Port Hunter

2017

May 16, 2017

Stormy Past Equals Fertile Ground for Vineyard Shipwrecks Exhibit

Steve Myrick
Martha's Vineyard Museum
Shipwrecks and groundings
Port Hunter
City of Columbus
There is a good reason the Martha’s Vineyard Museum has far more shipwreck artifacts than it can display in its new exhibit Shipwrecks! Stories from Beneath the Sea. It’s because we have a lot of shipwrecks around here.

2011

October 27, 2011
painting Gay Head shipwreck

Shipwrecks Below Island Waters Are Museums Unto Themselves

Peter Brannen
Port Hunter
City of Columbus
Martha's Vineyard Museum

A mile and a half off East Chop, 50 feet down, is a 380-foot World War I British freighter laden with motorcycles, steel billets, railroad car wheels, candles and clothes, still waiting patiently for delivery to the front lines in France. It is the Port Hunter and for photographer and anthropologist Sam Low it was a teenage playground.

1919

February 13, 1919

To Wreck Port Hunter

Vineyard Gazette
Port Hunter
Shipwrecks and groundings
The Mercantile Wrecking Co., of New Bedford, of which Barney Zeitz is the proprietor and with whom is associated Jacob Dreyfus & Sons, large wholesale merchants of Boston, and Michael J. Leahey of New Bedford, has been awarded the contract for removing the American cargo in the British steamer Port Hunter, which lies sunk on Hedge Fence shoal in Vineyard Sound.
February 6, 1919

Port Hunter: Likely Once More to Feel the Grappling Hooks

Vineyard Gazette
Port Hunter

Washington, D. C. Feb. 3. - Congressman Walsh, who returned this morning from his trip with the special congressional investigating committee, was advised by Genera Goethals’s office that no bids were received for salvaging the cargo steamer Port Hunter.

1918

November 7, 1918

Vineyard Haven

Vineyard Gazette
Port Hunter
Vineyard Haven Branch, A. R. C., was able to render assistance, in the form of an outdoor luncheon, to the survivors of the wrecked British freighter “Port Hunter” Saturday, while the men, about forty in number, were detained here awaiting transportation to Boston. Ensign Isenberg has expressed the appreciation and thanks of the Navy Department to the Branch.
November 7, 1918

Vineyard Haven People Welcomed Crew

Vineyard Gazette
Port Hunter
Shipwrecks and groundings
Survivors of the British steamer which was beached after colliding with a seagoing tug in the Sound Saturday morning, were taken into Vineyard Haven. There were 53 men, including Captain Stafford. Many of the men were destitute of clothing and in many instances wore only shoes and trousers. The villagers had been notified of the coming of the survivors, and a committee, headed by Frank L. Eddy, manager of the telephone company, got together a large quantity of clothing, money, tobacco, food, fruit, etc., with which to welcome the ship-wrecked crew.