Last updated: April 5, 2024
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The Snetind
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, a derelict schooner called Snetind became a fixture of Boston Harbor. Ann Winsor Sherwin and her son, William, called this vessel their home, and despite numerous attempts to displace them, they refused to "give up the ship."[1]
Ann Winsor Sherwin married Louis Sherwin in 1910 shortly after the birth of their first daughter, Silvia. They lived in New York where Louis Sherwin worked as an arts critic for the New York Evening Globe. The couple went on to have two more children: Daphne in 1911 and William in 1912.
After only five years of marriage, Louis Sherwin abandoned his family and moved to California, where he became a screenwriter for Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. While Sherwin enjoyed his time in Hollywood, and even became engaged to another woman, his wife and children suffered in poverty. Evicted from their Manhattan home, the family took up residence in an abandoned mill house at the Beekman estate on nearby Long Island. Ann Sherwin agreed to leave the estate where they had lived for 18 months because of ongoing truancy charges and eviction proceedings. She refused to grant her husband a divorce.
When Ann Winsor Sherwin arrived in Boston, only her son William accompanied her. The two took up residence on a 270-foot-long schooner called Snetind around 1930. Built in 1918, Snetind once had an engine, but a 1920 refit had led to its removal. The ship had been abandoned at Federal Wharf in East Boston since 1928. Sherwin and her family moved into the ship and claimed possession.
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
Living on the schooner, Sherwin sustained herself, her son, and a dog by operating an arts and crafts store and writing. She also received $140 dollars a month from her estranged husband.[2]
Sherwin managed to keep her family on board Snetind for years, despite facing numerous eviction attempts by its owners, Montgomery Navigation Company. Although she claimed to have obtained a written agreement with a Montgomery trustee, Sherwin faced court action from the company, which intended to sink Snetind in the harbor.[3] Interviewed during court proceedings in January 1936, Sherwin remarked,
No, I'm not leaving the ship. I’ll stand by until I’m thrown off...What good captain ever deserted a ship. I come from the Windsors of Massachusetts, a sea-going stock. We never give up a ship...This boat has been my home for five years. They’ve tried to get me off before, but I have a right on board established by purchase and possession.[4]
The company eventually gave up its ownership rights and deeded the ship to Sherwin in 1936, though a court order forced the vessel out of the marina and to an anchorage off Castle Island.[5]
Boston Globe, February 20, 1936.
A winter storm in February 1936 ripped the Snetind off its mooring. Sheets of ice in the harbor caused the schooner to get stuck between Thompson and Spectacle Islands, and then Castle and Thompson Islands. Eventually, winter wind pushed the vessel towards Spectacle Island, where it wrecked stern-first on the beach. Although Sherwin and her son could not leave the vessel, eyewitnesses on Spectacle Island reported they did not face any serious danger. Eventually, ice and water helped push Snetind out into the harbor off the coast of Spectacle, where it remained stranded.[6]
Ann Winsor Sherwin and her son continued to live aboard the vessel into the 1940s, despite continuous attempts from the health department and the police to evict them. Several times, they sought the help of the Coast Guard or Harbor police for food and supplies.
Upon being drafted into World War II as a technician, William Sherwin left his mother and the Snetind. Ann Sherwin left the vessel shortly afterwards due to an unknown illness. They both later lived in Virginia.
In September 1947, a suspicious fire broke out on the boat. Noticed by residents of Spectacle Island, a fireboat arrived to contain the burning.[7] The fire left many civil servants hopeful that this meant the end of what they considered a nuisance and eyesore. By 1951, officials decided the time to get rid of Snetind had come. In July of that year, another vessel tugged Snetind out to sea and sank it, ending the "strange water-front tale."[8]
Footnotes
[1] See general references: Jake Sconyers, "The Boston Harbor Hermit," produced by Jake Sconyers, HUB History Podcast, January 30, 2022; "The Strange Story of the Snetind and Mrs. Ann Winsor Sherwin," The Lookout Newsletter (Winter 2016). "Woman Won’t Quit Vessel," Boston Globe, January 25, 1936.
[2] "The Strange Story of the Snetind and Mrs. Ann Winsor Sherwin," The Lookout Newsletter (Winter 2016).
[3] "Woman Won’t Quit Vessel," Boston Globe, January 25, 1936.
[4] "Mother, Son Stick by Ship," Boston Globe, January 27, 1936.
[5] "City May Not Touch Snetind," Boston Globe, December 17, 1937.
[6] "Gale Damages Vessels in Boston Harbor," Boston Globe, February 19, 1936; "Snetind is fast on Island Beach," Boston Globe, February 19, 1936; "Snetind Again Out in Harbor," Boston Globe, February 27, 1936.
[7] "Abandoned Schooner Burns in Boston Harbor," Boston Globe, September 1, 1947.
[8] "Schooner Snetind, Harbor Hulk, Sunk – Memories and All," Boston Globe July 22, 1951.