The wreck of the ship _Asia_, in which twenty lives were lost, occurred
on Nantucket shoals, near the Great Round Shoal Lightship in February,
1898. The ship was on her way from Manila for Boston, and was commanded
by Captain Dakin. Besides the crew of twenty-three men Captain Dakin’s
wife and little daughter were aboard.
The ship struck on the shoals during a furious northeast gale and
snowstorm on Sunday afternoon, but did not begin to break up until the
next day.
When the ship commenced to pound to pieces, the mate and the few
members of the crew who had not been swept overboard did all in their
power to assist Captain Dakin in shielding his wife and daughter from
being swept away by the seas which were breaking over the craft. Before
the ship broke up, the mate lashed the captain’s daughter and himself
to a big piece of wreckage, hoping in that way to reach the shore.
Captain Dakin and his wife were swept to death before they could fasten
themselves to any of the wreckage. Of the whole number aboard the
ill-fated craft but three were saved. These were sailors, who clung to
a piece of the ship, and after drifting about in Vineyard Sound for
several days, were picked up nearly dead and placed aboard one of the
lightships. The bodies of the mate, with his arms locked about the
captain’s daughter, and both securely lashed to a piece of wreckage,
were picked up a few days later in Vineyard Sound. Both had been frozen
to death. But few of the bodies of the other members of the crew were
found. The ship became a total loss, and the following day there was
not a vestige of her left to mark the spot where the tragedy took place.
[Illustration: SHIP ASIA WRECKED ON GREAT ROUND SHOAL.]
The schooner _Job H. Jackson_ was another terrible wreck that occurred
on Peaked Hill Bars. The schooner struck on Jan. 5, 1895, during
bitter cold weather, and the crew were driven into the rigging. A
fearful sea was pounding on the shore, and it required the combined
herculean efforts of the Peaked Hill Bars, Race Point, and High Head
life-saving crews, with their life-boats, to rescue the imperiled
seafarers, who were badly frost-bitten and helpless when taken from the
wrecked vessel.
The schooner _Daniel B. Fearing_, which became a total loss on the bars
off Cahoon’s Hollow Station, struck there during a fog on May 6, 1896.
The life savers put off to the wreck in their surf-boat, and brought
the crew ashore. A gale sprung up with great suddenness as the crew
were leaving the doomed vessel, and as the last man jumped into the
life-boat the masts of the big schooner fell with a crash, and the sea
soon completed the work of total destruction.
[Illustration: JOHN S. PARKER, WHICH BECAME A TOTAL LOSS ON NAUSET
BARS.]
On Sept. 14, 1896, the Italian bark _Monte Tabor_ struck on Peaked Hill
Bars during a furious northeast gale. The disaster was attended with
the loss of five men, whose deaths were involved in circumstances of
mysterious and almost romantic interest. Three were suicides, while
the manner in which the other two perished could not be certainly
explained. The bark hailed from Genoa, and carried a crew of twelve
persons, including the officers and two boys. She had a cargo of salt
from Trapani, Island of Sicily, for Boston. The craft had been struck
by a hurricane on September 9, and when off Cape Cod on the night of
the 13th, in endeavoring to make the harbor at Provincetown, she
struck the dreaded Peaked Hill Bars. She was discovered by Patrolman
Silvey, of the Peaked Hill Bars Station. The night was pitch dark,
the surf extremely high, and the bark was soon pounded to pieces. As
the life-saving crews could not locate the wreck, there was nothing
to shoot at and nothing to pull to, even if a boat could have been
launched. It is believed that the captain was so humiliated by the loss
of his vessel, that he fell into a frenzy of despair, and resolved to
take his own life, and it would appear that others of his crew followed
his example of self-destruction.
[Illustration: A TOTAL WRECK.]
[Illustration: STRUCK WITH ALL SAILS SET.]
Six of the crew managed to reach the shore on the top of the cabin,
and were pulled out of the surf by the life savers. Another, a boy,
said that he swam ashore. An investigation, conducted by the Italian
counsel, disclosed that the captain committed suicide.
The first evidence that the steamer _Portland_ had met with disaster
during the memorable gale of November, 1898, was found by John Johnson,
a surfman of the Race Point Station, who picked up a life-preserver
from the ill-fated craft.
[Illustration: WRECKAGE WHICH CAME ASHORE AFTER THE STEAMER PORTLAND
WAS LOST AND LIFE PRESERVER FROM THE ILL-FATED CRAFT.