Time and Tide Nantucket

Part 1 of 4

The Experiences of William S. Cary, a Nantucket man.  The sole survivor of the crew of the whaleship Oeno, who lived for nine years  among cannibals of the South Pacific. 

"Cary's log of his experiences is a most graphic depiction of life among the Fiji Islanders.  His capture and adoption by the king of the tribe, the life and customs of the natives, his escape and return home are all touched upon in detail, the whole story forming one of the most thrilling tales of the sea ever printed.  And the best part of the story is that it is true."

Harry B. Turner, Nantucket, MA  May 1, 1928

Sources:

Nantucket Journal, "Wrecked on the Feejees" July 14, 1887. p. 1

Nantucket Journal, "Wrecked on the Feejees" July 21, 1887. p. 1

"Wrecked on the Feejees" Inquirer and Mirror Press, Forward by Harry B Turner, p. 7

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2021

In this episode we present a series of short vignettes and first person accounts of major freeze up events in 19th century Nantucket.  These were the days before fast ferries and airplanes, when news of the day and word from loved ones travelled only by mail.  Sailing ships and later, steamboats, were the only lifeline to the mainland carrying mail, fuel, supplies and people.  During large freeze ups, lasting weeks to as long as a month, the island was completely cut off from the rest of the world.

Sources:

Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Saving Nantucket," Stern-Majestic Press; 1972.
p. 231-242

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion  

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2021

This story goes back to the early 1980's on Nantucket.  Capt. Pete Kaizer was in his early years of fishing on the island when a local market for bluefish developed.  Pete used gillnetting strategies he had learned while fishing the winter seasons in Florida, and applied them to Nantucket's inshore fishery.  One August afternoon, Pete and his mate found a large school of fish just north of Sankaty Head, but not long after setting the net a hard line of severe thunderstorms came over them.  Things went from bad to worse, and ultimately the two men had to abandon ship and swim for their lives.

Producer and Host: Evan Schwanfelder with special guest Capt. Pete Kaizer.  Huge thanks to my wife, Katie Kaizer, for leading the discussion and for all her help and support in bringing these stories alive.

Music composed by Evan Schwanfelder.

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

The Joseph Starbuck, named after the wealthy whaling merchant who built her, was the last one built at the Brant Point shipyard, launched in 1838.  She completed one successful voyage to the Pacific and was fitted out for her second in 1842.  She was a beautiful and highly valued ship of live oak, and copper fastened.  The vessel alone was insured for $24,000.

On Sunday, November 27, 1842, the ship left Nantucket with a favorable breeze, in tow of the steamer Telegraph, for Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, where she was to load and proceed on a whaling voyage. There were on board, in addition to the full complement of hands belonging to her, a number of ladies, who were intending to accompany their friends and husbands to Edgartown, before taking final leave of them.  In total there were 35 souls aboard the ship.

Sources:

Gardner, Arthur.  "Wrecks Around Nantucket" Inquirer And Mirror, 1915. p 46-47 
(Text has been lightly edited for narrative purposes)

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion  

Email Contact: [email protected]

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2021
 

On a stormy morning in early spring, 1893, just after the sun's rays had lifted a foggy curtain from the sea, the strongly-built Norwegian bark Mentor emerged from the fog and found herself in the shoals off the east end of Nantucket.  There was a high sea running and before she could extricate herself she struck heavily, and remained fast.  It was Sunday morning, April 23rd, 1893.  White water was breaking all around the vessel and the captain decided to abandon ship before the fog closed in on them again. 

Sources:

Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Saving Nantucket," Stern-Majestic Press; 1972.
p. 189-192

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion 

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

During the winter of 1871, Nantucket Sound experienced once of the worst freeze-ups in history; the ice was so thick that it was incredibly challenging and nearly impossible to cut through. At this time there was no paid lifesaving service on the island. Rather, volunteer surfmen with the Massachusetts Humane Society risked life and limb to aid mariners and passengers in distress on the shoals around Nantucket.

On the evening of February 3, 1871, the schooner, Mary Anna, with a cargo of coal destined for Maine, was anchored off the coast of Chatham when a cold, strong gale caused her to break from her mooring and begin to drift. There were five crew members on board. The ice on the boat and in the Sound affected their ability to maneuver and control the boat, and thus, on the morning of February 4, the Mary Anna struck a shoal and began to freeze in place. Ice slowly began to surround the hull and the crew fled to the rigging in fear that the vessel would be torn apart.

