PEAKED HILL BARS STATION.
The Peaked Hill Bars Station is another of the original nine stations which were erected on Cape Cod in 1872. A more bleak or dangerous stretch of coast can hardly be found in the United States than at this station. The coast near the station rightly bears the name “Ocean Graveyard.” Sunken rips stretch far out under the sea at this place, ever ready to grasp the keels of the ships that sail down upon them, and many appalling disasters have taken place there. There are two lines of bars that lie submerged off the shore at Peaked Hill Bars Station, the outer and inner bars they are called. They run parallel with the coast line for a distance of about six miles. The outer bars lie about fourteen hundred yards offshore, the inner bars about six hundred. These bars are ever shifting, and the depth of water on them varies in accordance. It is not often that vessels are wrecked on the outer bars, although they often strike there and are driven over them only to meet with destruction on the inner bars. The surfmen of this station have a patrol of about two miles east and west, meeting and exchanging checks on the westward patrol with the surfmen from Race Point Station on the eastward with the surfmen of the High Head Station.
PEAKED HILL BARS STATION.
When the station was erected there was a long stretch of low beach between it and the shore, but now sand dunes made by the action of the wind shut off all view of the ocean except from the lookout tower on the station. It is at this station that the effect of the flying sand upon the glass in the windows is plainly seen, the whirlwinds of sand having made them as rough as if they had been dipped in acid, and almost shutting out the light of day. This effect of the sand in destroying the transparency of the window-panes is an object of curiosity and never-failing wonder to visitors. On the bluff overlooking the ocean the crew have erected a small building, where the day watches keep a lookout and members of the crew spend some of their leisure moments.
The station is located two and one-half miles east of Provincetown village, and its approximate position as obtained from the latest coast survey charts is latitude north 42° 04′ 40″, longitude 70° 09′ 50″. From Provincetown the road to the station crosses the great sand deserts for which that region is noted.
This station is supplied with two surf-boats, one four oared, the other five, two sets of beach apparatus, breeches-buoys, guns, etc., and a practice boat.
Captain Cook and his crew of the Peaked Hill Bars Station have taken twenty-five persons ashore in their surf-boat, and one in the breeches-buoy since Captain Cook assumed charge of the station. The following vessels, which struck on the Peaked Hill Bars, became a total loss: Willie H. Higgins, Albert L. Butler, Cathie C. Berry, Kate L. Robinson, and Jennie C. May.
THE SAND DUNES ON THE WAY TO PEAKED HILL BARS STATION.