This photograph shows the Clan Galbraith, a Norwegian four-masted steel bark, ashore near Flying Point Beach in Water Mill.
Russell & Company’s construction of the ship finished on Feb. 1, 1894, in Port Glasgow, Scotland. The Clan Galbraith weighed 2,149 tons and measured 282 feet in length. While en route to New York from Bristol, England, the ship encountered heavy fog and ran aground in Water Mill, landing broadside in the early morning of Saturday, July 22, 1916.
The incident caused quite the stir on the South Fork, drawing crowds of locals and vacationing families for miles. In her book “Ship Ashore!” Jeannette Edwards Rattray described the scene: “So many visitors came that the beach ‘seemed like Riverhead Fair in the old days.’ ”
The East Hampton Star reported six days later that “thousands of spectators” had come to the beach to see the ship. People arrived in carriages, touring cars, and some on horseback. Many came with picnic baskets in hand, intending to make a day of it.
Capt. A.E. Olsen and the crew elected to remain on board while awaiting their release from the sand. The large bark was stuck in only three feet of water for another two weeks before being successfully floated out on Aug. 4, fortunately without damage to its hull.
The Clan Galbraith’s luck ran out west of Ireland only a year later during a voyage from Philadelphia to Birkenhead, England, while carrying cargo of oil and wax. The bark was captured by a German submarine and deliberately sunk in early 1917, but there were no casualties.
The Clan Galbraith is believed to be one of the largest ships ever stranded on the shores of Long Island.
Mayra Scanlon was until recently a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection. She’s now with the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton.
