The wreck of "John Minturn" off the coast of New Jersey was immortalized by Currier's lithograph. In the wreck, a total of 38 people were lost, including the captain, his wife, and two children. Rumors of plundering the dead were widely reported in newspapers, but they were eventually discovered to be untrue. The wreck sparked the creation for the United States Live-Saving Service, which would later become the United States Coast Guard.
