Cape Cod Maritime Disasters

Cape Cod Maritime Disasters: A collection of photographs of maritime accidents around Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard.

The waters around Cape Cod contain the remains of thousands of shipwrecks. The Cape extends forty miles out into the Atlantic Ocean and has been a natural enemy of ships since man began sailing these waters early in the seventeenth century. Early photographers labored with horse and buggy transportation, and large heavy glass plate cameras to make spectacular views of wrecked schooners and square riggers, victims of the northeast storms that frequent the Cape Cod coastline. There have been many historic storms that have hit the outer shores of this exposed Massachusetts peninsula: the hurricane of August, 1635, the gale of October 3, 1841, the northeast storm of December, 1873, and the Portland gale of November 26-27, 1898. All of these gales did heavy damage to shipping along the coast and cost hundreds of lives. The Coast Guard worked to save as many sailors as possible, but Mother Nature always had the upper hand and she made the final judgment. There is a wide variety of disaster photographs in this book, ranging from groundings and sinkings, to loss by fire and explosions, along with fascinating and intriguing stories of interesting Cape Cod shipwrecks.

Illustrated with more than 200 black-and-white photographs and drawings.

Bibliography.