USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
In 1900, after much debate and deliberation, the Metro- politan Park Commission of the State of Massachusetts took
150
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
over the beaches, including land on the sea side of Long and Short Beaches, and on the harbor side of Long Beach. The town of Nahant acceded to this, in fact, its officials suggested it, but reserved to itself a fifty-foot strip containing its road. Within a year or so all buildings were removed from the Lynn end of the beach, including the old boat yards, which the Park Commission bought from their owners. A little later, in 1903, the present State bathhouse was erected, the traffic road built behind it, and conditions were as people have now become accustomed to them.
The following quotation is from the selectmen's report, in the Town Report of 1885:
Long Beach is the only road leading to and from Nahant, and we might add that its good roadway, its fine situation, and its charming views form one of the chief attractions of the town, not only to its own residents, but to those of adjoining towns. A drive over Long Beach road upon a summer's day or evening is, indeed, an event worthy of considerable effort and sacrifice. This beautiful avenue, with its attractions preserved and protected, as they have been in the past, is peculiar to Nahant. Deprive it of its natural beauties, or make it in the least dangerous to travel, and our peninsular will sink below the most commonplace of towns; but carefully keep and zealously guard it against the encroachments of the despoiler, sacredly maintain it as a pleasure park, as a place where all can enjoy a quiet drive with perfect safety, and we can offer to the world an attraction that is unequalled on our coast.
Any story of the beaches and the beach road should men- tion the two trees which were on the sea side about halfway over from Little Nahant, called the halfway trees. They were poplars, always badly weathered and leaning toward the quieter west part of the compass. No one knows exactly when they were set there, but they were weatherbeaten in the 70's. Perhaps it was in the 90's that one of them suc- cumbed. A photograph taken in 1893 shows only one. This last reminder of an old landmark was blown to pieces in a heavy shower on July 31, 1916. The situation is an exposed one, but doubtless a clump of trees, assisting each other against
151
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
the weather, would grow there, or anywhere along the beach, if given some soil and food and support.
The first steamboat service of any kind out of Boston seems to have been to Nahant, or to have included Nahant in its run. There was a reason for this. Even in the early days, before the town became a famous resort with hotels, it was a popular place for picnics and for excursions or visitors who would get a dinner or night accommodation at the few houses, all of which seem to have catered to this sort of trade. But the access over the beach was more or less difficult and always dependent upon the tides. It was natural, therefore, that a steamboat might look for good patronage by running to Nahant. Morison, in his "Maritime History of Massachu- setts," says, "Beyond a daily summer service to Nahant, which began in 1818, Boston had no steamboat facilities until 1824, when a Maine corporation established a line from Boston down east." The statement is interesting but needs slight modification to agree with what is here written.
The "Massachusetts" was the first steamer ever seen in Boston or vicinity. She was built in Philadelphia in 1816 for the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company, a group com- posed of Salem and Portsmouth hardy adventurers into new fields of investment. This was about ten years after Robert Fulton's initial voyage on the Hudson River. This latest and up-to-date vessel was about a hundred feet long and one hundred and twenty tons' gross measurement, with a crude form of walking beam engine. No good picture of her is extant. Her propulsion was by groups of vertical oars rather than the later revolving paddle wheels. On April 25, 1817, she left Philadelphia for New York, but broke down on the way and got to port partly in tow and partly by a sail set on the single mast she had. She arrived at Salem on June 5 after much more delay, and was repaired and altered rather continuously during her whole existence, so that confidence in her ability to reach a destination was impaired, and it seems that people patronizing her did so chiefly from curiosity and when time was no object. During July and August of
152
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
1817 this steamer made excursions to Gloucester, Marblehead, Nahant and Boston, so the Salem papers say. In the fall she was sold and was wrecked in an attempt to go south to Mobile, Alabama. The new adventure into steam shipping was finan- cially disastrous to this Salem company, and they seem to have dropped their enterprise. These early steamboats give emphasis to the old slander why boats are of the feminine gender. They were coy, uncertain and hard to please.
