A coal barge that claimed the lives of 18 or 19 crewmen aboard the Mary E. O’Hara in 1941, the Winifred Sheridan lies in about 50 feet of water in Broad Sound.
The Sheridan had just been anchored during the stormy night of January 20-21, 1941, after being towed from Philadelphia by the sea-going tug Montrose.
News reports at the time said that the barge was one of three on the way from Norfolk, Virginia, to Searsport, Maine.
At about 3:00 a.m. that night, the helmsman of the O’Hara, returning to Boston with a cargo of freshly caught fish, saw the unlit barge at the last minute and took evasive action, but his wooden vessel struck the starboard quarter aft of the Sheridan.
Survivors of the O’Hara said the barge had been riding at anchor without lights.
