USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 10
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
tone that meant what sailors alone can fully understand. Soon all hearts grew light, and the oars were pulled with such a force as they had never felt from human hands before. Words were few, as all approached the brig, miles away from the Island, rocking in the deep troughs, with her tall masts almost lying flat upon the sea first on one side and then on the other.
How could she then be boarded ? Her lee side was carefully approached, and as it came to the water's edge, the little boat was there, a sailor leaped upon the brig's gunnel, and hove a line back to his comrades, who then came àstern, went aboard, hoisted sail, and next morning were in Newport, where their well-earned $2,500 in gold were laid before them, but by unfortunate advice they declined to accept it, claimed salvage, spent about $1,000 in a law suit, and at last took the money stipulated in the contract.
MARY AUGUSTA.
A schooner, Capt. J. W. Holt, of Ellsworth, Me., laden with two hundred and seventy-three tons of coal for Somerset, Mass., in a severe storm on the 4th of April, 1876, was driven upon the shore near Sandy Hill, at nine o'clock P. M. "As she struck she inclined slightly sea- ward, so that the waves broke over her deck. The men sprung aloft, and there for seven hours clung to the rig- ging, a storm of snow and rain beating upon them, and the cold waves sweeping white below. They were seen in the morning, and a boat manned by Messrs. Edward Hayes, John Dunn, Augustine Dunn, and Edward Sprague suc- ceeded in bringing them ashore in safety. There were four men and the captain. They had not slept for two nights, and were almost exhausted. They went to the house of Edward Champlin near by where they found the comforts of home." Her cargo was taken out, and she was got off, and taken to Newport.
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MODERN WRECKS.
THE "MAYS."
The singular coincidences occurred on this Island of two schooners of the same name, " May," in the month of May, 1876, from the same port at the same date, of the same destination, coming ashore on the same day, the 21st, and at nearly the same point, the southwest part of the Island, one at 7.30 P. M., and the other at 8.00 P. M. The first, the Catherine May, a two-mast schooner, Capt. Davis, was got off on the 24th by the Old Wrecking Company of the Island, and taken to Newport for $2,000 ; and the second, the Henry J. May, a three-mast schooner, Capt E. E. Blackman, was got off on the 22d, by the same com- pany, badly damaged, and taken to Fall River by two steamers, for $3,000. These, like many others, would have been a total loss had it not been for the immediate action of the Island wreckers.
The multitude of wrecks upon the Island is indicated by the following facts : In about the year 1850, in Sep- tember, six vessels came ashore in one day. About the year 1846, the same number came ashore the same day in June. A catalogue of all grounded here during the past century, would doubtless approach, or perhaps, exceed a thousand in number. Many of these were got off unin- jured, or but little damaged. Steamers have grounded here many times without serious disaster.
It is ascertained that during fourteen years, from 1854 to 1868, the loss of property by wrecks on the Island amounted to the sum of $378,000. A visitor here can hardly turn his eyes without having in sight pieces of wrecked vessels, used for posts in fences, gates, and for hitching horses, and in buildings. Nearly all the harrows of the Island have teeth made of ship-bolts. The posts of a long piece of fence near Sandy Point are from the timbers of vessels.
12
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WRECKING.
Wm. P. Lewis, Esq., Secretary of the " Old Protection Wrecking Company of Block Island," furnishes the fol- lowing facts. During the last seventeen years it got off from the shores of said Island and Point Judith, twenty- one schooners, five barks, and three brigs. The amount of property thus saved has been equal to about one mil- lion and two hundred thousand dollars, besides those vessels saved by the New Wrecking Company. During these seventeen years five schooners were lost on the Island, valued at $120,000. Previous to the organization of said Old Company the vessels lost and stranded on the Island far exceeded, during the preceding seventeen years, those saved during the last seventeen years.
The wreckers take all the risk of losing their property, their lives, and failing to get their wreck into port, in which case they receive no pay. Once the Old Company raised a wreck, put all pumps to work, and raised water through the hold by pulleys, and started for New London, towing the hulk with a little tug. A short distance from the Island they were struck by a sudden, fearful storm, and the seas rolled and pitched wreck and tug so that all on board expected to perish. They weathered the gale by keeping the fire of the tug from extinction.
