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A vintage map of the wrecks around Martha’s Vineyard, each one marked with a little ship, a name and a year.
Analysis of a historic shipwreck map reveals dangerous waters around Martha's Vineyard. About 140 wrecks from 1746 to 1968 tell the story.
A vintage map titled Marine Disasters of Martha's Vineyard lists about 140 shipwrecks across more than two centuries, from 1746 to 1968. Below is everything it lists, area by area.
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The map groups the wrecks by area around the island, and each entry gives the vessel's name, its type and the year it was lost.
1898 has about 40 of the listed wrecks. Most of them went down in one storm, the Portland Gale of November 26–27, 1898, which drove a fleet of coasting schooners ashore in Vineyard Haven harbor.
Schooners make up about 60 percent of the wrecks, since they did most of the coastal trading for much of this period. The rest is a mix of barks and brigs, barges, steamers, yachts and, in the 20th century, motor and fishing boats.
Many wrecks came in the winter months, when storms were worst and visibility poorest. Rough seas, fog and poor weather forecasting made these waters dangerous to sail.
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When the SS City of Columbus struck Devil's Bridge reef, over 100 people died, one of the worst maritime disasters in Martha's Vineyard's waters. The loss led to better navigational aids and safety rules at sea.
The first-order Fresnel lens that once lit the Gay Head Light now fills its own two-story pavilion at the Martha's Vineyard Museum.
These wrecks span the age of sail, the move to steam and the first decades of motor fishing boats, and the number of schooners on the list shows how much coastal trade passed the island.
Many vessels were caught by sudden changes in the weather, or by navigation errors in poorly charted water.
Losses like these pushed for better-placed lighthouses and stronger rescue services, including the Life-Saving Service stations around the island.
The lantern room of East Chop Light at dusk.
Today many of these wreck sites draw recreational divers and marine archaeologists.
Modern navigation has made wrecks like these rare, but the same shoals and the same weather are still out there.
The map is a plain record of how hard these waters were on sailing ships for more than a century: about 140 wrecks, most of them working schooners, and 1898 alone accounts for about 40 of them, most in the Portland Gale of late November.
Step 1 · WhenMonth PickerTwelve months compared on NOAA numbers, crowds, prices and what is open. 
Step 2 · DaysDay-by-Day Trip PlannerMorning, afternoon and evening sketched for every day, events dropped in, emailed to you. 
Step 3 · CostTrip Cost CalculatorFerry, beds with the rooms tax, meals, getting around and activities in one price range. The vintage map, titled Marine Disasters of Martha's Vineyard, lists about 140 wrecks between 1746 and 1968. It boxes them for Vineyard Haven Harbor, the waters off the island, Cape Poge, Edgartown and Aquinnah, and draws the rest where they went down around the coast.
Most of the roughly 40 losses listed for that year came in one storm, the Portland Gale of November 26 and 27, 1898. It drove a fleet of coasting schooners ashore in Vineyard Haven harbor. Winter storms, fog and poor forecasting made these waters hard on sailing ships for a century.
The steamer City of Columbus in 1884. It struck Devil's Bridge reef and over 100 people died. Losses like this pushed improvements in navigation aids and rescue services, including the Life-Saving Service stations around the island.
Many of the sites draw recreational divers and marine archaeologists, but the map is a historical record, not a dive guide. If you want to get on the water, our fishing guide covers charters and the fall Derby.
The lighthouses are the easiest stop, and they were built for exactly these waters. Our island lighthouses page lists each one with visiting details, from East Chop in Oak Bluffs to Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah.
Modern navigation has made wrecks rare, but the same shoals and the same weather are still out there. For a modern example, read our account of Hurricane Bob in 1991, a hurricane that hit the island hard.
Joshua Slocum, first to sail alone around the world, spent his last years farming in West Tisbury and vanished from Vineyard Haven harbor in November 1909. The voyage, the farm called Fag End, the last departure, and what a visitor can actually see: the harbor, a marker stone by a country road, the museum's Slocum papers, and the book itself.
Who summered where on Martha's Vineyard, and what a visitor can actually see: Eisenstaedt's Menemsha, Benton's Chilmark, Cronkite's Edgartown harbor, Styron and Buchwald in Vineyard Haven, McCullough and Katharine Graham in West Tisbury, Belushi's grave at Abel's Hill, and the Onassis farm in Aquinnah that opened to the public in 2025. Public places named, private homes left alone.
The red bus that gets the loudest cheer in the Edgartown Fourth of July parade belongs to Camp Jabberwocky, a tuition-free summer camp for people with disabilities that has run on the Vineyard since 1953. An islander's account of where it came from and what it is. For anything official, the camp's own site is the source.
The Feast of the Holy Ghost in Oak Bluffs, held every third full weekend of July since 1928: the Queen Isabel legend behind the free soup, the Sunday parade from the ferry up Circuit Avenue, the crown blessed at Our Lady Star of the Sea, the sopas at the Portuguese-American Club, the club the rest of the year, and how a visitor should behave at the island's Portuguese feast.
The words you will hear on Martha's Vineyard and what they mean: up-island and down-island, on-island and off, going to America, the boats, wash-ashore versus native, Five Corners, the Triangle, the Blinker, Chappy, OB, the Campground, the Derby, the Fair, island cars and the Vineyard shuffle, with pronunciations.
East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs: the 1878 cast-iron tower on Telegraph Hill, the Sunday sunset openings run by the Martha's Vineyard Museum, the semaphore and Chocolate Lighthouse history, and the bus stop and parking below the hill.
Island tip of the day Timing No. 61 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Visit Edgartown on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Same beautiful town, maybe 30% of the weekend crowds. Most restaurants have availability without reservations.
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