Washed Ashore: A Case of Mistaken Identity, 1921
*This story was originally titled: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat: The B.E. Loomis Story"
Burton "Bert" Loomis, a well-known and wealthy tobacco grower from Southwick, Massachusetts, and his friend Napoleon Bascom, who lived with him and his wife, arrived at the Pease House in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, on Thursday, July 14, 1921. After parking the car in the garage, their paths diverged: Bert set off toward New York by boat, while Napoleon crossed the river to camp on nearby Poverty Island.
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| Burton "Bert" Loomis |
Two days later, on Saturday, Bert returned to Old Saybrook, ready to drive back to Southwick. First, however, he needed to locate Napoleon. He arranged passage with a motorboat captain from Springfield, Massachusetts, who was summering on the shore. The plan was simple: a round trip to Poverty Island so Bert could collect his friend, return to the Pease House for his automobile, and then head home.
Poverty Island lies only about a mile off Saybrook, but a large sandbar forces boats with motors to make a four-mile detour around it. On the way, an argument broke out after Bert took issue with the route the captain chose to avoid shoalwater.
Upon arriving, Bert located Napoleon. He reportedly became more upset when his friend told him that he had decided to stay on the island for a few more days.
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| Pease House - Old Saybrook, Connecticut |
It was getting late, the weather looked unsettled, and the wise choice would have been to ride back with the captain. But Bert’s pride had already gripped him. As Bert stepped into a green-painted, flat-bottom rowboat he rented, he declared:
“I will take this boat and show you that I can get across straight to the Point."
Ignoring warnings of an approaching storm coming up from the river valley, he set out alone, wearing a khaki coat and gray trousers.
The storm swept in. Witnesses on shore saw Bert’s small craft battling waves and a surging tide. Lightning split the sky, while the beam from the Saybrook lighthouse flickered through the windblown rain. Some believed that the mix of flashing lights disoriented him, causing him to mistakenly row toward the open waters of Long Island Sound instead of the mainland. Others thought that he became caught in the strong current of the Connecticut River, where it empties into the sound. Some speculated that one of the many ships or fishing boats in the vicinity may have accidentally struck him in thick fog.
The next morning, a boater spotted a twenty-foot green rowboat drifting quite a distance offshore at Chapman Beach, near Westbrook, about six miles from where Bert was last seen.
Half full of water but still upright, the boat contained a shovel and a grappling anchor with seventy-five feet of rope—but no personal effects. The oars were in their locks. The boater had it towed to shore. Having heard about the disappearance of a man at sea, he reported his discovery to local authorities. Napoleon Bascom later confirmed it was the very boat his friend Bert had taken.
On Friday morning, July 22, a fisherman discovered the body of a man floating off Fishers Island, New York, near New London, Connecticut. The man’s face was eaten by fish, but his blue eyes remained largely intact. The body weighed about 185 pounds and matched Bert’s age and build. His upper teeth bore gold crowns, and he wore tan shoes. Curiously, the body was described as bald with only a thin fringe of dark hair, though Loomis had not been bald. Authorities estimated that the body had been in the water for about five or six days. They had the body sent to Fort Terry on Plum Island for identification.
Confusion followed. Newspapers speculated that the body might not be Loomis at all, but Arthur “Doc” Irwin, a newly retired Major League Baseball manager and inventor (also credited with perfecting the baseball glove) who had vanished the very same day. Irwin, in failing health, had boarded the steamship Calvin Austin from New York City to Boston. When he didn’t arrive in Beantown, authorities suspected he had thrown himself overboard in an act of suicide. (Passengers said Irwin made morbid statements about his demise.)
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| Calvin Austin |
Irwin’s story only deepened the mystery. He had lived a double life: one in Boston, where he married Elizabeth in 1883 and fathered three children, and another in New York, where he lived with May, his common-law wife, and their son. Neither woman knew the other existed. Just weeks before his disappearance, on June 21, 1921, Irwin abruptly retired from baseball, sold off property, and sent his Boston family $500 with a terse note: “God bless you all.”
The scandalous revelation spread quickly. Some suspected foul play, while others believed Irwin may have staged his own death. Their suspicions only grew when it was revealed that, shortly before boarding the ship, Irwin had sold his interest in an electronic football scoreboard he helped invent—an unusual move that seemed more like a final transaction than a coincidence. When a body was soon recovered at sea, many assumed it was Irwin’s, a conclusion that would entangle Bert Loomis in a bizarre case of mistaken identity.
Did the body pulled from Long Island Sound belong to the prominent baseball figure or the well-known Southwick tobacco grower? In the end, two gold-crowned teeth, his clothing, and other details convinced Bert’s family and friends that the remains were his.
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| Arthur "Doc" Irwin |
Arrangements were made to ship the body to Massachusetts. It arrived at the undertaking rooms of the Lambson Furniture Company in Westfield on July 24. A funeral for Bert was held the following day in the memorial chapel of Pine Hill Cemetery in Westfield, where the body was buried.
As for Arthur Irwin, his fate remains unresolved. His body was never recovered, and his double life unraveled only after his disappearance.
Two men, worlds apart in profession and circumstance, were both claimed by the sea on the very same day—July 16, 1921.
Burton Elliot Loomis: January 24, 1879 – July 16, 1921
Arthur Albert “Doc” Irwin: February 14, 1858 – July 16, 1921
Arthur Albert “Doc” Irwin: February 14, 1858 – July 16, 1921
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| Map showing key areas Burton Loomis left in a rowboat from Poverty Island, Connecticut on July 16, 1921. His boat was found off Chapman Beach, Westbrook, Connecticut (far left) on July 17, 1921. A body was found near Fishers Island, New York (far right) on July 22, 1921. |
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Edited Out/Author’s Additional Research Notes
There are several date discrepancies surrounding various events (especially when the boat was found). The dates in the story appear to be the accurate ones.
Some sources say that Bert encouraged Napoleon to stay on Poverty Island for a few more days.
Some sources incorrectly state that two boys found the boat washed ashore.
Some sources say that the rowboat's owner identified the boat.
The body was the third found by fishermen within a month in that area of the sound.
Some reports say that the body was sent to Fort Wright on Fishers Island for identification.
Some reports say that the floating body and Loomis both had on khaki pants.
Irwin married May in Philadelphia in the 1890s.
Irwin was the manager of the Hartford baseball team in the Eastern League. Shortly before boarding the ship, he received $2,000 for selling the rights to an electronic football scoreboard he helped invent. Irwin’s brother found the sale suspicious. While investigating it, a bill of sale stated that it was sold to a man who didn’t exist. The results of the investigation are unclear.
Elizabeth questioned the $500 because she said he never provided the family with financial support. She said: "I feel confident and happy in the belief that, although he had this other woman in New York, he was on the way to see me when he died-that he knew he was dying and that he turned to me as the woman he really loved at the last. He wanted to die in my arms." (Elizabeth didn’t know that he sent his other wife the remaining $1,500 of the $2,000.)
After Irwin's death, a fight ensued between his Boston children and his New York son.
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| Pease House |
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| Pease House Dining Room |
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| Pease House Interior |