The Awful Calamities of December 1839 |
|
During the Great Age of Sail, Newburyport, like Gloucester and Salem, lost innumerable ship masters and mariners, many in foreign ports or at sea, far from home. Of course, there were multiple causes -- illness, enemy attack and bad weather, among others. The grief caused to families of the deceased is immeasurable but certainly some of the worst was that caused by death of loved ones within miles of their home port yet with no help in sight.
The Hurricanes of December 1839, a series of three storms between December 15 and 27, are some of the best chronicled in New England maritime history. The ports of the North Shore and northern New England were ravaged by what have been called "gales of unequalled fury and destruction." These great storms caused more than two hundred ships to be lost or damaged along the Massachusetts coast, and over one hundred and fifty lives were lost.
The first gale occurred around midnight on December 14 and raged though the following day and night. It began as a blizzard with snow, freezing rain, and gale force winds and by morning it had exploded into a hurricane.
Although no ships were wrecked or lives lost in Newburyport, severe havoc was wrought in Boston and Gloucester. A wreck off Norman's Woe in Gloucester and a separate wreck in Boston of the ship Hesperus inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write "The Wreck of the Hesperus," a passionate and brutal poem about the captain and his daughter who were lashed to the mast and perished.
|
|
Typed description from the back of the piece: "Watercolour sketch drawn by Capt. John Simpson, soon after the wreck. A composite picture showing the wreck of the Brig "POCAHONTAS", wrecked off Plum Island, 23 December, 1839. The vessel is pictured as she lay stranded on the "South Breaker", off Plum Island, and her remains as cast ashore on the island a few days after." From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
|
|
The devastation of ships, cargoes, and lives was unprecedented. In Gloucester, more than fifty vessels were either driven ashore or carried to sea, with a tremendous loss of lives. One eyewitness account describes the tragedies as follows:
- “Running in from the northeast, the furious gale tossed huge schooners about like toothpicks. By Monday morning the shore was strewn with wrecks, scattered cargo and frozen and mangled corpses. All day the murky low ceiling echoed and reechoed with the deafening boom of the breakers, the crash of falling masts, and the piteous cries of perishing sailors pleading for help ..."
- "Men on the shore watched helplessly as schooner after schooner succumbed to the raging waves and wintry blasts. Anchor lines snapped, masts and riggings were ripped from their stays, men were flung into the raging waters or entombed in sinking, ruptured hulls."
|
|
Stern board and bell salvaged from the wreck of the Brig Pocahontas by members of the
John N. Cushing family. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
|
|
The second gale, with which we are most concerned, arrived on December 22 and 23 and although not quite as severe as the first gale, it was described as a "terrible hurricane" and resulted in two of the worst shipwrecks ever recorded. In an account of the three December storms written in 1840, the gale of December 22, was described as one of the "most dreadful disasters ... yet to be chronicled" referring to the loss of the brig Pocahontas.
Approximately 17 miles northeast along the coast from Newburyport lies White Island in the Isles of Shoals. Celia Thaxter was four years old in 1839 when her father Thomas Laighton took over as the lighthouse keeper on the island, living there with his family.
Rosamund Thaxter, his great granddaughter, recounts the family's experience with the gale of December 22 in her book Sandpiper, published in 1963.
-
One storm, "more fearful from the rest, ... carried away the long covered walk over the chasm leading up to the light. Hens and henhouses were blown seaward by the furious northeast wind and floated away on the high waves. The only way that Thomas Laighton and the hired man could save the one cow was to bring her into the kitchen."
The impact on four-year-old Celia was traumatic. Twenty years after the incident, she penned her poem, The Wreck of the Pocahontas, and she later describes her fear in her memoir Among the Isles of Shoals:
- "While living at White Island, we were startled by the heavy booming of guns through the roar of the tempest -- a sound that drew nearer and nearer, till at last, through a sudden break in the mist and spray, we saw the heavy rolling hull of a large vessel driving by, to her sure destruction, toward the coast. It was if the wind had torn the vapor apart on purpose to show us the piteous sight; and I well remember the hand on my shoulder which held me firmly, shuddering child that I was, and forced me to look in spite of myself. What a day of pain it was! how dreadful the sound of those signal-guns and how much more dreadful the certainty when they ceased, that all was over! We learned afterward that it was the brig Pocahontas, homeward bound from Spain ..."
|
|
Belaying pin salvaged from the wreck of the Brig Pocahontas.
Belaying pins were short rods of wood or metal that were inserted into holes bored through a ship's rail.
The rigging lines of a ship would be fastened to them. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
|
|
The Pocahontas was built in 1830 by Elisha Briggs at the foot of Ashland Street and owned by John Newmarch Cushing.
The 287-ton vessel was captained by James G. Cook. She set sail from Cadiz, Spain in September 1839, but was struck by a Spanish ship and forced to return to port for repairs.
By late October, she was bound again for her home harbor of Newburyport with a new crew and a cargo of mostly domestic goods. The twelve or thirteen-man crew (the manifest was never found) sailed in good time until being engulfed in the second of three tempests to hit the coast of Massachusetts.
During the night near the mouth of the Merrimack River, Captain Cook dropped the vessel's anchor to lay wait for dawn. The anchor dragged, and the Pocahontas was caught on a sandbar about 150 yards from shore.