The Old and the New Wrecking Companies here have done much to save life and property. The Old Company existed several years without a competitor, and while they received none too much for the risk and expense they incurred, their receipts were considerable. The New Company was organized a few years ago with a desire to share more largely in those receipts. The two Companies, however, "threw together," and shared equally for the removal of wrecks until the spring of 1876, when it was found best to separate entirely. Each company is amply furnished with empty casks for raising, and " gear " for
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hauling off; but their dangerous work is likely to be greatly diminished in future by the additional light-house recently erected, by the fog-signal here, and also by the greater familiarity with the Island obtained by vessels that now come here for the protection of the new govern- ment harbor.
The following account is given as a specimen of Block Island wrecking.
THE LAURA E. MESSER.
The Laura E. Messer, a three-masted schooner, of 700 tons burthen, Capt. J. F. Gregory, from Newport to Balti- more, in the early part of the winter of 1874-5, ran upon Sandy Point in a fair wind and not very dark night. She had a light cargo, a few hundred barrels of apples, and the delay in getting her off allowed the wind and tide to drive her high up on the bar, so that a high tide and strong wind were necessary to get her off again, making the work very dangerous, as at that point the heavy seas come up from the east and west sides of the Island and meet in fearful conflict over the bar on which she was lying, dashing each other into spray and billows in which the older Islanders have seen terrible sights of perishing men pleading for help when none could possibly be ren- dered.
With such danger before them two wrecking companies here, Christian men, bargained with the captain to get her off, and as many are not familiar with the skill and courage necessary in dangerous wrecking the following particulars are given.
To take this vessel from her bed in the sand required such a power as no large steamer could apply; it must be unyielding, and it was expected to be against strong wind and tide. For that power needed to be applied hourly for perhaps weeks or months in order to be constantly ready
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
for the favorable storm and tide combined. Thus it was arranged, and the men were ready, their gear consisting of immense hawsers, smaller ropes, blocks, anchors, etc. An ingenious network of ropes over the deck, fastened to stanchions, masts, and windlass, distributed all the power to all parts of her, and also concentrated it all on two great hawsers that led from the bow to the anchors out in the ocean, one of them extending out 2,100 feet. To this were attached three heavy anchors at proper distances from each other. The other hawser ran out parallel with the first, 960 feet, and to this was added a chain 450 feet long, making a cable 1,410 feet in length, and to this were attached two heavy anchors. One of these five anchors was sufficient to hold a ship in an ordinary storm, but they all had a power applied to them that at times would move them. This was done by means of the windlass and pul- leys on the deck-"The best windlass," the old captains said, "that they had ever seen."
Trim and beautiful, with her tall, perpendicular masts, there she sat upon the beach " high and dry," and every timber groaning in sympathy under the terrible strain. Moons waxed and waned, tides rose and fell, storms from the wrong direction came and went, and only a little gain was secured by wheeling her bow towards the deep. Almanacs were consulted for moons and tides, and as the highest tide came at midnight, then the wreckers were to be ready for action. On that night, amid the storm, Mr. Day and I walked four miles to see her off, and O, what a sight was around that vessel! Such a commotion where the " two sea smet !" Such a roaring of wind and waves! Some had gone aboard in the early evening. Others were asleep at the light-house close by, until twelve o'clock at night. Then the old " sea-lions " rose, lighted their pipes, and put on their oil suits with a solemn silence like that when men go into battle. They knew their danger, for if
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WRECKING.
she should leave the beach and be hauled out to her anchors it was possible for her hawsers to chafe and break, and then she would be driven upon the bar again amidst breakers where every life must be lost. With lantern in hand, Mr. Day and I stood upon the shore in the howling storm and saw the wreckers one by one ascend the ladder leaning against the wreck. Soon we heard the rattle of the windlass, and we watched patiently for the " jump," as she might rise upon a swell and quickly yield to the strain from her anchors. Her masts were seen in the dim light to sway a little, but she hesitated, until the wind shifted, the tide fell, the waves were cut down, and she stayed, while Mr. Day and I walked home through falling and drifting snow, and retired at half-past four, A. M., to get a snatch of "Nature's kind restorer," fully convinced that "there is a tide in the affairs of men."
