Wreck of the revenue cutter Gallatin on Boo Hoo Ledge

Lost and never forgotten: J. Jacobson, ship's carpenter of the Gallatin.

The U.S. revenue cutter Gallatin, bound from Kittery, Maine, for Provincetown, turned for Gloucester Harbor in a snowstorm and struck Boo Hoo Ledge off Eagle Head after the pilot mistook Great Egg Rock for Kettle Island. The ship's carpenter, J. Jacobson, was struck by the falling smokestack and died. Everyone else reached Manchester in the ship's boats.

Vessel: Gallatin, u.s. revenue cutter
When: Jan. 6, 1892 (134 years ago)
Where: Boo Hoo Ledge, off Eagle Head in Manchester-by-the-Sea
Weather: Snowstorm with an easterly gale (1892 reports)
Aboard: Between 36 and 39 people. The records give different totals.

What happened

Jan. 6, 1892, about 11:15 a.m. In a snowstorm, the cutter struck Boo Hoo Ledge off Eagle Head while making for Gloucester Harbor. The falling smokestack struck the ship's carpenter, J. Jacobson, who died. Everyone else reached Manchester in the ship's boats.
Jan. 6, 1892, late afternoon The Gallatin had broken in two, and a diver reported she would be a total loss.
March 1892 The Treasury Department accepted a $679 bid for the wreck.

Lost

J. Jacobson (also written Jacob Jacobson)
Ship's carpenter. Died.

Others named in the record

Eric Gabrielson (also written Capt. Eric Gabrielson)
Captain. Survived.
H. E. Wooster
Pilot. Survived.
J. F. Babcock
Sheltered the crew ashore. Not aboard.

Cape Ann connections

Manchester-by-the-Sea: Wreck on Boo Hoo Ledge off Eagle Head.
Manchester-by-the-Sea: Crew landed in Manchester and were cared for by the town.
Gloucester: The cutter was making for Gloucester Harbor.

What the records leave open

Accounts differ on how J. Jacobson died. The Treasury Department and 1892 newspapers say the falling smokestack killed him. A town history published in 1895 says it knocked him into the water and he drowned.
Accounts name different places where the crew came ashore in Manchester, including a rocky cove at Eagle Head and Singing Beach.

Sources

Sufferers by Wreck of United States Revenue Cutter Gallatin, House Report No. 1830, 56th Congress (May 29, 1900), U.S. House of Representatives (govinfo.gov Serial Set)
1892 newspaper reports on the wreck of the Gallatin (Chronicling America), Library of Congress, Chronicling America
History of the Town of Manchester, Essex County, Massachusetts, 1645-1895, D. F. Lamson (Manchester: published by the town, 1895); digitized by the Internet Archive
Albert Gallatin, Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (Mass.gov)
U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office cutter histories, U.S. Coast Guard

Written in our own words from the sources above. Know something the records miss, or a family story about this ship? Tell us.