Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS February 2017 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 10 January 1911 17 Perish on Peaked Hill Bar


Three Barges Lost with Their Captains and Crews Tuesday Morning. Capt. Brown of the TREVERTON Hailed From Lincolnville – Life Savers Powerless


Highland Light, Massachusetts,


January 10. – The tragic history of Peaked Hill bars received a substantial addition Tuesday when three coal barges were driven on its dread sands at the knuckle of Cape Cod and 17 lives were lost. The barges were the TREVERTON, Capt. F. I. Brown of Lincolnville, Maine, and six men, CORBIN, Capt. C. M. Smith, of Philadelphia and four men; PINE FOREST, Capt. M. W. Hall, of Provincetown, and four men. The TREVERTON was bound to Portland, Maine; the CORBIN to Portsmouth, N. H., and the PINE FOREST to Marblehead, Massachusetts. It as from the tug LYKENS that the


barges broke adrift about 3 a.m. Tuesday just as the doubling of the cape was almost accomplished. Three miles more and the LYKENS would have passed her tow around Race Point and heading into Provincetown. But the gale, which the LYKENS and her tow had not felt so long as they were under the ice of the upper part of the cape, whipped up to 50 miles an hour when Highland Light was passed and, hauling well into the northward, made the ten miles around this point to the Race the worst kind of lee shore. The LYKENs staggered on but three hours before lawn the tow lines snapped. A few minutes later the barges were in the breakers. In the 300 years since Cape Cod was


settled, no vessel has yet grounded on Peaked Hill bars and escaped destruction. In the case of these three barges remaining and that one, the PINE FOREST, shorn of masts, was showing every indication of following the fate of the other two. On the beach stood three life saving


crews, powerless to aid the men who could be seen clinging to the wreck of the PINE FOREST. Stretching out for 800 yards was a seething mass of tumbling sea, in which even a life boat could not have lived while the distance was too great for a shot from the life gun. Even the tug, which hovered in the offi ng, was unable to run in very close for fear of grounding. The revenue cutter GRESHAM was sent for but there was little hope of her appearing in time. So the life savers patrolled the beach


and the watch was soon rewarded by the discovery of two bodies tossing about in the breaker. These were hauled ashore. About each body was strapped a life preserver on which was stenciled the work “TREVERTON.” News of the wreck soon reached Provincetown, and a steady stream of inhabitants went across the cape to the backside to witness the rescue or the death of the crew of the PINE FOREST. Witnesses hoped that when the tide


went out at 10 o’clock the water would be shallow enough on the bars to allow the life boat to be pushed through but the northerly gale massed up the waters and the ebb tide was a very small one. In the meantime the PINE FOREST


was being hammered mercilessly and by 9 o’clock was showing signs of going to pieces. The crew clung on for an hour. Then giving up hope of any help from shore, they launched their own boat and the four men tumbled into it. The second sea hat hit the barge after the crew left her swept around her stern and those on shore saw the four men thrown into the water. The life savers hauled their apparatus


back to the houses but continued their patrol for bodies. The LYKENS remained nearby until it


was seen that all the barges were wrecked and then ran around into Provincetown. The disaster was one of the worst in loss


off Cape Cod in many years. * * * * *


Highland Light, Massachusetts, January


10. – Three coal barges, the CORBIN, PINE FOREST, and TREVERTON, bound east in tow of the tug LYKENS, were tossed ashore on the Peaked Hill before dawn the CORBIN and TREVERTON had gone to pieces while the PINE FOREST was pounding on the outer bar 800 yards from shore, with her masts gone and in danger of breaking up at any minute. A terrifi c 50 miles an hour gale was


lashing the coast and blowing directly from the north, made the Peaked Hills the worst end of a lee shore. Two life saving crews stood on the sands powerless to launch the life boat or reach the barge with a life line. At 8 a.m. two bodies had been thrown


up on the beach both with life preservers, on which was stenciled “TREVERTON”. The crew of the PINE FOREST,


numbering four men, attempted to reach shore in their own boat during the forenoon, but the craft was overturned in the breakers and all the crew were drowned. The TREVERTON was the largest


barge of the three and carried a crew of six men with Captain F. I. Brown of Lincolnville, Maine, in command. She was bound to Portland. The CORBIN carried a crew of four


men and was commanded by Capt. C. M. Smith of Philadelphia. She was bound to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The PINE FOREST, which was


the smallest, carried four men and was commanded by Capt. M. W. Hall of Provincetown and was bound to Marblehead. The LYKENS after losing her tow hung


around the scene until 9 a.m. but was unable to get near the stranded barge owing to the shallow water she was fi nally compelled to steam round into Provincetown. The gale on the cape Monday night was


one of the stiff est of the winter, but it was not until nearly midnight that the wind hauled into the northwest and then into the north. The LYKENS left Vineyard Haven


