Given Spanish silver coins were found, I would estimate at least 150 wrecks hit Hogsty Reef or atoll since 1500. Here are short accounts of some 50 or more of them from the 1780s to the 1950s.

In 1769, Captain David Masury of the Salem Marine Society in Massachusetts composed a chart of a route past “Inagua, the Hogsties, and Acklins Island”.

In 1815, the schooner Cyrus under Captain Dixon of New York was wrecked there, and her men rescued from boats by Rolia, under Captain Moses Brown. Witnesses described Hogsty as “small islets of sand or granulated shells, distant about two leagues, surrounded only by rocks under water, over the eastern portion of which the sea continuously breaks with great violence. They are destitute of every kind of herbage, except a kind of salt grass, which resembles wild sage”.

The British ship Triton was wrecked on Hogsty in 1790, and her crew rescued. The Hannah bound Jamaica to London, was lost there in 1801 having delivered slaves from West Africa; her crew were saved. In 1815 the schooner William & Nancy went ashore, her crew rescued by John, a British ship. Two years later “a cutter named Landrail, de Mayne, captain, arrived Port Royal Jamaica” reporting that “a French merchant brig was lost on the Hogsties” the crew saved.

In 1819, the captain of the packet Princess Charlotte, wrecked with $35,000, arrived in Nassau and chartered the schooner Primrose for Crooked Island, to bring the mail, passengers, and specie to England.

In the 1820s, Almira, of New York, Captain Hiller, had to be rescued by the Douglas after their “vessel was totally lost, with her cargo” in 1827. The next year, survey vessel HMS Kangaroo from Crooked Island was wrecked on the Hogsties, and “HMS Monkey had sailed to assist in saving the crew and stores”.

In 1830, Pyramus under Captain Lawrence, Jamaica to Liverpool “wrecked at the Hogsties, where several vessels having gone, with coffee and wood. The master remained at the wreck”. Three years later, Thule, under Captain Peacock went ashore bound to Liverpool carrying fustic, cotton, and hides. Next year, the crew of the brig Susan under Captain Lumbard, Haiti, to Philadelphia with “dye wood and coffee was taken off by HMS Pincher, under Lieut Bocanquet.” Then Santiago, under Captain Ames with coffee, sugar and tobacco, “was cast away on the Hogsties Reef”.

In 1837, Haidee, Captain Kenney, Haiti to the UK, struck on Hogsty, and was bilged, or had her hull ruptured. A year later, the Canadian barque China was waterlogged at Hogsty and her crew rescued. Also in 1838, Milo, British brig, was found at Hogsty by Captain Thomas Barry of the brig Francis, who “brought in 15 persons – the passengers and crew - picked up at sea from two small boats.”.

The Montrose, UK flag, wrecked there in 1838, Emiline, Captain Wilson, Santiago de Cuba to Liverpool, in 1843, and next to wreck was Eagle, a brig, with tobacco and sugar, of which 145 boxes sugar and 130 bales of tobacco, all taken to Nassau.

In 1844, Don Quixote was “abandoned on the Hogsty Reef, and bilged: wreckers found some dogs and cats aboard alive, with tierce bags of coffee and bales of tobacco”. In 1848, the brig Capricorn, of Liverpool was lost under “Captain Corney with sugar and rum.” In 1848, the brig Michigan, Boston to Cuba, was a total loss on Hogsty, and Captain Varney went to Fortune Island for help. Then the reef claimed the French ship La Perle, captain Laudes, Port au Prince to Le Havre in 1853, with part cargo saved. In 1854, the schooner Greyhound from Mexico to Belgium under Captain Merrow was wrecked at night, with all crew saved, but the cargo and ship lost.

Wrecks on Hogsty in the 1850s include the bark T&P Woodward with copper ore, RF Loper, and in 1860 the schooner Gil Blas, whose “crew and captain gone to Nassau”. The next decade, the atoll consumed Charite to France with logwood, and Ricardo Barros, an American schooner with lumber: wreckers took her off. The Clipper, Venezuela to Ireland, was crushed there in 1871, and CF Mayo, Cuba to New York with fruit in 1873, “was obliged to throw part of the cargo overboard” there in a fog. Three years later, the brig Berhardt, “was totally lost on Hogsties” with 450 bags coffee. Then, the James Crosby grounded on Hogsty Reef with logwood. Eddie Pierce of Boston hit while carrying bananas and coconuts, “Nassau mailboat going to her assistance”. In 1879 John H Kennedy, brig with sugar, was “totally wrecked on Hogsties”.

The Waldemar crew the same year “suffer greatly from exposure, captain and crew saved, vessel went aground on Hogsty Reef immediately broke up”. The men went “without food or water for a gruelling 40-mile open-boat passage to Castle Island and were exhausted.” In 1894, the British three-masted schooner AB Crosby, wrecked with sugar.

The following year, Ocean Lily, a schooner of Halifax, “with a cargo of logwood wrecked on the Hogsties”. The crew went to Inagua then Nassau. The following year the British bark JH Dexter, “struck on the Hogsty reef and soon broke up”.

In 1898, the brig Starlight was found abandoned on Hogsty by the schooner Experiment, whose crew stripped her of material and cargo. Later, eight shipwrecked sailors from Starlight landed in Baltimore.

The Norwegian steamer Framnes grounded on Hogsty and a large rescue and salvage effort involved the Helois. Fortunately, all 28 men survived, “Captain Thorbjornsen stayed at Fortune Island to look after the owner’s interests”.

In 1907, Annie Lloyd’s men were saved by a pig which “had the end of the heaving line placed about its midship section and with angry protest was cast overboard. ‘That porker was like a swan,’ said the bosun: ‘He grunted like thunder when he struck the water, but he got his compass bearings at last’.” The men and pig were saved by Prinz Eitel Freidrich, the coincidence of the pig landing on Hogsty Reef not lost on them.

The Pauline M Cummins, an American schooner ran aground in 1920. HMS Mutine visited Hogsty Reef some 29 times on a survey tour between June 1919 and September 1922. Two years later the British ship Architect sighted a three-masted schooner ashore on southeast Hogsty. Then, in 1947, Edward Rutledge “was being navigated on the theory that Hogsty Reef Light was lighted; in fact, it had been discontinued on July 27, 1947 and she went aground: 7,826 bags of the sugar cargo were jettisoned”.

In 1964, two men aboard Canadian 45-foot ketch Poseidon took to their dinghy after being sunk by a ship, and found the tiny strip of land at Hogsty.

“They had a spear gun and caught many lobsters and several different kinds of fish.” Then the men rigged the sail to catch rainwater, and in the wreck of the Liberty ship Trebišnjica “they found an unexpected source of water: lots of puddles on the deck, it tasted funny, but we didn’t mind.” They saw three planes. On the fourth day, they used a mirror to attract the attention of the Soviet ship Yelsk and bravely put out from Hogsty in their little dinghy to be “taken care of wonderfully”.

In 1969, a ship sent to Hogsty to recover wrecks became one itself, however briefly. The 83ft air-sea-rescue ship owned by Expeditions Unlimited chartered to the Bahamian government to find five shipwrecks, however “the ship ran aground in Hogsty Reef, smashing both propellers. One of the crew members had to be airlifted home, while diver Austin Scott broke his leg”. Even for the best prepared, Hogsty Reef holds surprise, turning the hunter into the hunted.