Culloden Point is a small peninsula north of Montauk, New York, that marks the east entrance to

Fort Pond Bay Fort Pond Bay is a bay off Long Island Sound at Montauk, New York that was site of the first port on the end of Long Island. The bay has a long naval and civilian history. History New-York Province and the American Revolution Fort Pond Bay wa ...

from

Gardiners Bay Gardiners Bay is a small arm of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 10 mi (16 km) long and 8 mi (13 km) wide in the U.S. state of New York between the two flukelike peninsulas at the eastern end of Long Island. It is bounded o ...

HMS ''Culloden''

During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, the British ship of the line ran aground here early on January 24, 1781, while attempting to get from

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a strait in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as Plum Is ...

out to the open

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to escape a winter

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).snowstorm A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...

with two other British warships. As recounted in ''Long Island and the Sea'' by Bill Bleyer (The History Press, 2019), the ship of the line , leading the trio, successfully turned around at midnight when her captain realized they had not cleared

Montauk Point Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318. The ...

. But Captain George Balfour of ''Culloden'' continued on until 4 AM, when lookouts saw breakers ahead and tried unsuccessfully to turn the ship back into Block Island Sound. Efforts to refloat ''Culloden'' the next day were unsuccessful, so after recovering bronze cannons and other supplies and leaving old iron cannon behind, Balfour ordered the ship burned to the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...

to keep her out of

Patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

hands. The wreck was discovered in the 1970s when portions of it washed ashore (reports indicate that some of the washed-up debris had been used for beach campfires). One of the cannons is on display at the East Hampton Marine Museum in

Amagansett Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, t ...

, New York, which has an extensive display of ''Culloden'' artifacts. Other cannon are still on the bottom close to shore and about below the surface. The wreck is protected on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

and now is the first underwater park on Long Island, New York. The park is accessible on a single-lane gravel road at the west end of Soundview Drive. Divers use a large rock with pebbles on top of it to the north of the bluff stairs as the landmark for reaching the wreck. They follow a heading of 333 degrees. It is about off shore. The debris field is marked by buoys. Usually little of the wreck is visible, typically just rust stains in the sand, but some portions of the hull sometimes can be seen after storms. Prior to the discovery of the wreck in the 1970s, the spit was called Will's Point, possibly named after Will Indian, a herder mentioned in early East Hampton Town records.

''Amistad''

In 1839 anchored at Culloden Point after the surviving crew tried to convince their revolting slave captors that they had returned to Africa. They went for provisions in the village of Montauk. The ship was seized here by .

Leisurama

In the early 1960s, about 200 Leisurama prefabricated homes designed by

Andrew Geller Andrew Michael Geller (April 17, 1924 – December 25, 2011) was an American architect, painter, and graphic designer. He is widely known for his uninhibited, sculptural beach houses in the coastal regions of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticu ...

were built at the point after being sold from a display on the ninth floor of

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

in New York City.

External links

East Hampton Star article on site
{dead link, date=August 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Suffolk Life article on Leisurama homes

NJscuba on dive site
East Hampton (town), New York Landforms of Suffolk County, New York Peninsulas of New York (state)