John Minturn


John Minturn was a three-masted packet ship that was lost on February 15, 1846. The ship left New Orleans headed for New York carrying $80,000 in goods and crew and passengers totaling 51 individuals.. Her commander was Dudley Stark, who was a native of Stonington, Connecticut.
The ship was caught in a gale off Mantoloking in Ocean County, New Jersey shore, south of Sqwan inlet.
Thirty-eight lives were lost aboard the ship. This represented the largest loss of life from the storm which claimed upwards of 60 victims. The disaster was immortalized in an 1846 hand-colored lithograph by Currier and Ives.
Later, newspapers reported widespread plundering of the dead. The reports prompted the New Jersey Senate to appoint a commission to investigate the validity of the claims. In a March 20, 1846, report by the commission to the Senate, the commission found the claims to be unwarranted.
The 1846 wreck sparked the development of the United States Life-Saving Service, an agency that would assist shipwrecked crews and passengers. That service would eventually merge with the United States Coast Guard.