Eighty years on Flat Ground: remembering the Liberty ship Charles S. Haight

At low tide off Rockport, a piece of machinery breaks the surface on the ledges known as Flat Ground. It is what is left of the steam engine of the Charles S. Haight, a Liberty ship that went aground there in the spring of 1946 and never left.

The Haight was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships built in the United States to carry cargo during World War II. Federal Maritime Administration records show it was completed in October 1944 by J.A. Jones Construction Co. in Brunswick, Ga., measured 7,198 gross tons and was operated for the government by Marine Transport Lines Inc.

By the spring of 1946 the war was over and the ship was heading back to New York with empty holds. It had delivered a cargo of coal to Newport, England, according to an account published by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, which draws on Boston and New York newspapers from that week. The Maritime Administration likewise lists the voyage as Newport to New York.

Both the state account and federal records say southeast winds were blowing as the ship passed Cape Ann. The state account adds that visibility was poor and the seas were rough, and it says the Haight struck the ledges at 12:07 a.m. on April 2, 1946, about a mile and a half east of Rockport.

The records do not fully agree on that date, and the federal records disagree with each other. A Maritime Administration vessel status card typed after the wreck says the ship grounded on April 1, 1946, while the agency's online ship history gives April 2. The documents we reviewed do not explain the one-day difference, and it may simply reflect how a wreck that happened around midnight was logged. What is not in dispute is that the ship came to rest on Flat Ground overnight between April 1 and April 2.

The ship's double bottom was holed near its No. 5 hold, according to the state account, and water climbed in the engine room. With water rising around the boilers, Capt. Joseph A. Mano ordered 29 of the 49 men aboard into the lifeboats by late morning, according to the state account, and it was roughly two hours before the explosion risk eased. That afternoon, at 3:30, the Coast Guard took crew members onto its cutter Ojibwa, which had stayed close in case the hull split. None of the sources reviewed for this story report any deaths or injuries.

What came next shows up in a Coast Guard report that has drawn far less attention. Within days, the New York salvage firm Merritt-Chapman & Scott was working on the wreck, according to the state account. On April 5, Lt. D.S. Bangs, commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Gloucester Group, reported that the salvage company planned to sink the after part of the hull, which still held a large amount of fuel oil.

Local civic groups objected, worried that oil would foul the beaches and kill fish. According to the Coast Guard report, a court injunction against the salvage work was issued locally on the complaint of Rockport citizens. The salvage company abandoned the vessel on April 6 without sinking the stern section, and later reports said offshore winds had carried away most of the oil seeping from the hull.

Judgments that the ship was lost came in stages. The state account, drawing on Boston papers, says salvage hopes were gone by April 5 and the ship was written off as a total loss by April 9. The federal status card dates its own judgment earlier: it records that the Haight became a constructive total loss, meaning repairs were not worth the cost, at 1:30 a.m. on April 2. In other words, the government's paperwork dated the loss to the first night, while the public verdict came about a week later.

A status card notes that when the wreck was offered for scrap, no bids came in. On Dec. 30, 1947, according to one status card, the government sold the wreck without restrictions to A. Joseph Martell and Arthur Wagner for $500. A second card shows a date that reads Jan. 15, 1948, which may be when the sale was recorded.

The sea did much of the rest. Ted Dow, who was 16 that summer, sailed out to the wreck with friends and photographed the hull as it came apart, the stern first and later the bow, each section turning over. Years of scrapping followed, and shipwreck author B.W. Luther wrote that by 1965 little remained above the surface except the main engine.

A red nun buoy numbered 2 now marks the spot, a short way northeast of Rockport's outer breakwater. Divers know it as a shallow site, roughly 10 to 30 feet deep. According to the town, the Sandy Bay Yacht Club has the ship's binnacle, the stand that held its compass.

Built to cross oceans in wartime, the Haight ended its working life about a mile and a half from Rockport. No one aboard is reported to have died, and townspeople went to court to keep its fuel oil off their beaches and fishing grounds. Eighty years later, its engine still marks the spot.

What we still don't know

• Whether the ship grounded just before or just after midnight. The state account and the Maritime Administration's online history say April 2, with the state giving 12:07 a.m.; a federal status card says April 1. We have not yet seen the original 1946 newspaper pages or a Coast Guard casualty report that would settle it.
• The names of the crew members, beyond Capt. Joseph A. Mano, and whether any had ties to Cape Ann.
• Whether all 49 men left the ship by 3:30 p.m., or some stayed aboard longer.
• Who filed the Rockport court complaint, in which court and exactly how the salvage dispute ended.
• What caused the fire that one secondary listing says burned the ship out on Aug. 17, 1946. We could not confirm that report.

See something we got wrong, or have a family record that adds to this account? Send a correction or addition.