Jersey Shore Magazine

j e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 8 7 In 1871, in response to the high number wrecks and staggering loss of life year after year, the United States Life-Saving Service, the precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard, was estab- lished by the federal government. While Captain Dorsett was one of its first members and captains, he had assisted in many rescue and recovery efforts involving stranded and wrecked vessels well before his appointment. It is from these events that the Shipwreck Cabinet was born, a one- of-a-kind, historical artifact crafted by Captain Dorsett. The cabinet is small and unas- suming—slightly larger than the size of a small bookshelf. Except for two ornately carved rails adorning its top, and four seven-piece rosettes sym- metrically placed on its side walls, it might appear to be just another vin- tage antique. Yet it's what the cabinet is con- structed from that is so remarkable: except for the three back panels, Captain Dorsett used pieces of wood from twenty-six shipwrecks along the Jersey Shore, dating from 1808 to 1875, to build the cabinet. "Dorsett wasn't alive during the entire timeline of the wrecks. However, because he knew so many people, it's not surprising he was able to amass a collection of wood from the wrecks," said Lieb, "It's estimated that Dorsett built the cabinet some- time during the 1880s." As Dorsett built the cabinet, he numbered each piece of wood to identify the vessel it came from. Although the numbers faded over time, Lieb was able to illuminate the lightly engrained numbers using a blacklight, which led him to research the history of each vessel and its story. "He (Dorsett) constructed the cabinet for need, out of frugality, and out of ingenuity," Lieb said. Captain Dorsett kept many rare artifacts and curios inside the cabi- net as documented in an 1888 edi- tion of The Manasquan Sea Side. (A reprint of this article can be found in the book "Down Barnegat Bay: A Nor'easter Midnight Reader" by Robert Jahn.) A fifteenth century plate from Holland, a 1741 Dutch Bible bound with boards (the property of Dorsett's grandfather), and two other Bibles dated 1746 and 1748 were among the items kept in the cabinet. Other curios were a pair of stockings worn by the Captain's grandfather at his 1782 wedding, buttons, brooches, and The Rosemond was a two-masted schooner built by built by Captain John Lott Dorsett around 1883. She sailed duck hunting parties down the Barnegat Bay for nearly fifty years. For many years, she remained abandoned on the Beaver Dam Creek and rotted away in the marshes shortly after World War II. continued on page 10 courtesy of the Point Pleasant Historical Society Museum

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