author
Charles W. (Charles Walter) Livermore
1830–1889
Best known for a compact but memorable work of maritime history, this 19th-century writer helped preserve the story of the Sparrow-Hawk shipwreck for later readers. His surviving record is slim, but his book remains a small window into early New England history and antiquarian curiosity.
1 Audiobook
Ye antient wrecke—1626 : Loss of the Sparrow-Hawk in 1626. Remarkable preservation and recent discovery of the wreck
by Charles W. (Charles Walter) Livermore, Leander Crosby
About the author
Charles W. Livermore, identified by Project Gutenberg as Charles Walter Livermore (1830–1889), is remembered as the coauthor of Ye antient wrecke—1626, also published as The Ancient Wreck. The 1865 book, written with Leander Crosby, tells the story of the Sparrow-Hawk shipwreck and its discovery on Cape Cod, blending local history, documentary material, and the strong 19th-century interest in colonial New England.
The work is brief, but it has lasted. Modern library and public-domain records continue to preserve it, suggesting that Livermore’s place in print rests mainly on this single historical contribution rather than on a large body of published writing.
Biographical details beyond that are limited in the sources available here. A memorial record gives his life dates as 1830 to August 14, 1889, linking him with Providence, Rhode Island, but the clearest confirmed picture is of an author whose name endures because he helped rescue an unusual shipwreck story from obscurity.