Cape Cod History

1957: President Eisenhower to vacation on Cape Cod. 1924: Canal shares selling for a good price in New York

Presidents on Vacation;
Eisenhower May Visit Oyster Harbors on Cape Cod

On this day in 1957 rumors were flying that the very popular Republican President and hero-general of Allied Forces in World War II was going to spend his July Fourth Holiday on Cape Cod.

See, it isn't only Democrats (JFK and Clinton) who choose these sandy climes for their holidays, even a Kansan conservative like Dwight David Eisenhower came here too.

Doubts were raised because Congress was in the midst of an early Civil Rights bill and the President might have had to delay the visit for another week or two which in fact turned out to be the case as reports a week later stated.

His record and doll

As President, "Ike" Eisenhower oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System which extended Route I-95 to the Cape.

The political pin is from the 1952 election when he won the first of his two terms as President during the most peaceful eight years in the last half century.

The joke at the time was "Have you seen the new Eisenhower Doll? 

You wind it up and for eight years and it doesn't do a damned thing."
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1924: Three hundred Cape Cod Canal shares selling for $95,422.

On this day in 1924 the New York Times reported:

150 shares Boston, Cape Cod and New York Canal Company common; $95,4..69 lot. 215 shares Brooklyn Rapid Transit C0; $1 lot. l0 shares Mariner ]{arbor ... (See story on right.)

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2006: The day Cape Cod lost its Tugboat

On this day in 2006 we read the obit for the famous tugboat at the Bourne Rotary.  The stories about its demise are below, first from the NY Times and then from CC Today;

July 2, 2006
On Cape Cod, a Land Deal Leaves a Tugboat's Fate Hazy

BOURNE, Mass., For 24 years, a landlocked green tugboat has served as an unofficial welcome sign to this gateway to Cape Cod, a signal to excited children and traffic-weary adults that summer vacation is not far away.  This summer, however, will be its last in Bourne and possibly its last ever. The CVS drugstore chain plans to buy the property where the tugboat, the New York Central 16, sits, and scrap the boat to make way for a 13,000-square-foot store.

"Unless an organization is able to salvage it, it will be demolished a short time after closing," said Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for CVS, which expects to close on the land deal with the Hegarty Family Trust by mid-July.

The possibility of demolition has upset some residents and tourists, as well as a small but dedicated group of tugboat enthusiasts who are trying to save the steam-powered vessel... Officials in Bourne, however, have said they do not want the boat. It will cost about $250,000 to move the tug, which is structurally unsound, according to an analysis commissioned by the property developer; the town does not have the money. And a CVS would draw business to the area, said Thomas Moccia, president of the nearby Buzzards Bay Village Association... NY Times.
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Tugboat at Buzzards Bay Rotary to be destroyed

Shown above in better days around 1953 shoving a passenger liner around in New York's North River, old NY Central Tugboat #16 which has welcomed visitors to Cape Cod for a quarter century at the Bourne rotary may soon meet the wrecker's ball.

Landmark since 1982 to disappear unless $250,000 is raised fast
Group asks CVS to give it more time

In a story first reported here in January, the old tugboat which greets visitors to the cape at the Buzzards Bay rotary, may to razed very shortly without help from the public. #16 steam tugboat was launched in 1924, and she was rescued from a shameful death as a derelict in Witte's Junkyard in Staten Island, and moved to Bourne in 1982, see file photo on right  taken that year.

She was the last steam tug to remain afloat. Steam-powered tugs are from a by-gone era, and old #16 plied the waters of New York City Harbor for many years during her working lifetime.

CVS pharmacies is about to close on the property and says the structure is rotten and unsafe.  The boat received an 11th-hour reprieve recently because developers are in a dispute with the town over traffic lights on the property.The Boston Globe covered the boat's imminent demise today in this manner;

Bourne tugboat in need of rescue
Landlocked vessel faces demolition

By Megan Tench, Globe Staff, June 27, 2006

Ever since Charles Schneider was a teenager, an old tugboat, New York Central No. 16, signaled the start of his family's summer Cape Cod vacation as they drove past the landlocked vessel near the Bourne Bridge.

When Schneider, now 42, learned a few months ago that the old tug that fascinated him as a youth will be demolished soon to make way for a CVS pharmacy, the Raynham man started working to save the boat. But with an estimated $250,000 needed to rescue the tug, its future is murkier than the waters of New York Harbor it once plowed.

"I've been looking at this thing for the 24 years it has been sitting there and wondering what's going happen to it," Schneider said. "It's a shame really."  Developers said this month they plan to destroy the old tug...

Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below. 

