USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 23
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A little later there was a resolve that Joseph Nye (3) of Sandwich be requested "to repair forthwith to the East Regiment in the County of Barnstable, and use his utmost endeavors to raise and form into com- panies one hundred and twenty-eight men, to be officered, equipped, paid and supported as provided for-the said men to be at headquarters on the 10th instant."
Tories on Cape Cod Especially Dangerous-James Prescott brought down from the council, December 16, a letter from Hon. James Otis "relative to the conduct of certain Tories in Barnstable and in partic- ular a person at the head of them who professes himself a Whig." This letter was accompanied by an order from the Council "That Walter Spooner and Moses Gill, Esqs, with such as the House shall join, be a committee to take the foregoing letter and collateral papers into con- sideration and report."
The Tories at this time were regarded as a great menace and es- pecially so on Cape Cod, with its one hundred and fifty miles of sea coast offering exposed territory capable of landing hostile fleets. There were no harbor defenses. The adjacent islands offered rendezvous for British sympathizers and depredations were constantly taking place, visited upon those of patriotic zeal. Major Joseph Dimmick was there- fore commissioned to "repair to Nantucket, and arrest such as are guilty of supplying the enemy with provisions."
The British Captain Lindsey, about that time, "went to the west end of Tucker's Island and took off about 200 sheep, belonging to John Wing. He then came down to the Cove and ordered all the sheep to be yarded; insulting, threatening and abusing the people for their back- wardness in assisting him. When this was done he concluded to let
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the sheep remain until towards morning. In the course of the night word was brought to Falmouth by Stephen Nye of Sandwich, and a number of men well equipped went to the island; but before they ar- rived the sheep had all been turned out of the yard into the woods. The people from the ship were enraged, and took all the arms they could find, six calves and the hogs. The Falmouth people got there be- fore day and placed themselves in the bushes, lying undiscovered. The boat came to the shore again, but soon returned without going to the house, and went to 'Holmes Hole'." A letter from Nye to Col. Freeman, then in Boston, regarding this occurrence was laid before the authorities.
Means for defense were planned and arrangements made for dealing with those who were furnishing comfort and aid to the enemy, the pen- alty for which was death. A military company was organized to be stationed at Truro, under Captain Joseph Smith, January 15, 1776. Three days later General Washington called for reinforcements, 260 of the privates to be furnished by the County of Barnstable. Colonel Otis and Colonel Cobb were appointed to direct the duty. Plymouth and Barnstable counties were to jointly furnish a regiment of 732 men. This was done with Colonel Carey of Bridgewater at the head and Major Bar- achiah Bassett of Falmouth as lieutenant-colonel.
Swiftly following this call was another for "a regiment of 728 men to be raised to go to Canada." This regiment was made up in part of Indians from Mashpee. There is a tradition that, in these troublous times, Mashpee Indians offered themselves and their property, saying : "There's sixteen shillings for you-'tis all we have. We thought to have bought some rum with it, but we'll drink water and hunt, and when beasts fall by our arrows, we'll sell their skins and bring you the money."
The participation of the Indians from Mashpee in the conflict is de- serving of explanation, inasmuch as they were by no means the kind of savages who were employed by the British to murder their own colonists, an act hardly paralleled in the annals of civilization. The Indians who served in the American ranks were civilized men, respond- ing to military discipline, courageous, always good soldiers.
There was a proclamation issued under date of January 23, 1776, prepared by a committee from both branches of the General Court, which was ordered to be read by the clerks of every court of justice at the next meeting of the same; and recommended to be read by all min- isters of the gospel on the next Lord's day after its reception, at the close of divine service. This proclamation set forth the justice of the American cause, enjoined all possible aid from the people, and pro- nounced all who failed in their duty hostile to the best interests of the
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country. Things had reached a crucial situation and it was decided to divide the militia of Barnstable County into two regiments, with Na- thaniel Freeman colonel of one and Joseph Doane of the other.