A smaller steamer, the "Eagle," was built in Connecticut and launched in April, 1817. She was of eighty-two tons' burden and ninety-two feet long. Just what she did in 1817 is not very clear from available records, but the Boston news- papers in 1818 carried an advertisement that the "Steamboat 'Eagle' leaves this morning for Nahant at nine and returns to Boston at twelve noon. She will return to Nahant precisely at three and leave there at half past six." Another Boston notice says she arrived a few days since from Nantucket "for the purpose of gratifying the inhabitants of this town and vicinity with the repetition of those pleasant excursions down the harbor, with which they were so much delighted last summer, in the steamboat 'Massachusetts.'" Other adver- tising of this season shows that she ran to Hingham. From the files of the "Columbian Centinel," however, there seems no doubt that in 1818 and 1819 the "Eagle" ran chiefly to Nahant.
J. L. Homer writes: "With some thirty others, in the year 1819, I was a passenger in the steamboat 'Eagle,' Capt. Wood, the first boat, I believe, that ever ran to Nahant regu- larly. She made three trips a week, that year, to Nahant, and three to Hingham. Capt. Wood was a gentleman of the old school, a man of polished manners, good conversational powers, and hospitable feeling; there are but few of that stamp now in existence, the race is fast disappearing, and, I am apprehensive, will soon be extinct." "The 'Eagle' was usually three hours in making her trip to Nahant, and the same time back; and she was considered a wonderfully swift boat." This was written about 1845 and already the writer
Joseph's Beach in the Seventies
Four houses on the beach: right, George Peabody, Thomas B. Curtis, John Amory Lowell; left, Charles R. Green; others are less prominent
Nahant Road westerly, before High Street crossed to the Left "Truck House" on corner, on lot now occupied by Police Station
153
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
thinks he sees signs of modern froth and superficiality. It is only an example of what is said in every generation, that the Golden Age lies behind us. It was said in old Greece and ever since. As it never has been true, perhaps it is not true, and never will be true for anything like the reasons which commonly cause the sighing statement.
The steamboat "Massachusetts" later mentioned seems to have been a second of the name. Picture and description are different for the two, and there is record of disaster to the first. This second "Massachusetts" appears to have been built in Philadelphia in 1817. She is advertised (see the "Salem Register" for the summer of 1820) to run from Boston to Salem, touching at Nahant and Marblehead, as was like- wise the "Eagle." It looks like two boats, with competition. The "Eagle" continued running on this line through 1821, and was then sold and broken up. The second "Massachu- setts" ran until 1825. Here follows a list of the steamers running to Nahant. Of course they showed rapid development from the uncertainties of early design and construction, but no specific comment is important for most of them.
1817
"Massachusetts."
1818-25
"Eagle" and "Massachusetts" (2d). ·
1826-27
"Patent." ·
1828-29
"Housatonic." ·
1830
"Rushlight " and "Housatonic."
1831
"Fanny."
1833-35
"Hancock" and "Fanny."
1836
"Mt. Pleasant."
1837
"Kingston."
1838
"John Jay."
1839
"Thorn." .
1840
"Hope." .
1841-47
"General Lincoln" (1st).
1848
"Nahanteau."
1849
"King Philip."
1850
"Suffolk."
1851
"Norwalk." .
1852
"Clifton."
1853
"Queen of May."
1854-61
"Nelly Baker."
1862
"Nequsset." .
1832
"Connecticut."
154
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
1863
"General Berry."
1864
"Clinton."
1865
"Orient."
1866-76
"Ulysses" and "Meta."
1877
"Eliza Hancox."
1878-80
"Meta" and "Eliza Hancox."
1881-83
"Nahant," later the "General Lincoln" (2d).
1884
(No boat).
1885
"General Bartlett."
1886-87
"Julia."
1888-89
"Anita."
1890
"Frederick de Bary."
1891-1903
"Frederick de Bary" and "City of Jacksonville."
1904
"Mt. Desert" and "Beebe."
1905
"New Brunswick" and "Favorite."
1906
"Cimbria " and "Pokanet."
1907-10
"General Lincoln" (2d) and "Governor Andrew."
1911
"General Lincoln" and "Cape Cod."
1912
"General Lincoln" and "Martha's Vineyard."
1913-16
"General Lincoln" and "Machigonne."
Besides this list there is evidence that boats running to Maine, after 1824, stopped at Nahant. Newspapers for 1826 mention the "Legislator" as stopping at Nahant on her way to Portland and Bath. This list is quoted from Johnson's "History of Nahant," and the source of his information is not known.
