author
Leander Crosby
1816–1872
A Cape Cod writer remembered for helping preserve and tell the story of one of colonial New England’s most remarkable shipwreck discoveries. His surviving work connects local knowledge, antiquarian curiosity, and the dramatic recovery of the Sparrow-Hawk wreck.
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
Leander Crosby was an Orleans, Massachusetts, resident born in September 1816 and buried there after his death in March 1872. Contemporary and later records connect him closely with Old Ship Harbor on Cape Cod.
He is best known as the co-author, with Charles W. Livermore, of Ye antient wrecke—1626: Loss of the Sparrow-Hawk in 1626, published in 1865. The book recounts the discovery and preservation of the wreck of the Sparrow-Hawk, an early 17th-century vessel found in the sands near Orleans.
Sources from the period describe him as a well-known local resident living near the site, and note that the recovered timbers were taken to his premises before being sent on for reassembly and display. That makes his work feel especially vivid: it was written not just from historical interest, but from direct involvement with a striking piece of Cape Cod history.