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The Snetind

Living on board a boat moored off an island may seem like the ideal life to many. However, it was probably not where former society lady Ann Winsor Sherwin had envisioned ending up. Ann had married Louis Sherwin, a noted arts critic who wrote for the New York Evening Globe in 1910. It was Louis’ second marriage and he divorced his first wife shortly before his and Ann’s daughter was born in the winter of 1909. However, the marriage was not to be a happy one, and Louis fled to Hollywood after five years, where he would become a screenwriter for Samuel Goldwyn Pictures.

The Snetind was a 234 foot long schooner, originally outfitted with an engine and built in 1918. A retrofit removed the engine and the Snetind became fit for sailing only. Eventually, the ship became too damaged to be seaworthy and stood abandoned at Federal Wharf for a number of years. It was this unowned, derelict vessel that caught the eye of Anne Winsor Sherwin.

Louis Sherwin, once ensconced in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, preferred to forget that he had a family back east and failed to provide financially for Ann and their three children. Ann looked for ways to support and house her family, found that the Snetind fit the bill and they took up residency onboard in 1930.
Despite numerous legal battles and efforts to evict her, the self-proclaimed poetess and one-time craft store proprietor, managed to keep herself, her son, and their dog on board for a number of years. The Snetind eventually broke free of her moorings at Federal Wharf and drifted to Spectacle Island. It must have made an eerie sight; a decrepit, abandoned ship without sails slowly drifting across the harbor at night. Ann Winsor Sherwin continued to make the ship her home, even though the only way on and off Spectacle Island was by police boat at that point. In fact, despite the continued deterioration of the vessel from tides and additional storm damage, the Sherwins made the Snetind their home until the 1940s.

With World War II raging, William Sherwin left his nautical home when he was drafted and Ann Winsor Sherwin left the Snetind shortly after due to illness. The decomposing hulk of the ship remained beached on Spectacle Island, becoming even more derelict after a suspicious fire in 1947. By 1951, the decaying ship became too much of an eyesore and a hazard, and was towed out beyond the mouth of the harbor and scuttled.

 

Ann Winsor & son William refuse to leave hulk “Snetind” after eviction notice [Photograph found in Leslie Jones Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:3r075h821

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