This is the first in a series.

When you think of shipwrecks off the Jersey coast, you almost always picture a lone vessel battling the seas on a dark and stormy night. But one of the most controversial ones occurred in 1890, and it didn’t involve a storm.

The New York Times of Nov. 1 of that year outlined the facts.

“On a clear night, off Barnegat, Thursday, where there is room for the world’s navies to pass abreast, but where captains always keep a sharp lookout for the many vessels that use that ocean thoroughfare, the iron…