Remains of wooden ship appear, then disappear on beach in North Rustico, P.E.I.

Tue, January 10, 2023 

Photos of the wooden shape started to appear on social media after Christmas, including a debate over what the pieces were — a shipwreck or part of an old wharf? (Jody Doucette/Facebook - image credit)

What appears to have been the bow of a wooden schooner has attracted attention on a beach in North Rustico, P.E.I., a decade after local residents say it was last seen in the same spot.

Brendon Peters lives not far from the beach, and remembers the last time the sands drifted away, revealing the wooden structure below.

"My brother Norman Peters, a.k.a. the Bearded Skipper, took quite an interest in it. He did some research, and he got some people to look at it," Peters said.

"They came back with the finding that it was an old schooner that went aground here in 1879. It was the Carrie F. Butler, with 300 barrels of mackerel on board."

Jody Doucette/Facebook

When the shipwreck reappeared shortly after Christmas, Brendon Peters headed to the internet to find out more about the schooner, and found some reports in The Charlottetown Examiner about a ship from Gloucester, Mass.

"About a week or two later, the captain or the owner of the vessel auctioned everything off. They had an auction right here on the beach, anything that was left on board," Peters said.

"They sold all the rigging and everything. It was just left with bare bones sitting here. So the rest is history."

What is it?

Photos of the wooden shape started to appear on social media after Christmas, including a debate over what the pieces were — a shipwreck or part of an old wharf?

"I started putting my little two cents worth in, and some people said 'No, it's part of an old wharf,'" Peters said.

"I would say, 'I have never ever seen a wharf in the shape of a bow.' Maybe they did build them like that, I don't know. But I still say it is the Carrie F. Butler."

Shane Hennessey/CBC

On his most recent visit to the beach, Peters said the wooden remains are disappearing back into the sand, similar to what happened 10 years ago.

"I came down Saturday and there was people buzzing around, and they were saying, 'Where is it?' I said, 'Well, it's buried most of it, but you can see it right here, part of it,'" Peters said.

"You can see the outline of the bow, but if you would've been here December 26, you would have seen the whole thing."

Brendon Peters/Facebook

Buried history

The P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation's education and programming co-ordinator, Jason MacNeil, said people in maritime regions have a special relationship with the ocean and shipwrecks.

He has his own story of a P.E.I. shipwreck, from 2007, when a ship destroyed in the Yankee Gale, appeared on a beach near French River, P.E.I.

Shane Hennessey/CBC

"We went to see it, and it was sitting up on top of the sand all nicely. And then whenever we went out to get it, it was buried, so we had to spend three weeks digging it up out of the sand," MacNeil said.

"We had some of the pieces looked at, and they were made out of white oak, which was the same material that was used by the Americans in the Yankee Gale."

Shane Hennessey/CBC

MacNeil said the fact that the shipwrecks appear and disappear adds to their mystique.

"It makes it more essential to see it when it's there," he said.

"That's what the sea and the sand do, right? They expose things temporarily, and then before you know it, it's all shifted and everything is gone again."

Jody Doucette/Facebook