The "Housatonic" was captained in 1828 and 1829 by Francis Johnson, one of the Nahant Johnsons, a son of Joseph Johnson and grandson of Jonathan Johnson. This gave him his familiar title of "Cap'n Frank." Probably the best known of all these boats was the "Nelly Baker." She was built expressly for this line by the Nahant Steamboat Company of which Daniel C. Baker of Lynn was a prime mover. He was Lynn's third mayor in 1853, her fourth year as a city. This steamer was named for Baker's daughter, and was of three hundred and three tons' burden, one hundred and fifty-three feet long. She was considered the fastest boat in Boston Harbor. During the Civil War she was used in southern waters as a transport and hospital ship. She was sold in 1866 and seems to have been rebuilt and renamed, as all trace of her disappears. In the early 80's another Nahant steamboat
155
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
company was formed of which a prominent Nahant summer resident, E. Francis Parker, was the leading spirit. They built the "Nahant," which ran for three years with indifferent financial success, and was then sold to the Nantasket Steam- boat Company who renamed her the "General Lincoln."
The year 1884 was the first year with no boat from Nahant to Boston, after sixty-seven years of continuous service. During the summer it seemed a great lack, this absence of boat transportation to Boston, and at a special town meeting in December the question was raised if the town should ask authority from the State Legislature, by a special act, to subsidize this service. There was a tie vote of 39 to 39, but the selectmen nevertheless proceeded to ask for and get a special act allowing the town to spend not over $2,500 a year for this purpose. At another special meeting on May 15, 1885, this act was unanimously accepted, and $2,500 for a subsidy was appropriated. It would appear that some good arguments were used in the interim between these meetings, to turn a tie vote to a unanimous yes vote.
Then began a hunt for a boat, and here comes upon the scene a figure familiar to old Nahanters, Captain Joseph B. Ingersoll, who in his later years made his home on Nahant, buying a house on Willow Road, second eastward from "Hotel Tudor." Captain Ingersoll and Joseph T. Wilson, chairman of the selectmen, scoured the coast to find a steamboat for service in 1885 and some people who would run her on the Nahant line. The best they could get in the short time before the season opened was the small screw propeller steamer "General Bartlett." Ingersoll was captain. Prior to this he had been pilot on the "Nahant" under Captain A. W. Calden, whom many old Nahanters remember, and had begun on the Nahant to Boston run in 1870 on the "Ulysses." Then followed the "Julia" and "Anita" with Captain Ingersoll, until, after many conferences with Frederick De Bary of an importing firm in New York which owned two steamers desirable for this service, contracts were made under which the "De Bary" and "Jacksonville" were operated for fourteen summers beginning
156
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
in 1890. Ingersoll was captain of the former a part of the time, in the later years. During this period the De Bary interests were sold to the Clyde Steamship Company which continued to operate. The two boats were used on the St. John's River in Florida in the winter season, and this made a desirable business combination for them. Finally, however, it was deemed a hard trip along the coast, and the Clyde Company gave up sending them north. The boats were of light draft and received a bad battering around Cape Hatteras on more than one run between the two routes of business. Captain Ingersoll retired in 1904 and died on Nahant in 1913. Captain Thomas W. Lund will be remembered in this service with these boats, because of their long use here. Subsequently he was the Clyde Company's port captain at Jacksonville, Florida. The Clyde Company then ran other boats until after 1906, when they gave up and declined to renew the con- tracts. These various contracts were made with the town of Nahant and called for specified trips to Tudor Wharf for which the subsidy was to be paid. Bass Point had come to the front as an amusement resort, and most of the traffic was to the Bass Point Wharf.
Then came the formation of the Boston, Nahant and Pines Steamboat Company, which took up the service in 1907 and continued until 1916. Fred A. Wilson of Nahant was presi- dent of this company, and most of the money was from Lynn investors. Lawrence F. Sherman, then a young man living on Nahant, since moved to New York, was the leader in organizing this group, and was its manager during the whole period of its operation. The company bought several boats and hired others. Its first purchase was the "General Lincoln" and "Governor Andrew" from the Nantasket Steamboat Com- pany in 1907, and these two boats were run together until the "Andrew" was burned just prior to the opening of the season of 1911. During these years of operation an attempt was made to establish service from Nahant to Revere Beach, where a new amusement pier was built. No success attended. Part of the trouble was in getting light draft boats in to the
157
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
Revere Wharf, Revere Beach being a long beach with shoal water extending an unusual distance from land. This com- pany met very indifferent financial success. In 1916 the line stopped, chiefly because the next season saw the government using, even commandeering, all craft which were useful for war purposes. They took the "Machigonne" and one or two smaller boats and service to Nahant was suspended. There seemed no incentive to continue, and as quickly as possible, although it took several years, the affairs of the company were settled and the company went out of existence. Since that time there has been some service to Bass Point, but nothing continuous or very persevering. The first year was 1924, when the Dixon Line started running. The automobile appears to be the popular means of locomotion, and the steamboat no longer is the easiest way to get to Nahant.