Gave Their Lives and Fortunes-In the days of the Revolutionary War Cape Cod was almost bled white, to borrow an expression heard during the World War as regards France. People on the Cape looked to the sea for a large part of their livelihood and it was impossible to continue these industries, as British cruisers maintained a blockade of the whole shore. These war vessels were in control of the situation, stationed at Provincetown and Woods Hole and kept every industry paralyzed. It became impossible to raise sufficient agricultural prod- ucts to feed the people, yet one call after another came for men and money and the Cape Cod towns responded to the full limit of their abil- ity.
At that time Colonel James Otis of Barnstable was president of the council of the General Court and, in that capacity, was practically chief magistrate of the State, following the evacuation of Boston by General Howe in 1776. This day of evacuation was after Washington had for- tified Dorchester Heights, with the aid of the militia of "contiguous". places.
There was a generous interpretation of the definition of that word "contiguous." Among other towns which responded was Yarmouth on the Cape, sending eighty-one men at early dawn, under command of Captain Joshua Gray. It was a long march but the volunteers reached Dorchester in time to participate in the farewell to the British soldiery. It is interesting to look over the town records and notice how Cape Cod towns were among the first to defy the king in his arbitrary rule and declare themselves independent of the Empire, pledging to the Continental Congress "their lives and fortunes." This was no idle pledge for both were needed and both given, generously, bravely, in- evitably.
By the time the Constitution was adopted in 1780, the people of Harwich, Chatham, Eastham and Yarmouth were driven to such ex- tremities by the repeated demands to which they had responded that they were obliged to memorialize the General Court, with a prayer that the taxes and requisitions for beef and other articles be abated, because they had no money with which to pay the taxes and not sufficient beef to feed themselves. The General Court sent a committee to the Cape to investigate and this committee reported its admiration for the de- votion which had been shown by these towns, and all towns on Cape Cod, and that the situation was fully as desperate as represented, through no other cause than patriotic responses.
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Cape Cod was a long way from the Hudson River, but it was a Cape Cod soldier, Ebenezer Sears of Yarmouth, who stood guard over Major André the night before his execution for the part he played in the trai- torism of Benedict Arnold. Another Cape Cod boy, Benjamin Collins of Truro, was a member of the crew which rowed Benedict Arnold to safety on the "Vulture" and, upon arrival at the British ship, was drugged and kept prisoner. He did not return to his home for forty- eight years.
David Snow and his son, "Davie," assisted by neighbors at Truro, in the fall of 1775, launched a dory in an effort to catch a supply of fish to keep the people left in the town from starving. They knew they would have to do their fishing where they would be likely to be cap- tured by the crew from the "Somerset," which lay at anchor at Province- town; or some other British vessel, but the elder Snow was too old to serve as a soldier and the boy was only fifteen. They saw a duty ahead of them and responded as fearlessly as older or younger men had marched away to war.
They were captured, as they were returning with a good catch of cod, and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and thence to the Old Mill prison in England, one of the horrors maintained by the English in those days. After a time they escaped and embarked on a scow in the English channel. When opportunity presented itself they captured a small vessel and set sail for France. In France, they sold their vessel, gave themselves up to the French government and were sent to Amer- ica.
Their only chance to land on the coast, still guarded by the British privateers, was in Carolina, and from there they made their way over- land, after weeks of heart-breaking weariness of travel, toward their beloved Truro, wondering if the people who had assisted them in launching their dory had starved as a result of their unsuccessful effort to bring them food.
Seven years had passed and Cornwallis had surrendered. The Cape Cod towns, as well as towns and villages throughout the colonies, had rung bells and burned bonfires in their joy, but there was a woman in Truro whose husband and son were never given up. All others be- lieved them dead. One morning, a month or so after the village had had its day of rejoicing over the end of the war, the two Davids, fa- ther and son, sought out their old home, learned that Mrs. Snow was at the home of a neighbor, alive. It was there that Captain David found her and she fainted in her joy.
This was one of the scenes on the Cape at the close of the war, and there were others filled with pathos and romance, even tragedy of the most pitiful sort. The war was over but the Cape was in desperate
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straits and it had to work its way back to physical health and industrial life little by little.
