3. Bessie A. White (Fire Island)

Hurricane Sandy wasn’t all destruction, as the storm exhumed the likely remains of Bessie A. White, a 90-year-old shipwreck, on Fire Island. In February 1922, this schooner was headed to Newport News, Virginia from St. Johns, Newfoundland with 900 tons of coal. During this trip, Bessie A. White became lost in heavy fog just west of Smith’s Point. The ship ran aground but all of the crew and the ship’s cat escaped in two lifeboats with only one injury.

Crews later salvaged what they could of the beached ship before it was buried by a sand dune over time. However, the majority of the valuable coal was lost. A 2006 nor’easter exposed the tips of the wreck before Hurricane Sandy blew away the rest of the dune.