1923 — Apr 6, rum runner steamer John Dwight sinks/or was sunk, Vineyard Sound, MA — 8-10

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 4-9-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

 –8-10  Bridgeport Telegram, CT. “Think Two…Drowned Besides 8 Bodies…” 4-10-1923, 2.

—  >8  Hugo, Chris. “John Dwight.” Mass. Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, 2000

—  >8  Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “John Dwight,” 2014.

Blanchard note: We note 8-10 deaths reported by the Bridgeport Telegram. Eight bodies were recovered. The paper notes it was thought there were two other crewmembers. This may well have been the case in that the OnCape Magazine, in “The John Dwight Mystery – Rum Running, Piracy & Murder” (1-26-2024), notes that according to the U.S. Coast Guard, the normal complement was 15 men. This is not to say that this voyage had a normal complement, however.

Narrative Information

Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs:

“John Dwight

Description: freighter, wood.
Dimensions: length 107.4 ft., width 27ft. 3in., depth 7.9 ft.
Tonnage: gross 151.78, other displacement – 275.
Propulsion: steam, 1 propeller.
Machinery: 250 horse power steam engine; coal fired boiler
Cargo: bootleg ale.

“The Shipwreck

Date Sunk: April 6, 1923.
Cause: scuttled.
Location: Vineyard Sound, south of Nashawena Island.
Coordinates: latitude 41° – 23’ – 26” N; longitude 70° – 52’ – 36” W.

“It was the “Roaring-20s”; the 18^th Amendment was four years old and prohibition was making the depression all the more depressing. This was the era of speakeasies, bathtub-gin and rum-running. Hooch-laden vessels from Canada would wait, just outside of U.S. Territorial waters, for the cover of darkness or fog when American craft would load the liquid cargo and run it into some deserted stretch of coastline to be sold at a healthy profit.

“Vineyard Haven, Mass., April 6 – “When a heavy fog which had prevailed for hours lifted today, the Cuttyhunk coast guards sighted a vessel about 150 feet long, apparently a steam trawler, flying what appeared to be distress signals. As they watched, the craft suddenly sank.”

“This was the story reported in the New York Times. It was assumed the crew-abandoned ship after a collision in the fog. The vessel’s lifeboat davits were swung out, indicating the boats had been launched, but no word of its crew landing or of a collision was forthcoming.

“John Dwight’s demise has to this day, remained a mystery. Some weeks before the vessel sank, two captains, giving false names, showed up at Newport, Rhode Island, saying there had been a change in the steamers’ ownership. Laid up for the winter, the John Dwight was previously employed in the salvage of coal from sunken barges. More men soon arrived bringing the crew to somewhere between 8 to 15 and the steamer was extensively overhauled. The vessel left Newport, giving as its destination New York, but instead it anchored in Buzzards Bay.

“The Captain of the New Bedford to Cuttyhunk mail boat spotted the steamer at anchor and spoke with one of its captains. He claimed they were having engine problems but would be underway soon. The steamer Dorchester, en route to Boston through the Sound, reported seeing the steamer with its lifeboat davits empty and a boat with three men aboard rowing toward Naushon Island. An extensive search was conducted, but no one was found.

“The mystery was compounded the next day when the bodies of the John Dwight’s crew were found floating amongst bottles of bootleg ale in Vineyard Sound, an area which had been searched the day before. Seven were wearing lifejackets, while the eighth was found in one of the ship’s boats. He had apparently made a valiant effort at survival, fashioning oarlocks and sweeps from material within the craft and was believed to have drowned in the few inches of water in its bilge when he was overcome by exhaustion. However, the two captains were not found among the dead.

“One popular theory is that the captains and perhaps some of the crew scuttled the steamer and murdered its crew in order to swindle them out of the bootlegging profits. This theory is supported by the fact that when Navy divers inspected the steamer’s remains, the seacocks were found to be open. Later, John Dwight’s name boards and one of its boats were found on Naushon Island….

“Historical Background

Constructed: in 1896 at Tomkins Cove, New York by the Roderman & Company.
Construction details: 1 mast, 1 derrick.
Crew: 8.
Home or Hailing Port: New York, New York.
Former Name(s) and date(s): John Dwight (1896), U.S.S. Pawnee (May 6, 1898), John Dwight (July 25, 1922).
Official number: 77239. Country: U.S.A….

(Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “John Dwight,” 2014.[1])

Sources

Berg, Capt. Dan. “The John S Dwight Shipwreck.” Baldwin, NY: Aqua Explorers, Inc. Accessed 4-4-2014 at: http://www.shipwreckexpo.com/neshipwreckjohndwight.htm

Bridgeport Telegram, CT. “Think Two More Drowned Besides 8 Bodies Found.” 4-10-1923, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=11216304&sterm

Hugo, Chris. “John Dwight.” Mass. Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, 2000. Accessed 4-4-2014 at: http://www.mwdc.org/Shipwrecks/JohnDwight.html

Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “John Dwight,” 2014. Accessed 4-4-2014: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/czm/buar/shipwrecks/boats/john-dwight.html

OnCape Magazine. “The John Dwight Mystery – Rum Running, Piracy & Murder.” 1-26-2024. Accessed 4-9-2025 at:

The John Dwight Mystery – Rum Running, Piracy & Murder

[1] Cites as sources: Merchant Vessels of the United States; 1897, 1898, 1918; Merchant Vessels of the United States, Vessels Lost Chapter, 1923; New England’s Legacy of Shipwrecks, Keatts, 1988; New York Maritime Register, May 2 & April 30, 1923; New York Times, April 7 & 8, 1923; The Fisherman Magazine; December 1 & 8, 1988; Wrecks Below, Luther, 1958.