Cape Cod History

1893: Square-rigger Jason shipwrecked off Truro

Cape Cod lives up to its reputation as the graveyard of sailing ships

On this day in 1893 - "Lifesavers of Nauset station saw through the flying snow of a northeast gale late this afternoon ... the outline of a large square-rigger, close in shore. They sensed trouble, and they notified stations all along the backside. Soon the north patrol of Nauset saw her; then Cahoons Hollow; then Pamet River. At dark, the glow of a signal from the north patrol of Pamet gave the alarm. She had struck near the station; offshore 300 yards her dim outline could be seen, and above the storm's roar, her sails could be heard slatting against the spars.

"Already her end was near; life savers shot their lines over the big ship, but no answering pull came. Soon wreckage came piling ashore, then, clinging to a bale of jute, one young Englishman. He was Samuel Evans, 18, an apprentice seaman and only survivor of the 25 men of the crew of the British ship Jason, an iron ship of 1,511 tons burthen, belonging in Greenock, Scotland, and carrying jute from Calcutta to Boston. Of her cargo of 10, 816 bales of jute, worth $160,000, only 670 were picked up on shore."

- as described by Donald G. Trayser in "Cape Cod Historical Almanac"

(photo credit, http://wotan.liu.edu)