Shipwrecks on Cape Cod

by Isaac M. Small

A GALE, AND WHAT IT DID

The sea, powerful, wonderful and ever full of mystery, ever restless and uncontrolled by human efforts, destructive in its might when sea and wind and tide combine, calm and beautiful when the summer sun shines across its blue surface, over which the ships move grandly and safely; but when the flying snow sweeps over the frozen surface of the gale-swept ocean with seas that scatter destruction as it is hurled upon craft or shore, it is a different story.

This is a book primarily of shipwrecks, where there is loss of human lives that drop to untimely graves in the wild seas.

But there are many strange events on the sea coasts, though not directly concerned in the sacrifice of human lives, but are so strange and unusual that they appeal to our wonder and interest.

We want to tell you a little about what the wind and the sea did in and around Provincetown Harbor one night in December, 1926.

At this time and for some time previously the waters in the immediate vicinity of the harbor had been used for the testing grounds of the submarines of the United States Navy, and this made it necessary for some large vessel to be stationed here for the purpose of carrying the supplies and parts that might be needed on the submarine boats, and the ship selected for this purpose was the large Government cutter Morrill. This ship, on the afternoon of a day in December, returning from a short cruise in the bay, tied up at her anchorage in the harbor.

All day the wind had been coming strong from the southeast and blowing directly into the harbor. As darkness came on the gale steadily increased, and before midnight had reached hurricane force. It was a time in the month when the tides were very high. All around the harbor little power fishing boats were straining at their anchors as the rising seas swept constantly over them.

Soon the force of the gale, as it drove the rising seas against the high sides of the Morrill, slowly but surely forced her constantly nearer the shore of the harbor, dragging her anchors with her as wave after wave beat against her bow and sides. Suddenly the anchor chains snapped and the ship began her wild course of destruction across the harbor. Swinging to the right she crashed into a fishing boat and sent it to the bottom, then sharply to the left she sent another fishing boat to destruction, continuing her swinging, zigzag course until she had passed over or through three more boats. Then, as a big wave drove with great force at her quarter, she swung around towards the west and plunged into the centre of a long pier which extended into the harbor. This offered no appreciable check to her onward course; tearing through this, scattering timbers and wharf logs in every direction; then on to a short pier on the shore she smashed into a good sized building on the head of this wharf which had been used during the summer as a playhouse and restaurant. Her further progress was then checked but not until she had landed within a hundred yards of the main street in Provincetown.

For miles along the shore front at Provincetown the beach was littered with wharf logs and debris by the ton. Cottages were undermined, boats were wrecked and driven ashore, buildings damaged, cellars flooded, and the whole harbor front presented a scene of desolation. The loss to property ran into thousands and thousands of dollars.

In the Congress of the December Session of 1927, a bill was introduced to obtain money to reimburse the fishermen for the loss of their boats in the mad voyage of the Morrill.

From 1845 to about 1870 was the period of the highest efficiency in this type of sailing craft and the full rigged ship sailed upon every sea and navigated every ocean of the civilized world, and with their great white sails spread in the sunlight, were pictures of delight upon every sea.

Shortly after the Civil War steam propelled vessels began to assume a place in the passenger and freight carrying business of the sea somewhat to the exclusion of the sailing ship. Slowly but surely they were forced back and driven from the sea, growing less and less in numbers until this year of 1928 it is doubtful if there is one vessel of this type on the Atlantic coast of this country today, and very few on any ocean of the world. Steam and electric power have driven them into the discard.