Sparrow Hawk (pinnace)
Pinnace Sparrow-Hawk
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| History | |
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 England
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| Name: | Sparrow Hawk |
| In service: | June, 1626 |
| Out of service: | July, 1626 |
| Struck: | Nauset Beach, Orleans, MA |
| Homeport: | London, England |
| Fate: | wreck |
| Status: | Museum reconstruction. |
| Notes: | Hull reconstruction owned by Pilgrim Society, now on long term loan to Cape Cod Maritime Museum. |
| General characteristics Profile | |
| Type: | pinnace |
| Displacement: | 30 tons |
| Length: | 40 ft (12 m) |
| Beam: | 12.83 ft (3.91 m) |
| Draft: | 9.63 ft (2.94 m) |
| Speed: | ? 2-7 knots |
| Range: | offshore, ocean |
| Complement: | 25 |
| Armament: | None |
| Armour: | None |
| Notes: |
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The Sparrow-Hawk was a 'small pinnace' similar to the full-rigged pinnace Virginia that sailed for the English Colonies in June 1626. She is notable as the earliest ship known from the first decades of English settlement in the New World to have survived to the present day.
A rough, six week voyage ended in a storm off Orleans, Massachusetts on Cape Cod when the heavily loaded “Sparrow-Hawk” was driven onto the isolated Nauset Beach. All aboard survived and were removed to the nearby Plymouth Colony. Storms and shifting sand buried the wrecked pinnace within several weeks. Sparrow-Hawk remained buried until May, 1863 storms uncovered the hull which was soon salvaged. Keel, planks, rudder and other hull elements from the Sparrow-Hawk were found in good condition, removed from the beach and carefully reconstructed for subsequent exhibition.
Sparrow-Hawk is important to the history of ship building in England and colonies. Several of the best naval architects of the 1860s in Boston collaborated on a reconstruction which received widespread exhibition during the next few years. Considerable information has been gleaned from the Sparrow Hawk about hull design and construction of the 'small' pinnace design of the early 17th century. She is now on long term loan from the Pilgrim Society to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
The Sparrow-Hawk left London, June 1626 loaded with passengers for the Jamestown Colony and Virginia. Certainly, she was of a minimum size that any Company would choose to send across the Atlantic with settlers and passengers, many of whom would be unfamiliar with the great ocean and its sometimes violent weather.
After six weeks, the Sparrow-Hawk reached the coast of Massachusetts, and was wrecked at Potanumaquut Harbor Cape Cod. Upon reaching Cape Cod, the Sparrow-Hawk no longer had fresh water or 'beer'. Captain Johnston was in his cabin, sick and lame with scurvy. At night, the Sparrow-Hawk hit a sand bar but the water was smooth and she laid out an anchor. The morning revealed that the caulking between hull planks - Oakum - had been driven out. High winds drove the Sparrow-Hawk over the bar and into the Harbor. Many goods were rescued and no lives were lost.
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Wikipedia