Our friend Bill Sargent reminded me that Massachusetts has the highest probability of all of the states to be hit by an ocean storm, when you include hurricanes and nor’easters. Here are a few stories…
The ”October Gale” of 1841 - A strong hurricane stayed offshore of the Carolinas in early October, 1841 As it continued moving north, it pulled cold air into its circulation and intensified as an extra-tropical storm, with a direct hit on New England on October 3. The Georges Bank fishing fleet was destroyed with the loss of 81 fishermen’s lives. The storm wrecked at least 190 vessels…
Deluge! An Eyewitness Account of the Mother’s Day Storm of 2006 - The spring of 2006 brought a paucity of rain that resulted in very dry conditions throughout Eastern New England. I remember noting the dryness of the landscape while patrolling through April into early May. Places normally exhibiting pools of standing water; the low ground west of Route One, Town Farm Road, and the Greenbelt property…
Ipswich after a snowstorm, circa 1900 - This photo was taken by Ipswich photographer George Dexter in the late 19th or early 20th Century from Town Hill above High Street, in the vicinity of Highland Cemetery. The First Church and Methodist Church steeples are in the background. Snow-covered Heartbreak Hill rises in the distance. Copies of this photo are in early print publications, but…
Awful Calamities: the Shipwrecks of December, 1839 - From: “Awful calamities: or, The shipwrecks of December 1839: “It has probably never fallen to the lot of the citizens of New England to witness or record so many terrible disasters by sea in the short period of fourteen days as have transpired within that length of time the present month. Three gales of unequalled fury and…
The Great Snow Hurricane of 1804 – New England Historical Society - On Oct. 9, 1804, a snow hurricane struck Eastern Massachusetts, crushing houses, killing dozens of people, destroying trees, smashing boats and taking the steeple off the Old North Church in Boston. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9, the temperature fell suddenly, and a thunderstorm of rain mixed with snow began. It rained in southern New…
Hurricane Carol, September 6, 1954 - These photos were taken after the September 6, 1954 storm knocked down trees and power lines all over Ipswich. Hurricane Carol devastated the Massachusetts south coast and Rhode Island, and was responsible for 65 deaths in New England and $642 million in damage. On September 11, Hurricane Edna hit New England with additional destruction. This image shows…
Wreck of the Watch and Wait, August 24, 1635 - Many ships and lives were lost in the Great Colonial Hurricane, including 21 passengers who had set out from Ipswich on August 21, 1635 on a small bark named “Watch and Wait.” As they rounded Cape Ann they were suddenly met by the force of the winds. Reverend John Avery, his wife and six children and…
The Ipswich lighthouse - In 1837 the U.S. government erected two 29′ towers for guidance to the mouth of the Ipswich River along with a lightkeeper’s residence. The lighthouses were aligned such that they would provide guidance into the river’s mouth. The westernmost tower soon was updated with a revolving light. The first keeper of the Ipswich Light was…
Mothers Day Flood, May 14-16, 2006 - Fourteen inches of rain fell between May 14 and May 16, 2006, creating the historic 2006 Mothers Day Flood.
John Winthrop’s journal of the ship Arbella’s voyage to America, March 29 – July 8, 1630 - On April 7, 1630, the Arabella was a week out from its port in England, and the last well-wishers returned to shore. The winds were finally favorable, and the ship weighed anchor and sailed for New England, with Governor John Winthrop and approximately 300 English Puritans on board, leaving their homes in England to settle in a fledgling colony.
The Great White Hurricane, March 11, 1888 - The Great White Hurricane of 1888 struck on the night of March 11 and continued furiously for two days, dumping as much as 60 inches of snow on parts of the Northeast.
A romantic tale from the Great Snow, Feb. 12-24, 1717 - Joshua Coffin’s history of Newbury recounts the romantic tale of Abraham Adams who walked three miles to visit his new wife Abigail, snowbound in her parents’ home during the Great Snow which began on the 21st of February, 1717. Snow fell up to six feet deep, with drifts as high as 25 feet, covering some houses over as high as…
Video: Crane Beach during the snowstorm - On the heels of the January 27, 2015 blizzard in which Ipswich received 28″ of snow, Christopher Sammartano bundled up for a bicycle ride on Argilla Road to check out the waves at Crane Beach. He posted this video on Youtube.
