The Republican journal., 1900-08-09
A WRECK TRANSFORMED.
How Wrecked Pilot-Boat Was Turned
into il House.

into IA House.
'''The IIouse-Boat on the Sands is
the title OF an account by William Z.
Richardson, in the June ST. Nicholas.
of wrecked pilot-boat that has been
transformed into Il house. If the read
er who lives far away from the ocean
could have made Il winters trip to the
sea-shore on November 70 and -, ut
almost amy point Oh the New England
coast, he would have witnessed the
most terrible storm which has visited
that region for at least a alf-century..
Although the entire coast-line of the
New England States was affected 10y
the storm, the most serious damage and
loss was experienced on the Massachu-
sets coast, from the extreme end of
Cape Cod, that long, narrow line, of
land which extends for many miles far
out into the ocean. to a point about a
hundred miles north of Boston.
On the night the storm began, the
large ocean steamer Portland, the
regular passenger-boat plying between
Boston and Portland, Maine, left her
ern city, and having on board about a
hundred and fifty passengers When
the ship had passed out into open water
it encountered the terrible sea which
was running mast-high, and undoubt-
ly soon after foundered and went to the
bottom of the bay with her passengers
and creW-luSt where no one knows.
Some little Wreckage and few bodies
drlfted up on the sands of Cape Cod
were all that told the world the sad
story OF the missing steamer.
The long ocean-front was lined with
wrecked and battered vessels, some being
wrecked without loss of life, while
others suffered the loss of a part or the
whole of their crews. The damage to
property on land along this same stretch
of country amounted to hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Little villages
along the shore and widely known sum-
mer resorts alike caught the full force
of the storm, for the sea rose high
enough to flood places never known to
have been reached before and thought
to be well above any possible high-water
mark. Many beaches were practically
ruined and the features of the country
materially changed in numerous places.
The beach at Nantasket was turned
upside down and damaged almost be-
yond repair Almost every house along
the beach suffered more or less: the
huge ''roller-coaster" was torn down and
teSUIoNttl III lHe lNlHhllIlS Ol dl eye,
houses were overturned and carried far
from their original resting places; and
the whole beach had such a wrecked
appearance the day after the storm that
it seemed an impossibility that the
popular resort could ever be restored.
Miles of railroad tracks running along
the shore were washed away. telegraph
and telephone poles were leveled to the
ground, and for several days many
places were cut off from communication
with even the nearer towns.
Many sad evidences Of the storm still
remain. One of these lies ON the beach
i'll the little village of Scituate, Massa-
chusetts, just where the mountainous
seas left it on that Hateful Sunday
morning This wreck was once the
pride of the Boston pilots, those brave
and hardy sailors who daily hazard their
lives on the ocean in order to bring
others into safe harbors.
'Pilot-boat No. % known as the Co
lumbia, was as stanch craft as ever
braved an oceans storm, built for the
service in which she was engaged-a no
BILE boat which had weathered many a
gale and come through in safety. When
the storm commenced the boat was well
out in the bay, homeward bound; the
entire staff of pilots had one by one
been put on board inbound ships, leav-
ing the pilot-boat herself in charge of