Two steamboat disasters, the "Eastland" in Chicago and the "Slocum" in New York, were followed by a heavy increase in requirements on the part of Federal government for excur- sion steamers. This meant more men, more small boats carried, and some alterations, with more rigid inspection. The Nantasket line, with whose fares the Nahant line felt it must keep pace, was rated an inside line, and the Nahant line an outside line with heavier requirements. Here was another handicap which bore heavily. Protests that the Nahant line ran only in summer, and was never more than ten minutes away from beaching possibilities, were unavailing. It was classed with lines which ran the year round, meeting the greater stress of winter conditions, and which were several miles from land at some parts of their runs. Thus ended a business venture into which many people entered with an enthusiasm which the years of experience modified. It is said that at least some of this company's stockholders felt that not all who dig are archeologists.
The "Ulysses," which ran here in the 70's and earlier, also touched at the Point of Pines. This place had a large hotel and was a prominent amusement resort hardly remembered as such by any one under fifty years of age. The wharf was
158
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
below the present Pines Bridge on the Boulevard, and some of the old piling of it may still be seen. A channel was dredged to allow so deep draft a boat as the "Ulysses" proper access at all tides. The "Meta" which ran during part of this same period as well as later, made landings in Lynn in some seasons. She was a smaller boat, fit for the shallower channels. She touched at the old Black Rock Wharf, all trace of which has now disappeared.
Then from 1894 to 1918 were the regular runs of the Lynn Steamboat Company with the "E. W. Rice," the "Canestota" and a third used at times on Sundays and holidays. These ran to the Relay House Wharf in Nahant and to Breed's Wharf in Lynn. They could compete favorably with the old barge lines to Nahant, but the coming of the street railroad took off the edge of the business and made further operation less profitable.
A citation from an address delivered in Boston about 1836 may well close this story of steamboats. It was by J. L. Homer.
Of the progress of steam and the increase of steamboats in our own country, we all of us have a familiar knowledge. Thirty years ago there was not one in existence in the civilized world; now there are thousands of them, crowding every bay and river from the Penobscot to the Missouri, and their number is increasing with a rapidity which knows no bounds.
The introduction of steam carriages into America is an event of so recent occurrence that none of us can be ignorant of its importance, as identified with the growth and prosperity of our common country. When we remark the progress of these flying machines, with their long trains of cars and passengers, dashing on with fire and smoke through towns and villages at the rate of twenty and thirty miles an hour, we are forcibly reminded of the remark that the steam engine is the most brilliant present ever made by philosophy to mankind.
And as it is the opinion of many wise men that steam is as yet in its infancy, who knows but some who are here congregated today may, before the year 1850, travel in a floating palace at the rate of thirty miles an hour. Dr. Lardner informs us that he has proved by repeated experiments that when the speed of a boat is increased beyond a certain limit, its draught of water is rapidly diminished,
159
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
and that he has no doubt that the increased speed of steamers is attended with a like effect; that, in fact, they rise out of the water so that, although the resistance is increased by reason of their increased speed, it is diminished in a still greater proportion by reason of their diminished immersion. If this theory is correct, and I see no reason to doubt it, what is to prevent the occurrence of which I speak.
An interesting feature of this address of 1836 is its reference to a comparatively recent development of speed boat built to get out of the water and decrease her resistance. For larger boats, to which the prophecy was applied, increase in size, weight and stability became the more important factors; but still they are driven through the water at greater speeds than the speaker dares to name. One might wish this prophet had spoken of other things, but doubtless he could not anticipate all the elements of today's high-speed life. Especially hard would he find it to appreciate the fact that the faster we go the less important is our errand.
