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Maine-built American Down-easter Carrollton (Midway Atoll)
The scattered remains of the once-graceful sailing ship Carrollton now lie on the reefs at Midway Atoll. The Carrollton was built in 1872 by the Arthur Sewall Shipyard in Bath, Maine. Bath-built down-easters were some of the most celebrated commercial sailing vessels of their day. Sewall ships, though not the fastest, were proven economic winners in the long-haul maritime trades of the mid and late 19th century.
In the midst of her career in the Pacific lumber, grain, and coal business, the Carrollton was accidentally lost on December 26th, 1906, when she ran bow-on onto the reef at Midway while en route from NSW Australia to Honolulu with a load of coal. All of her crew were saved, but the vessel was a total loss. Carrollton is one of eight other Sewall-built sailing vessels lost in the Pacific.
Today a large variety of artifacts from the shipwreck lie scattered over an area almost 1,000 feet long. Anchors, windlasses, anchor chains, fasteners, piping, bollards, glass, rigging, stanchions, sheathing, winches, pintles, gudgeons, an auxiliary boiler, and a portion of the ship’s cargo of coal, testify to the sea’s power to break apart what the best wooden shipwrights once created. The reef and artifact remains were surveyed by NOAA archaeologists during the 2003 field season, and further documented with high definition video footage in 2005. The wreck site of the Carrollton lies within protected waters under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our work at this site represents partnership efforts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cultural Resource Team and Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge as we work towards achieving the preservation mandates and goals of all agencies.
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