Thousands of lives have been lost in the wrecks that have taken place along the shores of Cape Cod since the Mayflower cast anchor in the harbor at Provincetown in 1620. There is no record of the disasters previous to the establishment of the United States Life-Saving Service in 1872, other than mention in town records and histories of the dates and circumstances of the most memorable, or those attended by great loss of life.
The first shipwreck on Cape Cod, of which there is any record, occurred in 1626, when the historic ship Sparrowhawk, Captain Johnson, from England, with colonists bound for Virginia, stranded on the shoals near Orleans, and became a total loss. The story of the wreck is told by Governor Bradford in his diary of the Plymouth Colony. The ship’s bones were discovered in a mud bank in 1863, the washing away of the shore line disclosing them to view.
BRITISH FRIGATE SOMERSET.
AN OLD WRECK.
Another historic wreck was that of the British frigate Somerset, which stranded on Peaked Hill Bars, Nov. 2 or 3, 1778. The Somerset was one of the fleet of British men-of-war, whose guns had stormed the heights of Bunker Hill, and terrorized the commerce of the colonies. She was at anchor in Boston Harbor the night that Paul Revere made his famous ride. When she met with disaster she was in pursuit of a fleet of French ships, which were reported to be in Boston Harbor. The Somerset had been at anchor in Provincetown harbor for some time, leaving there a few days before she was lost, to go in search of the French ships. She struck Peaked Hill Bars during a northeast gale, while trying to round the Cape, and enter the harbor at Provincetown. She had a complement of four hundred and eighty men, and is supposed to have carried sixty guns, thirty-two, twenty-four, and twelve pounders. She struck on the bars with terrific force, and instantly the seas began to pound her to pieces. She was finally thrown up on the beach by the tumultuous walls of water, and Captain Aurey and the few of the crew who had not perished reached the shore.
MATILDA BUCK.
The residents of Provincetown viewed the wreck from High Pole Hill, and summoned Capt. Enoch Hallett, of Yarmouth, and Colonel Doane, of Wellfleet, who, with a detachment of militia, made Captain Aurey and the survivors prisoners.