September nor'easter reveals 1884 Nantucket shipwreck amid power outages and fatal tree fall

Violent September nor'easter conditions battered the Atlantic seaboard, stripping sand on Nantucket and revealing a waterlogged pallet of timber and rusted nails on the island’s south shore. Experts say the wood likely belongs to the Warren Sawyer, a New Orleans-bound schooner that wrecked on nearby Miacomet Beach in December 1884 while carrying cotton and scrap iron. Archaeologist David Robinson described the identification process as “pulling a thread on a sweater,” noting lingering inconsistencies in fastenings.

The storm also produced heavy rain, gale-force winds and coastal flooding from Massachusetts down to Delaware, leaving over 27,600 customers without power in New York, 26,000 in Connecticut and 11,500 in Massachusetts. In Brooklyn, NYCHA employee Leighton Brown was struck by a fallen tree and died, and a male swimmer vanished near Robert Moses State Park on Long Island. The event highlights both the region’s vulnerability to rare September nor'easters and the chance to uncover maritime history.