The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-11-13

have been one of the many hailing from Provincetown
that have gone down into the sea.
Provincetown is a place full of stories of wrecks and
of ships that have sailed from port and returned no
more. The Cora S. Mckay sailed for the Grand
Banks with a crew of thirty. and was never heard of
again. This was in May. 1900, and since then three
more of the Provincetown fleet have shared her fate.
The Provincetown fleet sail for the Grand Bank
fisheries off Newfoundland in April or May. and if the
ships return at all they arrive back in port in Sep
TENDER or October. The Grand Banks abound in
cod; but also in storms. and many a stout ship has
suffered a sea change after being driven by fierce
gales upon reef or shoal. Many is the tale of wrecks
and hair-breadth escapes off the Grand Banks told by
the hardy fishermen.
But ii is not only at the Grand Banks that the
ships of the fleets are exposed to dangers, for they
fish in many other waters. and there are grave perils
near home. Of the Race Point Life-Saving Station,
about five miles from the Long Point light. which
marks the turn into Provincetown Harbor. is the
terrible Peaked Hill Bar. grueSomely and deservedly
known as The Graveyard of Cape Cod for this
bar has been strewn with nurnberless wrecks, and is
regarded as the most dangerous on all our coast.
All along the coast from the Race Point light to
the Wood End light about two miles from Long
Point there is a series of life-saving stations. Hardy
mcn patrol the beach from the different stations, and
meet at certain points. The stations are connected
Will tdIH DintI dlNI Will floNl llCtiONH DF ItlGplUIe,
so in case of a wreck anywhere along the coast news of
1t can be quickly made known and help summoned.
But at times IN great storms the wires are swept away.
great clouds of sand driven by the winds almost blind
the patrol; and on such nights as these God help the
ships that are near the bars
On such a night. that of November -. 1893. the
steamer Portland was dashed to pieces on the bars.
and her wrcckage and dead strewed the beach for
miles in the vicinity of Provincctown. One hundred
fifty souls were lost with this ship on that terrible
night, and there was not a survivor left to tell the
tale Of her s~tranding But disaster was not confined
TO the loss of the Portland. for it extended even to the
shipping at anchor in Provincetown harbor.
1t was a Saturday evening, and there was a large
gathering OF coasters and fresh fishermen in the harbor.
while a large fleet of logger" and small craft rode
safely at anchor when darkness fell. At daybreak on the
Sunday following a major part of big and small craft
were sunk at anchor. piled high on the shoals at the
west end of the harbor. or were drifting helplcsslv
down into the breakers. Twenty-Five men of the
crews of the vessels were drowned in that terrible
gale. and Others were rescued with the greatest diff
Guilty. The damage to the shipping was enormous
and brought ruin to many a home in Provincetown
and vicinity. Luckily as the vessels We're in harbor
the major parts OF the crew had come ashore. or the
loss OF life would have been greater than it was. In
deed, all along the coast of Cape Cod was thickly
strcwn with wreckagc. The memory OF that storm.
perhaps the worst that has swept the cape since the
landing of the Pilgrims. will not soon fade from the
minds of those who experienced it.
But wrecks and disasters are old. old stories to the
jewellers at this extreme end OF the cape. Away back
IN revolutionary times the fateful Peaked Hill Bar
was the scene of an extraordinary wreck. About a mile
eastward of the life-saving station. buried beneath
these sands, lies the wreck OF the English frigate Somer-
Authentic records give the information that the
Somerset was a third-ratc frigate. built in Chatham
dockyards, England. and launched July IS, r74S.