Science and Local Sleuthing Identify a 250-Year-Old Shipwreck on a Scottish Island

Science and Local Sleuthing Identify a 250-Year-Old Shipwreck on a Scottish Island

Researchers announced Wednesday that the vessel is very likely the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship that saw action in the American War of Independence before a second life hunting whales in the Arctic — and then a stormy demise.

Science and local sleuthing identify a 250-year-old shipwreck on a Scottish island

LONDON — When a schoolboy going for a run found the ribs of a wooden ship poking through the dunes of a remote Scottish beach, it sparked a hunt by archeologists, scientists and local historians to uncover its story.

Science and local sleuthing identify 250-year-old shipwreck on Scottish island

The wreck was discovered in February 2024 after a storm swept away sand covering it on Sanday, one of the rugged Orkney Islands that lie off Scotland’s northern tip.