by Peter L. Reagan
The coastal steamer Horatio
Hall was built at Roach's shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania by the Delaware River
Company. Her keel was laid in early November 1897 as a sister ship to the John
Englis. She was christened at 1:15 pm on March 23, 1898 by Mrs. Jeannette Hall
Clark, a daughter of Captain Horatio Hall. The Hall's official number was 96401 and her
call letters were KNJL. Owned by Maine Steamship Company, her home port was Portland,
Maine. The vital statistics of this steel vessel were tonnage 3,167 gross and 2,007 net,
length 296.8' (319' LOA), beam 46.0', and draft 17.2'. Her six 180 psig boilers powered
triple expansion engines yielding 4,200 indicated horsepower and producing a guaranteed
speed of 17 knots. She would typically carry a crew of fifty five. Passenger
accommodations were unusually good, with 135 staterooms on two upper decks. Total cost of
the Hall was projected to be $400,000 (in 1898 dollars) when completed around June 1,
1898.
Tuesday afternoon, March 9, 1909, the Dimock left New York headed for
Boston. Under the command of Captain W. Frank Jewell, with five passengers and a crew of
about forty, the Hall left Portland at 10:30 pm that same day bound for New York. The Hall
carried 400 tons of freight including general merchandise and a cargo of cloth then valued
at $100,000 on a trip that took about 18 hours in good weather. Both encountered fog at
about 2 am. The Hall slowed to half speed.
With calm seas and thick fog, Wednesday, March 10, 1909, the two vessels approached on
a collision course. Shortly after 8 am, in foggy conditions, the Dimock's sharp bow hit
the Hall's port side abreast of the mainmast with sufficient force to penetrate fifteen or
twenty feet into the Hall's body.
Captain John A. Thompson maintained the Dimock full ahead to keep the ships together
and allow the Hall's passengers and crew to board the Dimock. The Dimock pushed the Hall
toward shoal water on the South side of the channel.
The Hall sank within a half hour at Latitude 41-33 North and Longitude 069-54 West, 3.8
nm East of Monomoy Island. Her hurricane deck remained above water. During that time, most
of the Hall's crew left in six life boats and rowed to the Dimock. Although it was only a
few feet above the water level, the Hall's Captain Jewell, his pilot, mate, and two seamen
decided to remain in the pilot house.
Luckily, there was no loss of life. But, seven days after being wrecked, the Maine
Steamship Company declared the Hall a total loss. The US Government ordered the Hall blown
up as a menace to navigation. There was some discussion of also declaring the Dimock a
menace to navigation in the Chatham Roads area of the Atlantic Ocean. Later in that same
day (March 16th), four enterprising young fishermen salvaged the Hall's safe.
Within a few weeks more, local wreckers stripped the Hall of everything movable above
the water line. That means there likely was a couple dozen feet of the Hall's depth they
could not salvage. Although she was later explosively cleared by the Army Corps of
Engineers, countless artifacts remain and a few usually surface during charter boat dive
trips to the Hall. Some are undoubtedly still resting beneath a blanket of sand while
others lie exposed for the sharp eyed diver to find, retrieve, and preserve.
Like the nearby Alva, the Hall usually offers a bright warm
golden glow for all who visit. The Hall is upright with her bow heading East-Southeast.
Maximum depth is about 45' to the white sand bottom. There is about 25' over the remains
of her six big boilers, which will offer a solid target for the dive boat's depth sounder.
Generally, the Hall comes into view as soon as you hit the water, with visibility often
30' or more. Swimming Easterly from mid-ships, you pass along the port side of the blown
up hull and boilers. These jagged metal pieces have no areas for penetration, but they do
give shelter to a wide variety of encrusting animals and small darting fish. Reaching a
tangled mass of steel near the bow, you notice a beautiful area with a heavy growth of
southern kelp. Its long light brown blades shelter lobster, crabs, sea ravens, and
sculpins. Moving Westerly along the starboard side, you observe the bottom is a few feet
deeper than the port side, and seems to hold more starfish and flounder. Cunners and
tautog lazily continue their search for food. Aft of the boiler section, you find two
massive main propulsion gears off to the starboard side of mid-ships.
Reaching the aft end of the major structural remains, you can tie off your wreck reel
and continue on to find other bits of wreckage. Turning Easterly, you return to the anchor
line wishing you had more time to explore in detail this lovely shipwreck.
Nearby are other fun shipwreck dives... check out the Aransas, Alva, and Pendleton
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This Page was Last Updated 07/04/02