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1963: First Lady on Cape for the holidays

We will never see her likes again

  The President and Jackie watching the America's Cup Race off Newport, RI, aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. on September 12, 1962 and alighting from the President's plane "Caroline" a few days earlier. The couple often visited her family's estate in Newport on their way to the Cape.

She made America more beautiful

On this day in 1963 the press was reporting that Jackie Kennedy and her two children would be going to Cape Cod for the Fourth.

If you are fifty-five or older you will recall the almost storybook atmosphere of our very chic White House occupants of that era.

It hasn't happened that classically in the intervening 45 years, and in fact, it is difficult to imagine an America in the future where sure a Camelot could exist.

You may note in the story that the First Lady and the President had a home not at "The Compound" but on nearby Squaw Island in Hyannisport.

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1911: Coastal Steamer sinks Fishing Schooner

Steamer smashes into schooner in heavy fog on Cape Cod Bay

  This is a typical steamer of the era. This one is for the Martha's Vineyard Lines Tashmoo.
Ill-fated Steamer Nacoohee sinks a second ship

On this day in 1911 one of the many coastal steamers of the era sank a large fishing schooner 16 miles northwest of Provincetown.

Since the canal was not completed yet, all ships had to sail a round the outer shore of Cape Cod, and the area was also rife with commercial fishing boats.

The headline in the newspapers the next day blared;

RESCUE CREW OF 23.;
Steamer Nacoochee Runs Down Fishing Schooner Off Cape Cod.

BOSTON, June 30. -- In a dense fog off Cape Cod to-night the Savannah Line steamer Nacoochee, Savannah for Boston ran down the fishing schooner Catherine Allen... (Read the rest on the right.)

The ill-fated Nacoohee had sank another ship, this time a steamer, five years earlier in January of 1906 as this NY Times story reports;

STEAMER SUNK IN COLLISION.;
Trojan Cut Down by Nacoochee
Captain's Quick Work Saves Crew

The steamer Trojan of the Boston and Philadelphia Line was sunk in collision with the steamer Nacoochee of the Savannah Line in Vineyard Sound last Sunday. The loss of the vessel was reported by the Nacoochee upon her arrival here to-day... The captain of the Nacoohee kept the bow of his hip stuck into the hole it had caused in the another steamer's side to hold the boat afloat until all those aboard scampered to safety. After the Trojan sank in 45 minutes.

A writer remembers the Nacoohee

A Dorchester writer, Bill Hamilton, wrote aboard the steamer this way,

...On Dec. 17th he set sail for Savannah, Georgia on board the steamer Nacoochee. The first night was destined to test the mettle of even a seasoned sailor such as Alexander Black. In his words: "the Nacoochee rode through . . . a fearful southeast gale with very high seas."

Later on he was to reach the tragic conclusion that "Probably the Arabella and her crew were lost in this same gale." A combination of steam and sail, plus good seamanship was sufficient to save the Nacoochee and Savannah was reached on Dec. 19th.... Source.

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1928: New York Ocean Liner in Cape Cod crash

The Steamer Evangeline crashes into a freighter in the fog off Monomoy Island.

On this day in 1928, the Steamer Evangeline (shown below at her dock in Nova Scotia) crashed into a freighter in the fog off Monomoy Island a few miles south of Chatham.  The next day's New York Times front page screamed the news in the style of that bygone era:

NEW YORK LINER IN CAPE COD CRASH;
Evangeline, Bound for Yarmouth, N. S.,
and Freighter Grecian Are in Collision.
LATTER TORN AND BEACHED
Passenger Boat Escapes With Little Damage--No Panic Aboard.
STOPS TO AID, THEN GOES ON
Wreckers Speed From Here to Salvage Freighter--Federal Inquiry to Be Held in Boston. Evangeline Stands By.

BOSTON, June 29.--The steamer Evangeline, bound from New York to Yarmouth, N. S., and the Merchants and Miners freighter Grecian came in collision in a fog early this morning off Monomoy Point, Cape Cod. The Evangeline, which had ninety passengers aboard, suffered practically no damage and continued on to her destination, but the Grecian which was bound from Boston to Norfolk and Baltimore, lies tonight in an exposed position off Monomoy Point, with ten feet of water in her engine room and after hold while wrecking steamers are hurrying to her aid... (Read the rest of the news report below.)
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1937: Man weds at hospital after appendicitis attack

 In case you didn't think our forebears were made of sterner stuff

On this day in 1937 a couple of New York swells, here for their wedding in Falmouth, went through with their nuptials even when the groom had an appendicitis attack. The Society Section of the New York Times reported;

Charles E. Rogers 3d Weds In Hospital After Operation; Marries Doris Draper of Brooklyn--Attack of Appendicitis Thirteen Hours Earlier Cancels Plans for Church Ceremony

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. June 28, 1937, Sunday:
SOCIETY NEWS, FASHIONS, SHOPPERS, GARDEN NEWS, Page

Miss Doris Bartlett Draper of this place and Brooklyn was married to Charles Edgar Rogers 3d, also of Brooklyn, this afternoon in Hyannis Hospital, in the private room of the bridegroom, who thirteen hours before had been operated on for an attack of appendicitis...