Sources:

Snow, Edward R.  "Storms and Shipwrecks of New England," Boston Printing Co. 1943 p. 228-229

Soverino, Michelle & Jackson, Olivia "The Remarkable Rescue of the Crew Aboard the Shipwreck Mary Anna" Egan Maritime Institute. 2019
https://eganmaritime.org/news/the-wreck-of-the-mary-anna

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion. 

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

The two-masted schooner Eveline Treat was sailing along the south shore of Nantucket, heading to Gloucester, MA, with a cargo of coal during the early morning—around 1am—on Saturday, October 21, 1865, she struck Miacomet Rip. There were five souls aboard the ship: sixty-two year old Captain Job Philbrook, two of his sons, and two other men. Under the cloak of darkness they had no option but to weather the waves with hope that the Eveline Treat would survive the night and that they would be spotted after day break and rescued.

Sources:

Soverino, Michelle, "It Will Be a Long Time Before the Day’s Deeds Will Be Forgotten" Egan Maritime Institute (2019) https://eganmaritime.org/news/eveline-treat

Inquirer & Mirror, "Marine Disaster.” October 28, 1865.

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion. 

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

During a massive freeze in the winter of 1918, the Cross Rip Lightship, anchored north of Nantucket, was held fast in a crushing ice floe.  The Captain, stranded at shore, left first mate, Henry Joy in charge.  Fearing for the life of the crew, Joy walked seven miles across the ice to Nantucket to ask permission for the crew to abandon ship.  The country was at war and his request was denied.  The Cross Rip, spotted from Great Point Lighthouse, was last seen flying a distress signal as the ice dragged her out to sea.  The ship and crew were never seen again.

Special thanks to the Nantucket Atheneum for their Historic Digital Newspaper Archive and the articles therein which made this episode possible.
https://www.nantucketatheneum.org/research/eresources/historic-digital-newspaper-archive/

Sources:

Inquirer & Mirror, "Articles relating to the Cross Rip Lightship"
February 9, 1918 - March 30, 1918

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

The Nantucket South Shoals Lightship, numbered LV-117, was anchored 43 miles southeast of the island, beyond the outermost edge of the treacherous Nantucket Shoals and served as a major navigational beacon marking the western end of the trans-Atlantic shipping channel. Though prone to stormy seas and heavy fog, this position allowed incoming and outgoing vessels to heed the dangerous shoals by homing in on the lightship's radio signal.

She was a steel-hulled ship, 135 feet long, weighing in at 630 tons, with steel deckhouses fore and aft, a funnel amidship for exhaust, and two masts with electric lanterns on top of them.  There was an electric foghorn on the mainmast.  Like all lightships she was painted red with Nantucket spelled out in white to signal the location.  The ship was held in place by a pair of 7,000 pound anchors attached to 2 inch diameter steel chain cables mooring her in approximately 180 feet of water.

 The vessel was described at the time as "the newest thing in lightships, a great advance over the sailing vessels that stood watch ... for over seventy years prior."  The Inquirer and Mirror remarked that the ship was the “pride of the Lighthouse Department, and the finest and most up-to-date of any light vessel yet built”

 LV-117 would not see a long service, however, as she met her fate only three years later in one of the most famous and dramatic ship-to-ship collisions of the 20th century.

Sources:

Chirnside, Mark (2004). The Olympic Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic, Britannic: Tempus Publishing. p. 123-126.

Chirnside, Mark (2005). RMS Olympic – Titanic's Sister: Tempus Publishing. 
p. 246-253.

Inquirer & Mirror, "White Star Liner Olympic Sinks Nantucket Lightship."
(May 19, 1934)

Soverino, Michelle (2019) "The 85th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Nantucket Lightship LV-117" Egan Maritime Institute,
https://eganmaritime.org/news/sinking-of-the-lv117

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion 

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020

Whenever a shipwreck on Nantucket was mentioned by islanders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries one was always certain to be recalled - the wreck of the big, three masted schooner, T.B. Witherspoon.  The details of this tragic wreck left an indelible memory, never to be forgotten by those who chanced to be on the frozen beach at Mioxes Pond on the island's southwest shores, standing by helplessly as they watched the men in the rigging of the doomed craft lose their grip in the icy shrouds and fall into the sea on that fateful day - Sunday, January 10, 1886. 

A note to listeners that this episode contains descriptions about loss of life that may not be suitable for younger audiences.   

Sources:

Intro and Main Narrative:
Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Saving Nantucket," Stern-Majestic Press; 1972.
p. 149-155

Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.
Special Thanks to Katie Schwanfelder for all your help and for joining the discussion 
*Musical Note: Main Story Theme, instrumental cover; "Ashokan Farewell" by Jay Ungar

© Egan Maritime Institute, 2020