Monday and passed over the shoals during the afternoon. As usual in heavy westerlies, the LYKENS clung close to the Cape in order to get as much lee as possible. She was easily made out by the patrols on the life savings stations farther up the cape, at Nauset, Cahoon’s Hollow, Pamet River and Highlands. Then the moon went down and the LYKENS was blotted out from shore. Shortly after 3 o’clock Tuesday


DISCOUNT POWER TOOLS CORDED POWER TOOLS CORDLESS POWER TOOLS FUELED POWER TOOLS PNEUMATIC POWER TOOLS FASTENERS HAND TOOLS


MATERIAL HANDLING


POWER TOOL ACCESSORIES SAFETY SUPPLIES WELDING SUPPLIES


morning, the Peaked Hill station patrol made out the front of a vessel in the breakers, and by the time the crew reached the scene wreckage was coming ashore. At dawn only the battered hulks of two


barges could be seen, while the third barge was still holding together, although every wave seemed to shake her from stem to stern, and her masts were lying over the side. The life savers also thought that they could make out the forms of several men clinging to the hatches and the little house in the stern. The Race Point and the High Head life


saving stations had been notifi ed and scores of people streamed over the cape from Provincetown to see the wreck. It was impossible to launch any life boat, for the bars at this end of the cape are double and sometimes triple and the entire distance from the shore to the outer bar was a tumbling mass of cross seas, in which not even a life boat could have been kept upright. So the life savers waited for low water at 10 a.m. when it was hoped that in the shallow surf the life boat might be pushed through to second bar and a start made for the barge. The revenue cutter GRESHAM was


also notifi ed of the wreck.


While waiting for the tide to ebb, the life savers patrolled the beach. About 8 o’clock two bodies were seen fl oating near shore and were soon thrown up on the beach. Both were encased in life preservers from the TREVERTON. A little later the side board of the CORBIN came ashore. A Graveyard of Ships


Peaked Hills bars, directly opposite


Provincetown and practically on the top of Cape Cod, have been the scene of more wrecks, and loss of life than any other part of the cape. Their tragic history runs back more than


a hundred years and includes some of the ablest of the coasting fl eet. No vessel once in the clutch of the bars has over escaped. One of the most famous of the early


wrecks at this point was that of three Salem ships, all of which were thrown ashore with the loss of a greater part of their crews. It is generally believed the steamer PORTLAND was either wrecked on these bars or broke up not far off , in the great storm of November 1898, as the greater part of her wreckage came ashore in that vicinity. * * * * *


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January


10. – The tug LYKENS cleared from the Philadelphia and Reading company’s coal wharves here on January 6, with the three barges now wrecked off the New England coast. The barge TREVERTON with six men was bound for Portland; the PINE FOREST, four men for Marblehead and the CORBIN, four men, for Portsmouth.


17 January 1911 Snail of the Sea


Schooner IZETTA 35 Days From Bangor to New York.


The schooner IZETTA, which hails


from this city, has arrived in New York, after having been out since December 11, taking 35 days to make a trip of several hundred miles between this city and New York. It was an eventful voyage and is pretty near the record for time. The IZETTA was built in Brewer in 1865, and nearly half a century of being tossed about by the elements hasn’t added anything to her sailing abilities. The New York Telegram tells the story of her trip as follows: When the American schooner IZETTA


dropped anchor in the harbor today, Capt. Kemp, her commander, heaved a sign of relief and contentedly surveyed the shore in anticipation of any early discharge of a much-belated lumber cargo. The IZETTA can safely claim the title of being the slowest sailing vessel hereabouts, for she broke all records for long voyages – in point of time, not distance – and her arrival here from Bangor, Maine, was a pleasant surprise to Capt. Kemp, the IZETTA’s crew and her owners. The IZETTA left Bangor on December


11. Under all ordinary conditions she should have sailed down the coast to Manhattan in about a week or ten days at the most. Instead, she was three weeks getting into that port by the tugboat ORIENT, leaking and partly dismantled, owing to a jamming she received in an ice fl oe in the Penobscot River just after leaving the Maine port. She was the last vessel to sail through the Penobscot before that waterway was closed to navigation by the ice. A leak was discovered three days out


from Bangor. The pumps were worked in the limit and all hands were pretty well tired out when, after nearly three weeks of manoeuvring and slow sailing, the ORIENT was sighted, and Capt. Kemp gladly took a hawser from the wheezing little towboat for a pull into Boston harbor. Temporary repairs were made and then the old IZETTA


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31