Robin Winters had no idea where the paper trail would lead when she sat down in late 2021 to help research an old Westport whaling ship that sank far from home nearly 200 years ago.

More than two years later her efforts, and those of local researcher Richard Gifford and historian Betty Slade, have shed substantial new light on the town’s seafaring past and revived old stories and names that had been all but lost to history.

And as a result, Westport will soon unveil a new Mariners Lost at Sea memorial at Westport Point that updates and replaces the original memorial researched by the late Cukie Macomber in the 1990s.

“You stay up at night sometimes and read the stories of these peoples’ lives,” Winters said Friday, reflecting on what stood out about the mariners she learned of over her three years of study. “There was so much tragedy.”

Industry

Winters had no inkling of updating the town’s Mariners Lost at Sea memorial when maritime archaeologist James Delgado first contacted the library in 2021. Delgado, who was working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was seeking information on what had happened to the crew of Industry, a Westport whale ship lost in the Gulf of Mexico in 1836 and found by NOAA three years ago in 6,000 feet of water. To her, the story of Industry was just an interesting and exciting library reference project that piqued her interest.

And so she dove in.

Winters learned that the 64-foot brig, built in Westport in 1815 and lost in 1836, had ties to noted Westport philanthropist, abolitionist and businessman Paul Cuffe, the son of a freed slave father and Wampanoag mother — his son William served as navigator and his son-in-law Pardon Cook was an officer.

While it was long known that Industry was salvaged by the crew of another Westport ship, the fate of her crew remained a mystery. But working with Gifford and others, Winters was able to track down an 1836 Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror newspaper article that confirmed that the crew had been picked up by another Westport ship, Elizabeth, and all made it home safely some months later.

The discovery hooked her — “I was so excited!”

Though it wasn’t all germane to the Industry story, Winters’ research had turned up all sorts of other local seafaring history. And so she, Gifford and Slade decided to look deeper, away from the Industry. As they pored over old newspaper clippings, logs, old accounts, death records and the like, many names — some connected, some they didn’t anticipate finding — started revealing themselves. As the number grew, Slade said it occurred to Winters that they should be added to the town's original lost at sea memorial, which had enough room for about 15 additional names.

Winters “contacted me and I said, ‘Absolutely! So we started researching more,’ Slade said.

In all, Gifford, Winters and Slade were able to identify 33 mariners who were lost or died at sea but never made it onto Macomber’s stone. Some are buried here in Westport, some in other parts of the world, and some have never been found.

In pre-Internet days, Macomber used all that was available to him to populate the memorial, including vital records on file at town hall and in state and other archives. But technology that wasn’t available to him greatly aided the recent search, and Winters said other names “would just keep popping up. I would be researching something completely unrelated when all of a sudden it would go in a new direction.”

As Macomber’s original monument was too small to fit all the new names, Slade started making phone calls and was eventually able to secure a $12,000 anonymous donation to pay for the new marker.

While it is bigger, it retains the same look as Macomber’s original, in deference to the work he did 30 years ago. And it has additional space for even more names — Winters said there is no doubt that there are many more out there.

Dedication in early September

There is much more to the story to tell, and Winters said she wants to save much of it for a dedication ceremony planned for Sunday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. Everyone is welcome to come out and see its unveiling — Wampanoag drummers will be there, and relatives of lost mariners have been invited to attend. Winters and Slade are excited to tell the stories of some of the mariners who have been identified, and Winters said there is a companion piece to the monument — a digital record in the works that when complete will have details from the seafaring lives of each name on the list.

“There’s so much to tell,” Winters said. “So many fascinating stories.”

Note: In case of rain, the dedication will be held the following Sunday, Sept. 15, at 3 p.m.