An Increase In Ship Wrecks...Then a Decrease

Written By: Jet Jones & Alec Jackson

When we plot the count of wrecks by the years that they occured we get an interesting picture

This graph shows how the number of shipwrecks recorded around New Jersey has changed over time. Early in the graph there is a fairly low amount of wrecks. This is the early 1700s before major european settlements of north amercia. By the end of the century the number of wrecks had started to pick up, consistently seeing a handful of wrecks a year. However it wasn't until a decade later that the most dramatic increases would occur. Starting just before the American Civil War and continuing to grow for almost another two decades after, wrecks peaked around the 1880s. We believe that one of the biggest explanations of this is how ship technology devloped to fast in the late 19th century, devloping faster than inphastructure could keep up with.

But Where Did All These Wrecks Come From... (Coming Soon)»