More is told elsewhere of the political wisdom and leadership of the elder Otis, and the eloquence and inspiration of the younger Otis, which meant so much in keeping up the morale of the people. Such Cape Cod men as Dr. Nathaniel Freeman, General Dimmick, General Joseph Otis and many others can never be forgotten for their tireless energy, mili- tary skill, daring, each in his own way contributing the full measure of a man worthy of his country and of old Cape Cod, its starting place.
The "Somerset" had been the terror of the people hereabouts, the cruel pirate vessel forcing many to starve and bearing others away to British prisons and torture, but there came a day that the "Somerset" was wrecked on the back side of Provincetown, and the militia of Truro took great pleasure in marching the crew of four hundred and eighty men as prisoners to Barnstable, thence to Boston. The small arms from the "Somerset" were distributed among the militia and the large guns were sent to various places on the coast where they might have a part in defending it against other scourges such as she. Con- siderable ammunition was found on the "Somerset" at a time when am- munition was sadly needed. Then she was abandoned to the ravages of the sea and the grinding sand, which eventually hid her from view and it was supposed she had gone forever. A century later, the shifting sands uncovered the battered hulk for the eyes of a generation to be- hold which was unborn when she was wrecked. Some pieces of the "Somerset" were taken to Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, and placed on exhi- bition.
There are items in the records of the Cape towns which tell how brave men "died on board the Jersey prison ship," and there were thir- teen men from Truro and Wellfleet sent to the Old Mill prison to a liv- ing death. Looking over the records of those days when Colonel James Otis of Barnstable was president of the council of the General Court, from 1776 to 1780, frequent mention is made of names which one might find again in the towns' reports of any recent year, for the Crockers, Swifts, Sears, Halletts, Nickersons, Freemans, Otis, Doanes, Snows, Halls, Richs, Collins and Howes are still numerous and promi- nent in the affairs of the Cape Cod towns, descendants of those worthy Cape Codders who took part in the birth of a nation "conceived in lib- erty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are free and equal."
Inhumanity of the British-In referring to conditions prevailing in Barnstable County in the opening of the year 1777, Frederick Freeman wrote in his history :
This entire county whose lords were chiefly mariners, and whose chief estates were at the water's edge, was held in a condition of most anxious suspense. The
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whole length of its sea cost under the surveillance of British cruisers, the fisheries and all commerce were completely obstructed. Embargo enactments were unneces- sary to effect this now. The bone and muscle of the Cape, whose yearnings were most naturally toward the seas, must needs see their craft rotting at the moorings, or betake themselves to privateering-peradventure must abandon the idea even of this resort, and take their turn in the continental service ashore wherever they were called.
The alternative of privateering was not always rejected, although sometimes embraced at sorrowful cost. The British prison ships' inhumanity is a tale that can never be written in shades dark enough to depict the reality. The condition of such as became captured, was in too many instances made revolting beyond description, their sufferings having scarcely a parallel in the annals of cruelty. Full many of the sufferers were from the Cape; but it is a matter of gratulation even at the present day, that none of these, so far as known, were backward to spurn the offer of release and promotion on condition that they would join the royal party; preferring even a noisome dungeon and death itself, to the dishonor of deserting the cause of liberty.
Brigadier Otis was the commanding officer in the county. In a des- patch dated Barnstable, September 17, he describes conditions as fol- lows: "I have returned from Falmouth. The fleet sailing westward the 15th, I sent to the Vineyard and found they had demanded 10,000 sheep, 400 head of horned cattle, all the arms and accroutrements on the island, and confined the head Whigs as hostages for the performance. They ate and carried off more than 9,000 sheep and about 350 head of cattle. About 400 arms, etc., were delivered up. The enemy burned a brig, three or four smaller vessels, all the boats they could find, and even took up and destroyed all the corn and roots, within two miles around Holmes Hole harbor. They dug up the ground everywhere to search for goods, even disturbing graves; rifled houses, broke windows, etc. They said they wanted to visit Falmouth ; termed us a pack of - -
- rebels; but said we had at Falmouth 5,000 strong with plenty of artil- lery, and were as thick as bees. They seized the rate bills, and all the public money in the hands of the collectors."