Mass Moments: 1978 Blizzard Paralyzes Massachusetts - Beginning February 5, 1978, the storm of the century paralyzed the entire state of Massachusetts. The Blizzard of ’78 dropped between two and four feet of snow on the Bay State in the space of 32 hours.
Wreck of the Hesperus, January 6, 1839 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem was inspired by the Blizzard of 1839, which ravaged the North Shore for 12 hours, starting on January 6, 1839. Twenty ships and forty lives were lost during the storm. The probable subject of the story is the schooner Favorite, which sank on a rock called Norman’s Woe off the coast of…
Death in a snowstorm, December 1, 1722 - Daniel Rogers graduated from Harvard in 1686 in his nineteenth year and first became the teacher of the Ipswich Grammar School. In 1702 he was admitted to practice law in the Ipswich Court.
The Spectre Ship of Salem - Cotton Mather related the tale of a doomed ship called “Noah’s Dove” which left Salem during the late 17th century for England. Among the passengers were “a young man and a passing beautiful girl pale and sorrowful, whom no one knew and who held communion with no one.” Many people in Salem supposed them to be demons…
Microburst strikes Ipswich, September 6, 2014 - A microburst or tornado touched down on Topsfield Road near our house on Mill Road, and hit again in the lot just beyond our house on Mill Road, shattering pine trees. Power on Mill Road went out with the storm on Saturday afternoon and did not return until almost 24 hours later, when they fixed…
The Great Colonial Hurricane and the wreck of the Angel Gabriel, August 25, 1635 - On the last Wednesday of May, 1635, the Angel Gabriel, a 240 ton ship set out from England, bound for New England. The ship had been commissioned as the Starre for Sir Walter Raleigh’s last expedition to America in 1617. It was stout and built for combat armed with 16 guns, but on this final…
Wrecks of the sand schooners - These are photos of two-masted sand schooners, several of which wrecked at Steep Hill Beach, Crane Beach and Plum Island. Sand schooners delivered sand from local beaches to Boston to be used in concrete for the construction industry. The captains would bring the schooners broadside to a beach at high tide and anchor the bow…
Jane Hooper, the Fortune Teller - This story is adapted from the Reminiscences of Joseph Smith and Reminiscences of a Newburyport Nonagenarian, and brings together no less than four incredible old tales.
Adrift on a Haystack, 1876 - A remarkable northeasterly storm on the 4th of December, 1786 caused most of the salt hay along the North Shore to be set afloat and lost in the tide. Samuel Pulsifer and Samuel Elwell, both of Rowley were digging clams on the flats in Plum Island Sound and got caught in the storm. The Rev. Ebenezer Bradford…
Wreck of the Falconer, December 17, 1847 - On December 17, 1847 the brig Falconer, loaded with bituminous coal, wrecked at Crane Beach (known then as Patch’s Beach), bound for Boston from St. John, New Brunswick. 36 crew members were rescued but 17 were lost at sea. Captain Joseph Rowlinson and his son, master Charles Robinson were buried in Belfast, Maine. Three bodies…
The “Blizzard of ’78,” February 5, 1978 - The “Blizzard of ’78“ raged from Sunday evening February 5 through Tuesday evening February 7. The highest total snowfall was 43.7 inches in Ipswich! Shown below are a few photos of the aftermath of the storm from the “Ipswich Today” newspaper. The Pavilion was completely destroyed (from “Ipswich Today,” February 10, 1978
Wreck of the Deposit, December 23, 1839 - The lighthouse located on Crane Beach was moved nine times because the channel to the harbor shifted, before finally being moved to Martha’s Vineyard. Every light keeper feared that at some time, especially at a critical time, the station would fail to provide guidance. Wreck of the Ada K. Damon, December 26, 1909 - Christmas, 1909 witnessed the heaviest storm in many years and is known by sailors on the Atlantic Coast as one of the most fateful days in the history of these waters. The “Great Christmas Snowstorm” struck the North Atlantic States hard as far south as Maryland. Philadelphia had 21 inches in 23 hours. The storm did…Filed under: History, Shipwrecks