CHAPTER XI
THE SEA SERPENT
BURKE said, "Superstition is the religion of the feeble minds." There are few people who have not at least some one pet superstition, while in many a generation past it played an important part in life. Not far from Nahant were enacted the scenes of the Salem witchcraft delusion. But there was a time when the fabled sea serpent appeared at Nahant, with suitable showings also at other points along the North Atlantic coast. Of course, there is no such animal, and never was nor ever will be such an animal - or reptile, if he is a reptile. A hundred years or more ago he made so much news for the newspapers and chat for the chatterers that some space must be allowed in order to tell about him. His existence was supported by people whose credibility may not be questioned. And yet it is questioned. The problem seems to be, did some prehistoric monsters survive in the ocean depths, breeding their kind in successive generations, and did one finally stray from its habitat to be seen by men. It might be an example of variability in the activity of a species, which is one of the sorts of things which made evolution possible, - that evolu- tion which was finally spread upon a generation which could say scientists believed men descended from monkeys. This is another instance of a thing that is not so, and never was and never will be so. These "are nots," "were nots" and "will nots" are very dogmatic at times. But scientists never did say such a thing, that much is certain.
An early mention of the friendly sea serpent is in the journal of Obadiah Turner, other citations from which are given elsewhere. Under date of September 5, 1641, he writes:
Prof. Louis Agassiz
From "Life, Letters and Works of Louis Agassiz." Published by Macmillan Company, 1896
Henry W. Longfellow
From "American Men of Letters" Series. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 1902
William H. Prescott
From a photogravure of a drawing by George Richmond, Esq., R.A. Published by A. W. Elson Com- pany, Belmont, Mass.
John Lothrop Motley
. From etching by W. H. W. Bicknell. Published by A. W. Elson Company, Belmont, Mass.
161
THE SEA SERPENT
Some being on ye great beache gathering of clams and seaweed wch had been cast thereon by ye mightie storm did spy a most won- derful serpent a shorte way off from ye shore. He was as big round in ye thickest part as a wine pipe; and they do affirme that he was fifteen fathom or more in length. A most wonderful tale. But ye witnesses be credible, and it would be of no account to them to tell an untrue tale. Wee have likewise heard yt at Cape Ann ye people have seene a monster like unto this, wch did there come out of ye sea and coile himself upon ye land mch to ye terror of them yt did see him. And ye Indians doe say yt they have manie times seene a wonderful big serpent lying on ye water, and reaching from Nahaun- tus to ye greate rock wch we call Birdes Egg Rocke; wch is much above belief for yt would be nigh upon a mile. Ye Indians, as said, be given to declaring wonderful things, and it pleaseth them to make ye white peeple stare. But making all discounte, I doe believe yt a wonderful monster in forme of a serpent doth visit these waters. And my praier to God is yt it be not ye olde serpent spoken of in holie scripture yt tempted our greate mother Eve and whose poison hath run downe even unto us, so greatlie to our discomforte and ruin.
Here is mention of clams cast up on Long Beach by the storms. Even as this is written in 1927, nearly three hundred years later, another storm has cast up clams in such profusion that many barrels are collected and sold to the markets. Some of them are called sea clams and some are quahogs, or qua- haugs, as was the old Indian name for the large, round clam.
The greatest furor at Nahant over the sea serpent seems to have been in 1819, although it is said to have been seen at other places in the two years previous. In August many hundreds of people gathered on Long Beach on two days, attracted by the rumor that his snakeship was to be seen. Depositions were taken which tell of its appearance. It was said to be from fifty to seventy feet long and as large as a barrel, moving swiftly through the water with head up. In 1849, at a lecture in Philadelphia, Professor Louis Agassiz said :
I have asked myself, in connection with this subject, whether there is not such an animal as the sea serpent. There are many who will doubt the existence of such a creature until it can be brought under the dissecting knife; but it has been seen by so many on
162
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
whom we may rely, it is wrong to doubt any longer. The truth is, however, that if a naturalist had to sketch the outlines of an Ichthy- osaurus or a Plesiosaurus from the remains we have of them, he would make a drawing very similar to the sea serpent as it has been described. There is reason to think that the parts are soft and perishable, but I still consider it probable that it will be the good fortune of some person on the coast of Norway or North America to find a living representative of this type of reptile, which is thought to have died out.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.