Beach Erosion Reveals Fragments of a 136-Year-Old Shipwreck That Sank in New Jersey’s ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’

The schooner “Lawrence N. McKenzie” was transporting a load of oranges from Puerto Rico to New York City when it wrecked on March 21, 1890

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

January 29, 2026

A piece of an old shipwreck on sand — Nearly 136 years after it sank, the long-buried remains of the schooner *Lawrence N. McKenzie* have resurfaced. Island Beach State Park via Facebook

On March 21, 1890, the Lawrence N. McKenzie was carrying oranges from Puerto Rico to New York City when it wrecked off the coast of New Jersey. All eight crew members survived the disaster, but the vessel sank and was covered by sand.

Now, nearly 136 years later, the schooner’s long-buried remains have resurfaced. Officials at Island Beach State Park say the shipwreck has emerged from the sand after weeks of beach erosion caused by wind and waves.

Photos posted by the state park show thick, gently curving wooden ribs connected with diagonal, metal straps. Many of the wooden ribs appear to have metal spikes protruding from them.

Beach erosion is a common, natural phenomenon that takes place during the winter months at the 3,000-acre park. However, most of the time, it doesn’t turn up old shipwrecks.

“Each year, high-energy waves and seasonal storms remove sand from the shoreline, resulting in narrower beaches and steeper profiles,” park officials wrote in a January 22 Facebook post. “Most beaches recover from the erosion during the calmer summer months—but for now, this winter’s erosion has revealed a glimpse into the park’s maritime history.”

The state park protects a narrow, undeveloped, ten-mile-long barrier island located between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay. It’s covered in white-sand beaches and sand dunes, which provide a habitat for numerous plants and animals, including the state’s largest colony of ospreys. Other inhabitants include peregrine falcons, numerous shorebirds and waterfowl, and migratory songbirds. The park is also home to more than 400 plants, including some of the largest swaths of beach heather—a low-growing, native shrub with bright yellow flowers—in New Jersey.

The Lawrence N. McKenzie was a 98.2-foot-long schooner built in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1883, according to the New Jersey Maritime Museum’s shipwreck database. The vessel was later based in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The citrus cargo it was transporting when it sank was worth $2,000 (about $71,000 today), while the ship itself was valued at $9,000 (roughly $321,000 today).

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Abigail Covington, the vessel wrecked after sailing into heavy fog near Barnegat Bay. By the time members of the U.S. Life-Saving Service stationed in Cedar Creek, New Jersey, showed up to rescue the crew, the vessel had taken on six feet of water. The ship was declared a total loss.

Did you know? The U.S. Life-Saving Service

The U.S. Life-Saving Service was the precursor to the modern U.S. Coast Guard.
Congress funded the construction of several life-saving stations along America’s shorelines in 1847, but they were primarily staffed by volunteers until 1878, when the service was officially organized under the U.S. Treasury Department.

That stretch of New Jersey’s coast was infamously challenging for ships to navigate because its sandy shoals and channels were always changing. It even took on a grim nickname: “the graveyard of the Atlantic.”

“For over three centuries, mariners have known Barnegat as a place of potential disaster,” according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District. “It is believed that between 400 and 500 lives have been lost on the shoals of Barnegat and an estimated 40 ships per year wrecked on the shoals prior to the introduction of the steamship.”

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