How many more moons must wax and tides flow before another favorable combination of wind and tide should occur, not one of Daboll's almanacs could tell. The num- ber of pipes to be filled and smoked while discussing the damage likely to be done to that $5,000 gear, none could guess. At last the day came. Wreckers from all parts of the Island were there. At sunrise she " jumped " at the chance to leave the bar, as a heavy surge for an instant lifted her from the sand, and she darted for the deep water. The wind was " off shore," and she went beyond her anchors, wheeled about, as if to look back at the place of her confinement. With no cargo, light, and bow to the wind, she seemed to writhe with impatience to escape, while we on shore rejoiced that she was off and no lives lost. After waiting an hour we saw her last anchor weighed and hawser slipped, and a scene was before us so beautiful that in a quarter of a minute we were paid for all of our long, stormy walks to the wreck. It was during that instant when, like a living creature, as she was trying 12*
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
to get away, she was completely freed, a huge swell lifted high her noble prow, the gib was hoisted, the gale struck it, and she wheeled so hurriedly and seemed to say,- " Good-by, Block Island ! You'll not catch me there again !" as her colors were run up and she proudly began her flight for Newport over the foaming billows in splendid condition.
But the best of it all is yet untold. Ordinarily, in such a wrecking job everything movable is stolen. In this, while the wreckers had access to all parts of the vessel, not a thing was molested, and the captain said he did not lose so much as a piece of rope-yarn. Why was this exception? The wreckers were Christians. More than a barrel of whiskey would have been drunk, ordinarily, during so many weeks of working in cold winds and sleet by day and by night. But here, though offered by one of the officers of the vessel, not a gill was taken, because the wreckers were Christians. Ordinarily, among sailors, there is much profanity, but the absence of it among these one hundred wreckers was remarkable. Their few words had the firm tone of experience, softened by the friendly, Christian tone of brethren. Many of them, in years gone by, had been companions in vice. Now they were brethren together in the same Baptist church. A year before they had stood side by side in the house of God, with tears and contrite hearts asking for prayers, and there they had knelt together and plead for pardon through the crucified Redeemer. Scores of them had come into the liberty of the gospel together during the revival when, (in a population of only 1,200,) 121 were bap- tized into the same church. What a revival the same pro- portion of a large city would be !
Such are the Christian wreckers of Block Island, and the world may well thank God that there is one little spot
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on earth where the unfortunate mariner need not be afraid of robbery, profanity, or drunkenness.
It should also be mentioned that the hospitality at the light-house near the wreck will not soon be forgotten. The keeper, and his Baptist wife, had their table set, and their fires burning day and night for crew and wreckers, and it is believed that more than 500 meals were there furnished gratuitously. That house is the successor of the one
" Set at the mouth of the Sound to hold The coast light up on its turret old Yellow with moss and sea fog mould."
THE HARBOR.
The following facts, chronologically and briefly arranged under this subject, will doubtless be of increasing interest as one generation shall succeed another. That they are a proof of an unfaltering and commendable persist- ency originating on the Island none can deny, and pos- terity will honor those who have done most to identify by means of a permanent, public harbor this isolated point, commercially, financially, and socially with the great brotherhood abroad.
"There was no harbor." This was said, A. D. 1660, in the original memorandum of agreement to purchase and settle the Island. In 1665, Thomas Terry, one of the first purchasers, in behalf of the Islanders, presented a petition to the court of Rhode Island for assistance to build a harbor, and in response the Governor, his Deputy, and Mr. John Clarke, were appointed to visit the Island " to see and judge whether there be a possibility to make a harbor." Five years after, in 1670, the same petition was repeated by Thomas Terry and Hugh Williams, and in reply the Rhode Island Assembly appointed Caleb Carr, and Joseph Torrey, of Newport, to raise contribu- tions "to make a convenient harbour there, to the en- couradging fishing designs." It was about ten years before the results of this movement were visible.
GREAT POND HARBOR.
In 1680 the Islanders were thoroughly united in an effort which organized a Harbor Company with "liberty
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GREAT POND HARBOR.
and license to erect and build a harbor, or harbors upon the Island in any place." The town gave the company "all the land or meadow * gained by the making of the harbor or harbors." It also gave "two days work a year of each inhabitant," and also "the whole privilege of the harbor." Capt. James Sands was the leading man in this company, into which several new members were admitted, and acknowledged such before Chief Warden Simon Ray, Sept 14, 1686. This first harbor on Block Island was in the Great Pond, as the " land or meadow " produced by it must have come from lowering its water, and as no other water could be so reduced. This was done at a place on the west side of the Great Pond where only a narrow rim of sand sepa- rates it from the ocean, and hence that rim extending southerly and widening into arable land was subsequently known as "Harbor Neck."
