The sloop Thetis was commanded by Isaac Robbins, and had her berth at Hedge’s wharf. She was changed to a schooner in 1843, and I saw her last about 1865, at anchor off Marblehead Neck, loading with gravel.
The last packet equipped with any view to passenger service was the schooner Russell, owned by N. Russell & Co., Phineas Wells, and her commander William Davis Simmons, which had her berth at Davis wharf. Having the business of her owners she survived the advent of the railroad, and continued in service until her wreck. Her fate was a sad one. She left Boston on the afternoon of Friday, March 17, 1854, with a crew, besides her captain, consisting of Erastus Torrence, Alpheus Richmond and Ichabod Rogers, and with five passengers, Harvey H. Raymond, and his son, Benjamin B. Raymond, Elkanah Barnes, Edmund Griffin, son of Grenville W. Griffin, and Henry H. Weston, son of Henry Weston. The next day in a northwest gale, she went ashore near Billingsgate light on Cape Cod, and with the schooner a total wreck, all on board were lost. All the bodies came ashore at Wellfleet and Truro, and as I was requested to act as administrator of Capt. Simmons’ estate, it became my duty to visit the tombs in those towns, where they were deposited, and after their identification to arrange for their removal to Plymouth.
The cause of the disaster can only be conjectured. The gale was from the west northwest, and as Billingsgate is about east southeast from the Gurnet, where the Russell was seen early Saturday morning, it is certain that she was driven helpless before it. And as the bodies came ashore in the immediate vicinity of the wreck, it is equally certain that those on board did not leave the vessel before she struck. I see no reason why if the rudder was under control, the schooner could not, even with the partial loss of her sails, have been sheered a little southerly to a lee under Manomet, or a little easterly to a lee under Wood End. I am therefore inclined to think that her rudder was disabled, either by striking a rock at the Gurnet in getting away from her anchorage, or by striking the tail of Brown’s Island in missing stays, and that in that condition she became the prey of the gale.
Since the loss of the Russell the following freighters have run at different periods between Plymouth and Boston, though not in the order stated:
The Glide, commanded by Thomas Bartlett and Capt. Joy.
The Wm. G. Eadie, commanded by Thomas Bartlett and Kendall Holmes.
The M. R. Shepard and Eliza Jane, commanded by Thomas Bartlett.
The Shave and Mary Eliza, commanded by Kendall Holmes.
The Emma T. Story and Anna B. Price, commanded by Wm. Nightingale.
The Martha May, commanded by Wm. Swift, and the Sarah Elizabeth, commanded by Daniel O. Churchill.