Shipwreck Princess Anne

 The Princess Anne was built in Chester, Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1897 for the Old Dominion Line, the single screw steam ship was 350 feet long by 42 feet wide and had a displacement of 3,629 gross tons.

 On February 6, 1930, with 74 crew members and 32 passengers on board, Captain Frank Seay missed the entrance to New York Harbor and stranded his ship on Rockaway Shoals.  At 2:00 AM, the stranded ship was seen from the Life Saving Service watchtower at Rockaway Point. Because of severe weather and six foot snow drifts, it was impossible for anyone to reach her immediately.  At 5:00 AM the next morning, a life boat was finally able to heave its way through the somewhat reduced surf; it succeeded in taking all passengers to safety.  The crew, however, refused to leave without their luggage which could not fit in the life boat. 

 On February 15, nine days after she ran aground, the ship, still carrying 74 stubborn crew members, started to break apart.  Rivets popped and steel plates slid into the sea.  With this, the crew raised a distress signal and were hauled to safety.  Later that day, the big ship broke into two. 

Although the Princess Anne protruded from the water for many years, constant pounding of the sea and shifting sands have all but buried her under Rockaway Beach. The wreck, which most people refer to as the Princess Anne, is really an unidentified wood wreck which sits in 20 feet of water just east of Rockaway Point.   This wreck is well inshore and west of both the Black Warrior shipwreck and the Cornelia Soule.

Photo: Bob Wasserman and Dan Berg with brass bollards recovered from the wreck called Princess Anne. Recovered 2007.

Princess Anne Wreck. Dan Berg's Wreck Valley Collection	Princess Anne Wreck. Dan Berg's Wreck Valley Collection	Princess Anne Wreck. Dan Berg's Wreck Valley Collection

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