I have a great, great grandfather who went died in 1879. He was a part of the crew of an oyster boat that sank in a storm either in the Delaware river near Philadelphia or off the coast of Maine (still determining which).

My question is this: Did local newspapers usually carry reports of incidents such as this?

I've been waiting for someone to reply on your side of the continent.

On the west coast, newspapers were very good about covering all sorts of ship disasters. You might want to check with the appropriate libraries (including state libraries) and see if they have "newspaper indexes" that may help you find articles.