In July, 1694, fourteen years after the Harbor Com- pany was organized, it surrendered to the town its charter, evidently because the enterprise was not successful. The following ordinance was then passed : "Voted at the Town Meeting upon Capt. Sands and James Sands' terms to the town to surrender up the harbor and harbor meadows to the Island, proceeded to accept of it and take and maintain it in good repairs and enter into mutual obligations for the performance thereof." Not long after this the town leased the harbor privileges to one Robert Carr, on the condition of his making certain harbor and fishing improvements. At this time the whole enterprise was declining. Mr. Carr did not fulfill his contract, and all reverted to the town again. In 1699 the Island made another contract with Robert Carr, Jun., granting him a parcel of land "lying on the Harbor Neck," on the con- dition of his "binding himself for to be forward in making a harbor and promoting the fishing trade accord-
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
ing to the obligation of his father, Robert Carr, Sen." Again the harbor reverted to the town, and in Sept., 1696, was made the following record of the enterprise of the people, and their great need of a harbor, showing also who were voters here then :
" Wee, the inhabitants of Block Island, considering the manyfold dangers, trobles, defucoltys and perels wee are liable to with respect to the exporting and emporting our goods, the chefe cause of which Is for want of the con- venienst of a harbur ; wee therefore Eunanimusly agree as foloeath, That is to say, leave [levy] Raise and pay one hundered pounds In mony or the treu valu, said mony to be levied proporsionally according to Each man's Estate both reall and pursonall, the one thurd of which shall be payed at or before the furst of Novembur next Inseuing the date hereof, one third at or before the first of July foloing and one third at or before the first of Septembr then next Inseuing: for the Reserving In and laying out of the same wee Intreat our loving frends and Neayth- bours Simon Ray and Mr. Edward Ball as Trustese In the townes behalf to take the manegment of It one them: Wee also desier Mr. John Sands, Mr. Thomus Rathbone, Mr. Nath'll Mott, Mr. Edward Sands to bee undertackers of said worck. Wee also Intreat said Mr. Ray and Mr. Ball to apointe a meeting to chuse Valuators and Rate makers to proporsionate the above said. In conformation · as the above written wee bind our selves to each other, the defecttive to pay all dameges to the observemante one [on] defalte as witness our hands this third of September 1696."
John Baning, Trustrum Daudg,
Jobn Daudg,
John Ackers,
John Mitchell, William Rathbone,
James Danielson,
Simon Ray,
Thomas Mitchell,
Edward Ball,
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THE PIER.
Thomas Dickens,
Gregory Mark,
William Daudg,
Joseph Mitchell,
Joseph Rathbone,
Samuell Rathbone,
Thomas Rathbone, .
John Sands,
Nath'll Mott,
Edward Sands,
John Rathbone.
21 Freeholders, $25 average.
This new effort was crowned with only a temporary success for in June, 1705, the enterprise was abandoned, after a continuance of twenty-five years and great expense and anxiety. The principal reason assigned by the town was that by "the providence of God that a prodidgious storm hath broken down the above said harbor and laid it waste."
THE PIER.
In 1707 mention was made of the "Old Harbor," the one at the Breach, which also may imply the existence of a new one. The new one was evidently in the bay, on the east side of the Island, for in 1707 a highway was opened, running on the west side of the Great Pond "to Sandy Point." and thence "to the Harbor," that road being the same that now runs from Sandy Point to the present Harbor. For entering this new harbor, above- mentioned, in 1709, the town taxed each foreign vessel of over four tons burthen one shilling and six pence, and the same for each period of twenty-four hours she re- mained in it; and those of four tons burthen and less from abroad were taxed six pence for the same harbor privileges. Said harbor was subsequently known as " the Pier."
In a record of 1717, the Islanders spoke of their " Harbor Bay," and in this same year the town passed an act that foreign vessels, for entering their harbor, or fastening at their pier should be taxed as follows:
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
A vessel of four tons burthen, 010 A vessel of over four tons, and less than ten, 0 1 6
A vessel of ten tons and upward, 02 0
This act was repealed in 1718.
