The Records of the T.A. Scott Company, Inc., 1889-1927, consist of 25 document boxes containing 18,209 pieces which deal only with the marine salvage operations of this widely diversified firm. These papers form what the company called its "Wreck File". Although there are items dating between 1889 and 1927, by far the largest segment date between 1910 and 1919. Of the nearly 500 wrecks concerned, only 41 occurred before 1910 and none after 1919. The papers dated after 1919 pertain usually to court cases which dragged on over a period of several years.

Included among the papers are primarily correspondence, telegrams, transcriptions of telephone conversations, memorandums of charges, memorandums of services rendered, bills, office and inter-office memorandums, wreck reports, marine protests, newspaper clippings, lists of materials and gear used, lists of items salvaged, charts, broadsides, statements of general average, divers reports, reports of survey, blue prints, and agreements, contracts, and other legal papers. A few photographs which were removed from the papers and six large scrapbooks of photographs which came with them have been transferred to the Museum's photographic collection.

Restoring the papers to their original order seemed to be the logical first step in processing them. The Company had placed all papers pertaining to single accidents, whether involving one or more vessels, into separate envelopes with labels bearing identifying symbols such as A1, B23, or Y6. A usable, although inadequate, index was compiled by the Company and came to the library with the papers. Although the order of the papers within the envelopes was seldom disturbed, the envelopes themselves had, over the years, become badly mixed up. Once the envelopes had been restored to their original order, the papers could be removed, unfolded, and placed in proper folders and storage boxes. Thus, all the papers pertaining to a particular accident or vessel are still maintained as a single unit. The number of pieces pertaining to an accident range from one to more than 175. To make the papers more useful to scholars, alphabetical indexes to vessels, owners, and locations of accidents have been compiled. A chronological index has also been added.

As is frequently the case with company papers, some irrelevant items have found their way into this collection. The only ones in this category are found under the location symbols F1-F5. Two items, papers regarding John Knight Bucklyn and the construction of Thomas A. Scotts house in New London, are personal, whereas those pertaining to the New London Marine Iron Works and the Colorado River Improvement Company are of a business nature but do not pertain to the salvage operations of the Company.

Six folders of materials extracted from a group of miscellaneous papers which came with the Wreck File have been included in box 25 of the collection. These materials may be listed as follows: a partial list of the Scott Company's wrecking equipment in 1911, papers regarding the purchase of engines for the tug TASCO in 1906, memorandums regarding the acquisition of the equipment of the Boston Tow Boat Company in 1911, statement of the general average of the schooner SARAH & LUCY in 1910, papers of the New London Ship & Engine Company and the Electric Boat Company between 1910-1916, and data concerning earlier shipwrecks in Long Island Sound compiled in 1912. The last group concerns prospective court action centering around the tug SARAH E. McWILLIAMS and has dates ranging from 1893-1912.

Accidents to almost every kind of vessel are documented in these papers. The subjects range from little known or unknown barges to large and luxurious yachts and passenger liners.

Some accidents may be mentioned here by way of illustration. One case worthy of special attention because of the method used in the salvage operations is that involving the barges MANHEIM,, COLERAINE and TUNNEL RIDGE, probably of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which went ashore at North Truro, Massachusetts, on Apr 14, 1915 during a gale. The COLERAINE and TUNNEL RIDGE were stripped and burned but the MANHEIM was floated during a similar gale in March, 1916. In order to assure success to the operations, Ezra Rolfe and four assistants lived on the barge for eleven months awaiting suitable conditions. In the meantime they rigged hawsers to three big anchors in deep water and hooked them to winches on the barge. When the barge floated during the gale on Mar 23, 1916, the five men using the winches, pulled the barge safely into deep water.

Two accidents of a peculiar nature involved the schooners MAGGIE ELLEN, ESTELLE and MINNIE SLAUSON. On Nov 13, 1912 the MAGGIE ELLEN ran ashore on Fishers Island, New York, for some unexplained reason. Soon thereafter the ESTELLE ran ashore at the same place after mistaking the beacon lights of the MAGGIE ELLEN for those of Little Gull Island and Race Rock, New York. The MINNIE SLAUSON sank near Handkerchief Shoal on Sep 23, 1915 after colliding with the Handkerchief Lightship.

Two well-known yachts which required the services of the Scott Company were the DAUNTLESS and the WARRIOR. The famous old DAUNTLESS was dismantled and destroyed after sinking at her moorings at Essex, Connecticut on Feb 5, 1915. The large and luxurious WARRIOR, once the property of Frederick Vanderbilt, went ashore on Fishers Island, New York on Jul 19, 1916.

One type of accident which occurred with almost alarming frequency was a collision between a steamer such as the TENNESSEE and a schooner such as the SAMUEL S. THORP. These two vessels collided off Fishers Island, New York on the night of Oct 9, 1915. The steamer arrived in New York two days later with a forty foot hole torn in her port side almost amidships. All of her 240 passengers were transferred to the steamer CONCORD. A large hole was cut in the bow of the schooner only eight inches above the water line. She was towed to New London, Connecticut, stern first.

One quite famous case involved the German commercial submarine DEUTSCHLAND and the Scott Company tug T.A. SCOTT, JR. During the early morning hours of Nov 17, 1916, while two Scott Company tugs were escorting the submarine out through The Race between Fishers Island and Little Gull Island, the DEUTSCHLAND accidentally rammed the T.A. SCOTT, JR. The tug sank almost immediately, carrying with it all five of its crew members. The only survivor of those on the tug was Frederick T. Hinsch of the interned German liner NECKAR and managing director of the Eastern Forwarding Company. The DEUTSCHLAND returned immediately to her berth in New London.

Another famous case concerns the liner ST. PAUL which turned on her side and sank at her pier in New York harbor on Apr 25, 1918 while undergoing conversion to a troop transport. In this case the Scott Company furnished divers, gear, and salvage equipment to the Merritt & Chapman Derrick & Wrecking Company, which had the contract to raise the vessel. Success in this venture was considered a major triumph in salvage during World War I.

In all, these papers depict at least one incident in the history of approximately 500 vessels. Occasionally the final chapter in the life of a vessel is shown. This is the case with the six-masted schooner ALICE M. LAWRENCE of Portland, Maine, which struck on Tuckernuck Shoals near Nantucket, Massachusetts, after striking the sunken wreck of the schooner FRENCH VAN GILDER on Dec 5, 1914. The schooner was stripped and abandoned to the elements. On the other hand, these papers occasionally portray the opening chapter in the life of a vessel as in the case of the schooner HESPER. The Crowninshield Shipbuilding Company of Fall River, Massachusetts, built the HESPER for Rogers & Webb of Boston, Massachusetts. On Jul 4, 1918 during launching ceremonies, the schooner broke through the launch ways. After some delay, she was successfully launched. Most of the time, however, these papers present only a glimpse at one of the many incidents in the career of a vessel.

The word "missing" found in several places indicates that the absence of the materials has not been explained satisfactorily. In some instances the papers were removed and filed in another office, perhaps awaiting the decision of a court. Some envelopes contained notes to the effect that the materials had been sent to Thomas A. Scott in New York where he probably was engaged in negotiations with owners and/or underwriters. In some cases, records during 1918 and 1919 were probably removed to be carried forward into later years because salvage operations had not been completed or because the case was not settled. In other cases it can only be surmised that the papers were removed for some unexplained reason and were never returned.