February 22, 1781 · Great Egg Harbor Bay

In February 1781, the Patriot privateer Fame, assigned to protect the Cape May County shoreline from British raiders, was overturned by a severe storm while anchored in Great Egg Harbor Bay off Peck's Beach, the area of present-day Ocean City. Nearly all of her crew died from exposure. An 1893 Ocean City guidebook describes it as the earliest local shipwreck with a genuine written record.