The ''Paul Palmer'' was a five-masted
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
built in 1902 by George F. Welt in
Waldoboro, Maine.
It was part of
William F. Palmer's fleet of white-hulled vessels active in the New England coal trade. The fleet was sold to
J. S. Winslow and Company in 1911.
After departing
Rockport, Maine on Friday, June 13, 1913 under the command of Capt. Howard B. Allen and destined for
Newport News, VA where she would pick up a load of coal
for the return voyage, ''Paul Palmer'' caught fire on 15 June 1913 for unknown reasons. Attempts to douse the flames with the vessel's own pumps were not successful, and the crew abandoned ship. The ''Paul Palmer'' burned down to the waterline and then sank. There were 11 passengers and crew on board, including the captain's wife and a female guest. The passengers of the Palmer took to lifeboats and were picked up later on by the fishing schooner ''Rose Dorothea'', bringing them to
Provincetown, Massachusetts. The cutter ''Androscoggin'' was dispatched from
Portland, Maine to destroy the remnants of the wreck so as to avoid a hazard to other ships.
In 2000, researchers at the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (officially the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary) is an 842-square-mile (638-square- nautical-mile) federally protected marine sanctuary located at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, ...
discovered the wreck and documented it, locating artifacts that proved the ship's identity in 2002.
The wreck was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
References
Image
Launching of the ''Paul Palmer''
{{1913 shipwrecks
Schooners of the United States
Five-masted ships
Colliers
Ships built in Maine
Maritime incidents in 1913
1902 ships
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Ship fires