck Boat:
Menemon Sanford
The steamer Menemon Sanford, from an
original lithograph in the collection of the Mariners Museum, Newport
News, Virginia.
Menemon Sanford was built at
the John Englis Yard at Greenpoint, New York, and launched in 1854. She
was named for the late founder of the Sanford Independent Line, Menemon
Sanford (c. 1800-1852). She was a large vessel, measuring 244 feet long
(74.4m), with a beam of 34 feet (10.4m), not including her sidewheels.
Her machinery, built by Neptune Iron Works, consisted of a
single-cylinder, vertical beam engine with a diameter of 50
inches (1.27m) and a stroke of 12 feet (3.66m). The new steamer was
fitted with 24 staterooms, but could accommodate up to 249 passengers,
including “deck passengers,” who would be left to find a spot wherever
they could. It was said that while older boats of the Sanford Line were
of more traditional, somewhat staid designs, the new steamer was
“considered the extreme of the new type.”
A "walking beam" engine of the type used on Menemon Sanford. The
figure at right is to approximate scale.
Under the command of Captain Charles B. Sanford, Menemon Sanford’s son,
the new steamer began running regular service between New York and
Philadelphia, in conjunction with two of the line’s other vessels,
Delaware and Kennebec.
In
April 1856 the Sanfords brought Menemon Sanford, as one of the
newer and larger vessels of the line, up to Boston, to run as the sole
steamer on their Boston-to-Bangor route. On the evening of July 4, 1856,
the steamer departed Boston several hours later than usual. At about
2:20 the following morning, the steamer ran hard aground on the rocks of
Thatcher Island, a prominent navigational landmark that stood just off
Cape Ann, the headland that marked the turning point on the
Boston-Bangor route. Despite the calm sea, clear weather and the two
working lighthouses located on the 50-acre island, Menemon Sanford
drove straight onto the rocks near the base of the South Lighthouse.
Passengers later claimed that the accident had been caused by the boat’s
officers having celebrated the Forth of July by celebrating “not wisely
but too well.”
An old chart of the area near Rockport, Massachusetts, showing the
location of Menemon Sanford's first two groundings: Thatcher's
Island (lower right) and the Dry Salvages Rocks (upper right).
Fortunately, no one was lost in the accident, and Sanford was
eventually refloated, after having 20 feet (6m) of her bow chopped away.
The steamer was back in service on the Boston-to-Bangor run by the late
summer of 1856. On the evening of September 19, a passenger by the name
of Alan Frazer of Orland, Maine fell overboard in circumstances that are
not now clear. It appears that Captain [Charles B.?] Sanford, master of
steamer, did not respond adequately to the emergency, for the following
year he and the owners were tried at Boston on charges of manslaughter
“by reason of negligence in not endeavoring to save” Frazer. Sanford was
convicted, and the case was taken to the Supreme Bench, “on exceptions”
(i.e., appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court); there is no record
of the final disposition of the case.
Menemon Sanford appears to
have continued running between Boston and Bangor for several more
uneventful years until, in the early morning hours of July 31, 1862, she
ran aground near Cape Ann in a heavy fog. The steamer heeled hard over
to starboard so suddenly that the passengers’ berths “spilled out their
contents like peas from a pod.” Assistance came after sunrise, when the
sloop Alida arrived and took on board the steamer’s passengers
and their baggage. But the tide was falling, and the steamer was left
caught between two rocks, heeled over at a 45-degree angle. The sea
remained calm, though, and after painstakingly dismantling and removing
her machinery, and blasting the rocks that held her, the salvors were
eventually able to refloat the steamer and begin repairs to return her
to service. When the 1862 season ended that November, Menemon Sanford
was chartered to the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Department for a fee of
$950 per day.
In early December, at New York, the
steamer took onboard the newly-organized 156th New York Volunteers, an
infantry regiment under the command of Colonel Erastus Cooke. The ship
sailed late on the evening of December 3, under sealed orders.
Twenty-four hours later, while at sea, the orders were opened and found
to direct the steamer to rendezvous with General Nathaniel P. Banks’
expedition, organizing at New Orleans. Six days later, at about 6:20 on
the morning of December 10, Menemon Sanford ground her keel into
the coral about one-and-a-half nautical miles south-southwest
of the Carysfort Reef Lighthouse. Efforts to get the steamer off the
reef were unsuccessful, and U.S. naval vessels anchored nearby soon
arrived on the scene and began taking of the soldiers and the gear they could retrieve. Colonel Cooke, determined that the “stranding of
this vessel was so palpably the result of the most criminal negligence,
if not design,” immediately arrested the pilot, Captain A. W.
Richardson, and had him sent to Key West under guard. Captain
Richardson’s fate is not known.
A British-made Enfield rifle (bottom) found on the Menemon Sanford
site, compared with (top) an preserved antique. Image courtesy NOAA.
Menemon Sanford was a total
loss. The steamer’s salvors were awarded salvage of $5,853.50, and
Sanford’s owners received $7,191.36. The steamer’s vertical beam
engine, dismantled and removed for the second time in six months, was
refurbished and returned to service in the Chesapeake Bay steamer
George Leary.
Like
all wrecks of wooden-hulled vessels on the seaward reefs of the Florida
Keys, the wreck of Menemon Sanford is believed to be
significantly deteriorated. In addition to dynamic, mechanical
disarticulation and scattering of the vessel due to the effects of surf
and wind, natural conditions in the area generally cause rapid
deterioration of exposed organic and metal features. Wooden wrecks do
not fare well on the outer reefs of the Florida Keys.
"Iron circles," metal straps that reinforced Sanford's enormous
wooden paddlewheels, lie scattered on the wreck site.
The
PAST Foundation has not conducted a detailed reconnaissance of the
Menemon Sanford site. Based on brief visits to the site in 2007 and
2008, and anecdotal information obtained from other parties, it appears
that relatively little of the steamer’s hull survives intact. If a
substantial portion of the hull does survive, it is likely to be lower
part of the hull (i.e., the floor timbers) from around amidships, where
additional bracing and reinforcement would have been added to carry the
weight and vibration of the steamer’s propulsion machinery. Although
Sanford’s engine was removed during salvage, as noted above, there
may be small engine components or fittings remaining that were discarded
or lost during the salvaging process. It is deemed somewhat unlikely
that the steamer’s wooden paddlewheels were removed; they would have
been too bulky to remove intact, and time-consuming to dismantle. As a
result, it is possible that the paddlewheel shafts, flanges and smaller
metal elements may remain. There is likely to be some scatter of
exposed, disarticulated small metal elements around the site, including
the remains of hull sheathing (probably Muntz metal, and allow of copper
and zinc) and various iron straps and “chains” (actually rods) used to
brace the hull. Smaller, personal artifacts have been found previously
near the site, but it seems likely that most of
these have long since been dispersed or taken by relic hunters.
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