Have you ever said “hmmmm” when you couldn’t figure out why something didn’t appear when or where it should have? Such is the case for a number of shipwrecks that have occurred in Yarmouth waters.
The map, Maritime Disasters of Cape Cod is the most complete map of Cape Cod shipwrecks, listing shipwrecks around Yarmouth and Sandy Neck as well as the rest of the Cape - 11 wrecks along the eastern end of Sandy Neck between 1829 and 1964, as well as four others around and near the Yarmouth flats.
Two of the most deadly wrecks in Yarmouth’s history, the schooner Electric Light and the sloop Granite, as well as all of the vessels moored at Central Wharf in Yarmouth Port during the December 1853 gale didn’t get included on the map. The famous five-masted schooner Harwood Palmer’s grounding off of Bass Hole in 1905 as well as those wrecks on the south side near the mouth of Bass River never made the cut either. So, in an effort to add to our knowledge, the following wrecks should be noted.
Click to enlarge.
The storm on December 29, 1853 destroyed Central Wharf in Yarmouth Port [at the end of Wharf Lane]. Schooners tied up to the dock were washed up on Sandy Neck, including the Leo, whose crew went missing. The three-masted bark Ida was also washed up on shore.
On Friday, October 8th, 1858 the Yarmouth Register carried this story:
“On Saturday last, about noon, a sloop evidently in a disabled condition was seen approaching our harbor, and at 12 o’clock, she struck upon the bar off this place, and almost immediately sank, only a portion of her hull being visible at low water. She was observed from the shore and men were seen upon her deck before she struck. The sea was very rough, and blowing violently at the time, and no boats were to be procured in which it was possible to go to her assistance. Several attempts were made by Mr. Baxter, at the light-house [Sandy Neck], and also by parties from this place, Barnstable and Dennis.
During Sunday night a boat from this place succeeded in reaching her, but no one was found on or near her. The vessel proved to be the Sloop Granite, of Quincy, which left Gloucester for Boston on Friday afternoon, with a load of stone. She had on board five persons, all of whom have doubtless found a watery grave! She was seen Friday night off Nahant, standing to the eastward, and is supposed to have been disabled in the gale that occurred that night, and to have drifted at the mercy of the waves and wind.
The following persons were on board the Granite, viz: Solomon Torrey of Quincy, master; S.T. Morton, and George Nightingale, Quincy; William Parker, Rockport; Patrick Crowly, Boston; and one other person, name unknown. The body of Capt. Torrey came ashore at East Dennis on Monday, and was sent to Quincy for interment. The valise of William Parker containing a variety of papers, was also found upon the beach. The Granite was an old vessel, worth about $600 and is almost entirely broken up. She has been stripped and abandoned.”
The next week’s Yarmouth Register – October 22 – carried additional information:
“We learn … that another body was picked up on the beach yesterday. In the clothes were found an English watch and papers which indicate that the body was that of William Parker of Rockport. The remains were also interred at Dennis.”
Image of a granite schooner (right) at Lanes Cove, Gloucester. Cutting and shipping granite was a large industry in the Boston area during the 1800s.
And thus, the death of five men and a vessel were reported 150 years ago. Interestingly, in his History of Old Yarmouth, Swift noted that the vessel was a schooner rather than a sloop. Swift might have been the reporter who wrote the original story for the Register which makes one wonder which fact is correct.
Ten years later, another vessel floundered off Yarmouth. This time the death toll was twice as great. On March 19, 1869, the Register reported:
“The vessel which came ashore at Sandy Neck on Sunday last proves to have been the Electric Light of Provincetown, which left Boston on Saturday last and was seen off the bar on Sunday forenoon under short sail, making for the channel. At about 12 o’clock on the same day she was discovered ashore, bottom up, a short distance west of the light-house. It is supposed she struck on the bar and immediately capsized. Her crew, consisting of the captain and four men, were probably swept from her when she struck and all are lost. We learn that besides the crew, as above mentioned, there were on board the vessel five passengers, making a total of ten lives lost in this disaster. The captain, Manuel Victorine, leaves a wife and three children. The others were young men with no families. The Electric Light was about 20 tons, and was owned by F. M. Freeman, Esq., and others of Provincetown.”
The vessel was obviously small and was a coastal packet plying trade between Boston and the Cape. It wasn’t described in the news article, but a 1931 map of Yarmouth identified the location of this wreck and stated the vessel was a two masted schooner. The wreck of the Granite was also identified on the 1931 map.
In 1905, the five masted schooner, the Harwood Palmer, came to rest on a bar off of Bass Hole. It remained perfectly upright after grounding. Tugboats were able to pull her loose some four months later. The grounding of the Harwood Palmer was told in detail in another blog post.
The Harwood Palmer hard aground.
On the south side, the rescue of a crew of the three masted schooner Charlotte T. Sibley by Charles Henry Davis’s motor vessel the Ildico, in a gale in October 1907, brought much praise to Davis and the Yarmouth men who affected the rescue. The schooner was anchored offshore outside of Bass River when winds increased to 70 mph and the ship began to drag onto a nearby shoal. Davis, Albert Pierce, Otto Stiefel, Eben Chase and Leonidas Taylor raced out on Ildico and were able to rescue the men at great peril to themselves. The story has been printed several times over the years. A fine account appears in Marion Vuilleumier’s The Town of Yarmouth Massachusetts – A History.
A painting of the rescue of Charlotte T. Sibley.
A less well known wreck had occurred in the same area some 36 years earlier. On February 12, 1871, the schooner General Warren with 1000 barrels of lime hit Dogfish Bar off Bass River. She sprung a leak, took fire, and burned to the water’s edge. The ship and cargo value of $5000 was partially insured. This vessel just passed into oblivion.
Shipwrecks play a part of Yarmouth’s history and should be remembered and documented. Our maritime history continues to this day. While it is just over 60 years since Yarmouth’s last wreck, the gas barge Misty in 1964, we live near waters where storms are frequent and life can be hazardous. The increasing amount you’re paying for your homeowners insurance policies tell you how dangerous the insurance companies think even living on Cape Cod can be! Let’s hope that future historians continue to chronicle the life and times of this wonderful place.
Researched and written by Duncan Oliver
Unknown shipwreck on the Yarmouth flats.