Shipwrecks and war · Little Egg Harbor
The 1779 Mermaid transport disaster
Contemporary newspaper reports · Date and toll differ
A British transport carrying soldiers, sailors, women and children ran onto the southern Jersey shore in a March snowstorm. Reports described people waiting through the cold on the stranded ship and only a few dozen survivors.
What the period reports say
A March 31, 1779 New Jersey State Gazette account, reprinted by Barber and Howe in 1844, says the Whitehaven transport was driven ashore and bilged at Egg Harbor. It describes a wait from Monday morning until Tuesday noon before a boat reached the vessel. Its tally is 42 saved and 145 dead, including soldiers, sailors, women and children. Those are figures from a wartime newspaper report, not a verified passenger list. Read the 1844 reprint, p. 69.
A separate contemporary newspaper account preserved by Colonial Williamsburg puts the transport on “Flat Beach” near a second vessel driven onto Brigantine Beach. It estimates about 200 aboard and only 45 saved. It also relays an unverified report of specie aboard. The two articles support the disaster’s scale but differ in totals; neither establishes a recovered treasure.
The date and the shore
March 31 is the date printed on the Gazette report. A Monmouth County Historical Association history places the grounding on March 19. A U.S. Army Corps wreck inventory says March 31, apparently matching the newspaper date, and describes the site as Little Egg Harbor at the north end of Brigantine Beach. The available accounts therefore support a March 1779 wreck more securely than an exact day.
“Flat Beach,” Little Egg Harbor and northern Brigantine are historical place descriptions on a shifting inlet coast. They do not locate the hull on a present beach or in present water. The map uses a wide Brigantine area as geographic context. Visitors can explore public shore access where permitted, but the marker is not a wreck-site or artifact-hunting guide.
A name that needs care
Other Revolutionary War records refer to a British frigate also called Mermaid. This entry concerns the Halifax-to-New York troop transport stranded in 1779. Similar vessel names should not be used to merge their voyages or losses.
Sources and open questions
- Barber and Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey (1844), p. 69 — Reprints the March 31, 1779 New Jersey State Gazette account and its 187-person tally.
- Colonial Williamsburg, digitized contemporary newspaper report — Independent period estimate and “Flat Beach” description.
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Absecon Inlet shipwreck inventory, Appendix A — Regional wreck location; exact day may conflate report and event.
- Monmouth County Historical Association, “Yelverton Taylor Takes British Troop Transport” — Gives March 19 and places the disaster in local Revolutionary War maritime history.
A ship’s muster or casualty return, full original newspaper pages, and a period chart would help resolve the exact day, number aboard and location. The surviving reports should not be collapsed into a single precise toll.