Gallery
A view of the Philadelphia waterfront, 1800.
This iconic 1780 illustration of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse from sea is especially interesting because it portrays shipwreck remains scattered across the beach and the skeletons of trees killed by the Great Dune as it migrated to the southwest.
By the 1770s, American shipwrights on the East Coast were turning out a variety of high-quality commercial vessels. In this illustration, the shipwright is hammering home wooden trunnels to attach planks to frame.
The 88-mile route to Philadelphia from the open Atlantic up the Delaware Bay and River was crowded with submerged shoals.
Shoals in the area of Indian River Inlet were a hazard to shipping for hundreds of years.
The Faithful Steward wrecked near the mouth of Indian River Inlet, an area that mariners and map-makers called "False Cape."
Coin Beach, looking north towards the Indian River Inlet Lifesaving Station.
The Indian River Inlet Lifesaving Station viewed from the beach.
Coin Beach, looking north.
Big hurricanes like Sandy in October 2012 can flatten the primary dunes between Coin Beach and Ocean Highway.
Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, October 2012.
View of Coin Beach facing south in a northeast storm.
A view south into Indian River Inlet in a northeaster.
The Great Dune on Cape Henlopen has been around - and moving - for hundreds of years.
Indian River Inlet.
Halfpenny coins continue to wash ashore on the beach and are sometimes found on the surface.
Gold pieces like this 1779 English "rose" guinea are likely the personal property of migrants who brought gold and silver coins with them to begin their new life in America. The copper coins were part of a much larger commercial cargo destined for Philadelphia.
Surf 8-12 feet high on the northside of Indian River Inlet in Tropical Storm Ophelia, September 2023.
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It proved almost impossible for the migrants aboard the Faithful Steward to make it from the ship to the beach in heavy surf. Waves like these 8 to 12-footers above Indian River Inlet are dangerous to anyone in the water.
Northside Indian River Inlet, tropical storm Ophelia, September 2023.
Coins sometimes appear on little pedestals of sand when storm winds blow down the beach.
This excerpt of Joshua Fishers’ 1756 map of the Delaware coast shows the changing location of shoals around Indian River Inlet. His chart “To the Merchants & Insurers of the City of Philadelphia, This Chart of Delaware Bay and River,” is in the Library of Congress.