Find Pearl & Hermes Shipwrecks, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

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The atoll is named after Pearl and Hermes, a pair of English whaleships that wrecked there in 1822. It has been the site of at least eight known shipwrecks, including the Japanese Wiji Maru, SS Quartette, and most recently the M/V Casitas, which ran aground on the reef in 2005. The two ships had been en route to Japan from Honolulu through the uncharted waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Sometime late in the evening of April 24 or early in the morning of April 25, the 258-ton Hermes ran aground on an unseen reef. Shortly thereafter, the 327-ton Pearl also ran aground when it approached to provide assistance. The combined crews of both ships, some 57 sailors, were marooned on an unspecified island nearby for several months. During that time, James Robinson, a carpenter's mate, directed the construction of a small 30-ton vessel from the wreckage. Some accounts provide the name of the vessel as Drift, while others state it was called Deliverance. On July 1, before the beach-built vessel could be launched, the passing ship Earl of Morby was sighted. 46 of the sailors took passage on the Earl of Morby, but Robinson and eleven others opted to purchase the vessel they had built and sail it back to Honolulu in the hopes of recovering some of the losses incurred by the wreck. The sailors managed to sail the small vessel back to the main Hawaiian islands without further loss of life. They sold it for $2,000 USD. Robinson remained in Honolulu, and founded the James Robinson and Company shipyard there in 1827. Maritime archaeologists from the NOAA returned to the wreck site of the Pearl in 2005 and 2006 to conduct further surveys. The 2005 survey was based on the NOAA research vessel Hiʻialakai. The same group also attempted to survey the nearby site of the Hermes, but were prevented by poor weather conditions. A number of artifacts were found at the Pearl site, including anchors, two cannons, and large try pots for rendering whale blubber. Many smaller artifacts were found actually embedded into the coral of the reef. The 2006 survey focused on completing a full site plan of the wreckage. In contrast to the scattered state of the Hermes site, the artifacts of the Pearl site are grouped roughly in the same configuration that they would have had on the intact ship, with site length being approximately the length the ship would have been.

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