The new harbor, or pier, was serviceable about twelve years, until it, like the old one in the Great Pond at the " Breach," was destroyed by a storm. In 1723, the town petitioned the Rhode Island Assembly for assistance, and received in reply the following encouragement : " Where - as the town of New Shoreham, by petition, has laid before this Assembly the great damage they have sustained in losing their pier, in the late great storm, whereby there is scarcely any landing on said Island, to bring off any of their produce, nor no riding for vessels in a storm ; and also the great detriment, for the want of a pier at said Island, for the encouragement of the navigation of this colony, especially the fishery, which is begun to be carried on successfully, and that the inhabitants of the Island are not able of themselves to do the same.
" Upon consideration whereof, it is voted, and enacted by this Assembly, that the inhabitants of New Shoreham have liberty of gathering money by subscription, through- out this colony; and that the town of New Shoreham make a rate upon said town for completing the same."
THE NEW PIER.
This was the beginning of a new and vigorous effort which required much time and persistency to carry it on to success. The question of locating a third harbor was agitated, the first in the Great Pond, and the second in the bay, having both proved failures. Accordingly, in 1733, ten years after the commencement, the Rhode Island Assembly appointed a committee consisting of Governor William Wanton, Capt. Benjamin Ellery, Col. William Coddington, Mr. Joseph Whipple, Col. Joseph
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THE NEW PIER.
Stanton, Capt. John Potter, Capt. Wm. Wanton, Jr., and Mr. Geo. Goulding "to go over to Block Island to view the same, and consider of a convenient place to build a pier, or harbor, and of the charge, &c., and make report to the next General Assembly." In June, 1734, the Assembly appointed as " a committee to procure materials for building a pier at Block Island, and making a harbor there," Simon Ray, Peter Ball, Henry Bull, Wm. Brown, and Wm. Wanton, Jr., the first two being from the Island, and then Representatives, or "Deputies," in the General Assembly. This committee were authorized also "to go on with the work and perfect the same as soon as conven- iently may be," and accordingly they began the work of " cutting a passage through the beach." Where this was, except at the old pond harbor or near, it is not easy to imagine. In February, 1835, however, this project was stopped by an act of the General Assembly, which at the same time appropriated £1,200 for "making an addi- tion to the old pier, or building a new one." In August of the same year Capt. Simon Ray and Capt. Peter Ball were appointed by the Assembly "a committee to improve the £1,200 allowed to build a pier at Block Island, or repair the old one." In February, 1736, nothing had been done to the pier. The work was soon after begun. The old pier was preserved, and a new one built near it. Fre- quent storms were damaging both while the work was going on, and the money appropriated to build was spent to a considerable extent in repairing both piers. In 1742 the town petitioned the Assembly again for another appropriation, saying : " As your petitioners have been at great charges to repair the same, and their endeavors have hitherto been fruitless, by the frequent storms that have happened, before the same could be completed." In response £200 were appropriated, and drawn from the treasury by Capt. Edward Sands. In June, 1743, £400
13
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
were also appropriated by the State; to be paid only when the work was completed. In May, 1745, Messrs. Samuel Rodman, Teddeman Hull, and Abel Franklin, a State committee to view the pier, reported to the Assembly that they " found it to be completely finished."
This work was quite inadequate and was not of long endurance, and the town, in 1762, through a petition pre- sented by Messrs. Edmund Sheffield and Joseph Spencer, applied to the Assembly for a lottery charter, the avails of which were to be appropriated in making a harbor of the Great Pond, and in improving its fisheries. The lottery was granted, but was unsuccessful. In 1773, a similar petition, very ably drawn up, was presented in behalf of the town by John Littlefield and John Sands, asking for an appropriation of money, and hoping to raise all addi- · tional funds needed "by lotteries." The great need of a harbor then was set forth by the following facts : The necessity of swimming their horses, cattle, and sheep to the vessels and hoisting them aboard; high frieght on account of difficult landing; dangers of life, and damage to goods and animals ; value of a harbor to fisheries; the con- venience of the Great Pond for a harbor, and its fish; and the benefits to the Island, doubling the value of it by a good harbor; advantages to the colony, "and to the neigh- boring governments." The petition made the following record: "The most effectual remedy for all these evils may be provided by cutting a channel from the sea into the aforementioned pond, which is large enough to con- tain the whole British navy, and deep enough for any vessels in this colony. Between the sea and the pond there is a sand-bank about twenty rods wide, and on the pond side, ten feet of water within two rods of the bank, which soon increases to thirty feet; and on the side of the sea there is also a very fine bold shore; that a channel was formerly cut through the said bank, and became so
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