Three days later, acknowledging orders sent to raise fifty men, in his brigade, to go to Providence, he said: "As the enemy are around and threaten danger here, it is like dragging men from home when their houses are on fire; but I will do my best to comply." Later he was in- formed "that inasmuch as the militia of the county have been and con- tinue to be greatly harassed by the appearance of the enemy's ships and the landing of troops in their vicinity, the county be excused for the present from raising men agreeably to the order of the Council."
In November the British squadron appeared in such force in Barn- stable Bay and in Cape Cod Harbor it was believed a general engage- ment was contemplated at Boston. The House requested that "the company of militia under the command of Captain Job Crocker now
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on duty at Barnstable, march to Boston to do duty under General Heath." At the same time the fleet landed men at Newport, Dart- mouth and Marthas Vineyard and the small forces obtainable for de- fense were kept in great agitation.
Thus is given a picture of economic conditions at the close of the war on Cape Cod as it was in the following year that the war ended and "his Most Christian Majesty and the King of Great Britain had rati- fied" a general peace which acknowledged the thirteen United Colonies as "free, sovereign and independent States." Cape Cod in common, may it be said with all other parts of America, had done its utmost, where- ever there was a call to duty, on land or sea.
Resumption of Fishing and Extension of Sea Trade-Whaling and fishing were well nigh exhausted during the Revolution and the people of Cape Cod were so poverty-stricken at the end of the war, through their unselfish sacrifices that as Fisher Ames stated in 1789,: "They are too poor to live there and are too poor to remove." There was a recovery of fishing, with such means as the people had, and the sea trade became worldwide and one of the glories of New England, reach- ing their supreme development about ten years before the Civil War. Cod fishing was carried on extensively the first half of the nineteenth century and mackerel fishing followed. Wellfleet had seventy-five schooners in the mackerel trade at the outbreak of the Civil War. Den- nis, Harwich and Chatham were prominently engaged in either cod or mackerel fishing or both. Making salt by the evaporation of sea water was a prominent industry in 1850. Several hundred plants produced an annual output of a third of a million bushels. Whaling was at its maximum about 1840. In 1922 there were six whalers assessed in Provincetown. The story of whaling as carried on by Provincetown and other towns on the Cape and by Nantucket and New Bedford is told in several intensely interesting books written on the subject, in some instances by men who have lived their stories.
From 1800 until the Old Colony Railroad was built on Cape Cod, coasting trade furnished a lucrative business and the overseas trade was equally important. Cape Cod captains and seamen were well ac- quainted in most of the ports of the world.
Even though less unique, the conduct of the Cape Cod boys, on land and sea, in the Civil War was as commendable as in the Revolution and in the War of 1812. Following the Civil War there was a period of depression in industry as the invention of the steam engine revolu- tionized seagoing ships. Agriculture on the western farms came into competition with the east, even Cape Cod. Vessels became larger and some of the shallow harbors of the Cape ports could not receive them. Since that time the docks have gradually fallen into decay.
CHAPTER XLIII REMEMBER THE S-4 AND ITS MARTYRED CREW
Disaster Off Provincetown in December, 1927, Which Aroused the Conscience of the Nation-A Tragedy Which Dr. Fessenden, In- ventor of the Oscillator, Said Was "More Than Avoidable; It Was Criminal"-Congressman Gifford Hurried From Washington to be Convinced That Nothing Had Been Prepared to Guard Against a Repetition of Such Catastrophes-A Demand, Arising From the Tragedy, Says to Congress and the Navy Department, in the Words of Those Who Perished, "Please Hurry, Is There Any Hope?", In Behalf of Other Naval Officers and Men-"Taps," Sounded By Six Men, Shall Not Go Unanswered.
Off Provincetown, by the sea and of the sea, a town whose interests and industries have continuously, from earliest times, been oceanic, the United States Navy submarine S-4 was rammed and sunk Decem- ber 17, 1927, settling into several feet of ooze, one hundred and eight feet beneath the surface. There were forty men aboard the S-4, a sub- marine which, until the accident, was in first-class condition, possessing the facilities and equipment supplied all naval submarines at that time, for offensive and defensive operation. She was equipped with such safety means and appliances, if any, which could be depended upon if anything went wrong. Subsequent failures seem to justify the use of the words "if any," in this connection.
