1626 Colonial Shipwreck Relic “Sparrowhawk”

Wooden ship remnant, attributed to the Sparrowhawk. Length 7 3/4 in. With handwritten note in a 19th century hand reading: “Piece of plank from the wreck of the ship Sparrowhawk belonging to the British, which was wrecked upon Cape Cod during the Revolution and accidentally dug from the sand and placed in Pilgrim’s Hall in Plymouth, Mass.”

The note appears to refer to the Sparrowhawk which wrecked at Nauset Beach on Cape Cod on 17 December 1626, not during the Revolutionary War.

In the year 1626, amidst the fervor of colonial expansion, John Fells and John Sisbey of London embarked on a bold venture to seek their fortunes in the New World. Their destination was the Jamestown colony, where they aimed to cultivate tobacco. They enlisted the services of a seasoned Scottish Captain by the name of Johnston, and along with a crew predominantly composed of Irish farmers, commissioned a modest vessel apocryphally christened the "Sparrowhawk."

However, the crew's journey was fraught with peril. Battling against a ferocious winter storm, the Sparrowhawk foundered upon a sandbar off the shores of what we now know as Pleasant Bay. Stranded and facing the unforgiving elements, the crew managed to reach the safety of the shoreline, where they were graciously aided by members of the Nauset Tribe. News of the crew's plight reached Plymouth Governor William Bradford, who documented the incident in his journal. Responding swiftly to their distress call, Bradford organized a rescue expedition from Plymouth.

While the ship was saved, it wrecked again not long after and was lost for over 200 years. In 1863, several local residents of Orleans, MA discovered the remnants of the "Sparrowhawk," which are currently displayed at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, MA.

[Militaria, Naval History, Americana, Colonial America, Colonial Period, Revolutionary War, Pilgrims, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Documents]