Sunken Presidential Yacht Believed Found

Salvage operator Ben Benson was searching for sunken Spanish treasure ships in the shallow waters near here when he found a piece of American history.

Using a magnetometer, Benson discovered the Despatch, the yacht of presidents Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison that sank more than a century ago.

The yacht, built in 1873, ran aground in stormy weather off Assateague in 1891 and was ripped to pieces by waves. Everyone in the crew--there were no VIPs on board--survived. News accounts of the day pinpointed the yacht’s location, but there had been no effort to recover it--even though it sits close to shore and just 22 feet beneath the surface.

“I think we’re going to find some really interesting artifacts, perhaps gifts from heads of state, a compass, a steering wheel,” said Benson, owner of Sea Hunt Inc. “I’m not seeing scattered pieces. It’s lying largely in one mass.”

John Broadwater, a former state underwater archeologist, said it’s “probably a good bet” Benson has found the presidential wreckage. The discovery was made Sept. 9.

The Despatch, a wooden schooner-rigged steamer, was on its way from New York City to Washington by way of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River at the time of the accident, early in the morning of Oct. 10, 1891. It was to pick up Harrison and Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Tracy for a visit to the naval proving grounds on the Potomac.

The ship’s lieutenant was quoted as saying he mistook the orange light from the Assateague lighthouse for the offshore red light on the Winter Quarter Shoals lightship. It was a 1 1/2-mile mistake, leading the ship onto dangerous shoals near the island off Virginia’s eastern shore.