Immediately when the accident occurred, what had happened and the location were known to the officers of the vessel which gave the S-4 its death blow. Within a short time those who attempted a rescue of the forty men entombed in the wreck were in communication with six of those who were confined in the torpedo room, by means of tapping within and without the steel construction of the S-4. Divers were ob- tained from Boston and there was no unwillingness on their part to risk their lives by being sunk in the chilly water in a temperature close to freezing. On this day literally "The Breaking Waves Dashed High." A little more than one hundred feet below the rescue Armada, at least six entombed survivors were slowly suffocating, one of the number tapping by means of a hammer the information that the air was bad, six men were alive in the torpedo room. Then came the question : "Is there any hope?" and the plea "Please hurry."
The consolation signalled to the suffocating men was "We are doing everything possible."
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The salvage ship "Falcon," the mine sweeper "Mallard" and the sub- marine mother ship "Bushnell" took part in the attempted rescue work. The S-8, sister ship to the wrecked submarine, maintained a death watch above the S-4 and listened for the signals and looked for any sign of possible benefit to those depending upon quick and efficient work to save them from a horrible death.
Pontoons, chains and gear, a barrage load of such things, were on hand, under command of navy experts, presumably having all authority possible to do everything that could be done. The destroyer "Pauld- ing," which rammed and sunk the S-4, was badly damaged about her bow in the collision and unable to be of assistance. She was convoyed to the Boston Navy Yard.
No signals were received from victims on board the S-4 after the third day.
Opinions differ as to the truth contained in the words "Everything possible is being done." Opinions always differ in emergencies, when human judgment is called upon to make life or death decisions and when the decisions result in failure. There were old salts on Cape Cod, used to all sorts of emergencies and experiences, who averred that naval craft of the larger type could be lined up to make a floating wind- break, or breakwater, and oil bags could be employed to add to the effect of stilling the lashing seas. These means would have made it possible for divers to work during those desperate hours when they were not allowed to work.
Tremendous local interest was taken in the methods and efforts to- ward rescue, and criticism of apparent loss of time and unrolling of red tape became rife.
It finally became known that the position of the S-4 had changed and the navy did not know where it was. After the men had dragged for hours, a Coast Guard captain, native of Provincetown, formerly a fisherman, set out in a motor boat and within half an hour had located the S-4. The naval officers had spurned the advice of local mariners, notwithstanding salvaging ships from these waters had been some- thing in which the Cape Cod mariners had engaged since the landing of the Pilgrims.
Several years before every effort of the Navy had failed to dislodge the submarine S-19 when she was in a dangerous position among the sand bars off Orleans. A Cape Cod fisherman formulated a plan that resulted in salvaging that boat.
Men of Cape Cod, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Cuttyhunk and all the adjacent islands had lived a tradition which came down from the earliest days. Whenever there had been a wreck with human beings in danger of their lives, every effort was made to save them, no matter
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how desperate the changes or the dangers involved. The waters in this vicinity have been the watery graveyard of ships of every type in all ages and the men in this vicinity have been the heroes who have saved human lives or lost their own as a part of the day's work. It is only a village of such men, with such traditions, that such an exper- ience as the wreck of the S-4 and its attendant loss of all on board, can stir as Provincetown was stirred in those days just before Christmas of 1927.
Congressman Charles L. Gifford of Cotuit hurried home from Wash- ington, where Congress was in session, to get at the bottom of the wave of criticism heard on every side. After discussing matters with his constituents, the fishermen typical of the Cape Cod district which he represented, he said: "The navy is plainly not doing what it could do. The lack of apparatus with which the poor men, trapped under the water, might be saved is indefensible. It seems strange that in this area, where the submarines are continually operating, boats and ma- chinery are not available when a catastrophe like this occurs. The navy has had plenty of experience with the difficulties that have come when other submarines have been sunk, but nothing seems to have been prepared against a repetition of the appalling loss of life."
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