On the morning of December 23, she was discovered crashed against the sandbar, sometimes called the South Breakers, off Plum Island. When she was first spotted, there were three men still on deck, but all perished in the turbulent and freezing sea water before they could be rescued.
The beach was strewn with fragments of the brig, personal possessions, and other debris. Members of the Cushing family retrieved both the stern board and bell the morning after the wreck.
During the week, bodies of the captain, chief mate Albert Cook, and seven members of the crew were washed up and given funerals.
Twenty-five hundred of Newburyport’s residents turned out for the funeral of their native sons and foreign mariners at services held at the Old South Church and presided over by the Rev. Mr. Dimmock and the Rev. Dr. Dana.
Following the service, the congregants processed to Old Hill Burying Ground while bells throughout the town were tolled, and the bodies of these men were laid to rest. The inscription on the stone of the unknown mariners reads:
Here lie the remains of Seven
of the unfortunate
Crew
of the Brig Pocahontas
which
was wrecked on
Plumb Island
Dec. 23, 1839.
"In foreign lands their humble grave adorned,
By strangers honored and by strangers mourned."
|
|
"POCAHONTAS" Ship's name and date on piece of table linen from Captain's table done by Louisa M. Bean, wife of Elisha Bean of Newbury. Salvaged from wreck on Plum Island. Donated by Herbert E. Bean, a great-grandson. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. |
|
Editor's note: Inconsistencies in spelling of names, etc., are from the historical record and not a typographical error. |
|
1890 catalogue cover, Peter Henderson Co. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. |
|
42nd Annual Garden Tour to be a Hybrid Event
Part digital and part in-person, all with sensitivity to adhering to the ever-changing COVID safety protocols, the 42nd Annual Garden Tour is officially scheduled for Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13, 2021!
Attendees will access the tour booklet via their phone or tablet. Each page will feature a Q&A with the garden owner, a map to the location and coupons for area restaurants supporting the event.
At each garden, volunteers will ensure social distancing of 6’ is maintained and masks are worn, as well as manage capacity limits based on the size of each property.
More information and links to ticket sales to follow.
|
|
Learn about upcoming programs, register, find Zoom links and catch up on previous presentations here. |
|
Miss a Recent MOON Program? Watch here. |
|
Thanks to the wonder of the Zoom platform, all of our programs are recorded and available online shortly after presentation. Visit our website for upcoming events, previous recordings, including the four 2020 Virtual Garden Tours, our Annual Meeting, children's and holiday programs, as well as all episodes of "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"
In lieu of a printed program book, we will be featuring monthly events here, as well as maintaining a complete list on our website: www.NewburyHistory.org.
All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.
|
|
|
|
Jack Santos, Custom House Maritime Museum, and Colleen Turner, Museum of Old Newbury, are talking all things Newbury area history today on "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"
A combination of NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!, Jeopardy! and Stump Trivia, "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!" is a whole new take on Q&A game shows using the Zoom platform.
It's a fun and informative half hour. Zoom in at noon today by clicking here.
|
|
Register Now for April's Programs |
|
REGISTER:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m.
Wallace Nutting and the Invention of "Old America" Shelburne Museum's Tom Denenberg digs deep into Nutting's shaping of "Old America."
|
|
REGISTER:
Thursday, April 22, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m.
The Governor's Academy student symposia concludes with China's Rocket Man: A Deportee from the US Launches China into Space. Presented by Tianyu Fang, '20, this program serves as a cautionary tale for our time.
|
|
Puzzle Me This...
Bird & Butterfly embroidery silk thread on satin fabric. From the home of the late Edmund Bartlet, Esquire, of 3 Market Street. Donated by Miss Martha Atkinson. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
Click on the image to begin.
|
|
Something is Always Cooking at the Museum
Is there anything the avocado can't do? This pureed delight from Ruth Yesair sounds like a winner.
Spicy Guacamole Bisque
3 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1/3 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/3 teaspoon chili powder
Pinch of ground cumin
Salt & freshly ground pepper
2 cups chicken broth, cold
2 cups fat-free sour cream
2 tablespoons red pepper, finely diced
2 tablespoons red onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons scallions, finely sliced
Tostados
Place avocados in a food processor with a steel blade or into a blender. Add lemon and lime juices, onion, cilantro, spices and salt & pepper to taste. Purée until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add broth and sour cream. Blend well and chill for 3 to 4 hours. Ladle bisque into bowls and garnish with red pepper, red onion and scallions. Serve with tostados. Serves 4 to 6.
|
|
CORRECTION:
In last week's Part 2: Vigor in Arduis, by Dr. Marc Cendron, this editor made a typographical error. The first paragraph should read: When Dr. Little’s parents, for whom she had been caring, died, Mary in 1915 and William in1916, her life took a very sharp turn and she decided to leave Newburyport. It is not entirely clear what motivated her to journey to Pineville, Harlan County, Kentucky, but it certainly altered the course of her life.
|
|
During this difficult period of COVID-19, we rely on your support more than ever. We continue to develop new, online programs for you to enjoy and keep us connected and look forward to in-person events as protocols for safety loosen. We hope, if you are able, that you will consider a donation to the museum. Thank you for your continued support.
|
|
Museum e-Newsletter made possible through the
generosity of our sponsors:
|
|
|
Museum of Old Newbury
98 High Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-462-2681
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