The couple plan a motor tour through Europe this summer after his recovery.

The whole tale is on the right.

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1933: 132' Trawler hit newsprint freighter off Highland Light. 2006: The Tugboat at the Bourne Rotary is razed

2006: Tugboat at Buzzards Bay Rotary to be destroyed

The old tugboat which had greeted visitors to the Cape at the Buzzards Bay rotary since 1982 will be razed very shortly without help from the public.

#16 steam tugboat was launched in 1924, and she was rescued from a shameful death as a derelict in Witte's Junkyard in Staten Island, and moved to Bourne in 1982, see file photo on right taken that year.

She was the last steam tug to remain afloat. Steam-powered tugs are from a by-gone era, and old #16 plied the waters of New York City Harbor for many years during her working lifetime. CVS pharmacies is about to close on the property and says the structure is rotten and unsafe.
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On this day in 1933 both the NY Times and the Provincetown Advocate carried stories about another collision, this time off Highland Lighthouse in North Truro;

Provincetown Advocate report
The Boston trawler Flow was rammed Tuesday at midnight by the freighter S.S. Cornerbrook four miles off Highland Light. Due to the heavy blanket of fog the freighter was unable to see the trawler.

Captain Charles Evans, master of the S.S. Cornerbrook, sent out a hurried call for help to the Coast Guard. Immediately the Wood End picket boat with Edward Andrews in charge and the Boston Coast Guard boat, Acushnet, raced to the scene of the disaster. Two men were badly hurt on the Flow. Damage was reported to the extent of a smashed companionway aft of the boat, the after mast carried away and the loss of the life boat.

The Wood End boat fortunately found the life boat and restored it to the Flow. At 6 a.m. Wednesday morning the crippled trawler was towed back to Boston by the Acushnet.
The trawler was bound for Boston after an eight-day fishing trip. Fourteen men were aboard.

The Wood End Coast Guard picket boat had on board beside the officer in charge, Mr. Andrews, Mr. White, Boatswain's mate; Mr. Oliver, Motor machinist's mate; surfman Cabral, and surfman Flores.

The NY Times story used the headline style of the era;
TRAWLER IN COLLISION OFF CAPE COD, 2 HURT;
Coast Guard Rushes to Scene,
Although Skipper Says Flow Is in no Danger.

BOSTON, June 27 -- The Boston trawler Flow was in collision at 10 o'clock tonight with the freighter Cornerbrook about four miles northeast of Highland Light, off Cape Cod. Two of the Flow's crew were injured...  Read the rest of this report below.

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1966: Family of six dies in Barnstable Airport crash

Six in Coast Family Killed In Cape Cod Plane Crash
Dr. Sugino, his wife and three daughters are dead

On this day, June 27, 1966, a Monday, Cape Cod experienced its worse air crash to date when a visiting doctor and his entire family died in a crash at the Barnstable Airport:

HYANNIS, Mass., June 26 (AP) A Los Angeles optometrist, his wife and their four children, returning from an outing on Nantucket Island, were killed today when their single-engine rented plane crashed in woods near Barnstable Municipal Airport.

The dead included Dr. Arthur T. Sugino, 41, Mrs. Ruth Sugino, 46, and his three daughters Catherine 18, Victoria 14, Craig 12 and Sandra 8...  (Read the rest on right.)

The History of the Asian American Optometric Society mentions the Doctor's death here and attributes his demise to a delay in the course of the society's progress:

"In 1966, during an eight hour round trip drive to one of the early California Optometric Association Contact Lens Seminars held in Fresno, doctors; Arthur T. Sugino, Takao Shishino and Rodger T. Kame had conceptualized a 'Japanese American Optometric Society' to address the needs of an emerging group of young optometrists. There existed a desire to fraternize the existing Japanese American optometric community, which tended to consist of isolated individual practices, which were not in touch with one another.

"The implementation of these ideas was put on hold due to the untimely and unfortunate death of Dr. Sugino in an airplane crash in June of 1966..."

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1910: Cape Cod's Villages Never More Attractive

We are pretty now, and we were pretty then

The Chatham Railroad Station was the way most guests arrived in 1910 when this photo was taken

On this day almost a century ago, the fashion section of the New York Times proclaimed the news that -

CHATHAM.; Cape Cod's Villages Never More Attractive Than at This Season.

Special to The New York Times - Sunday, June 26, 1910

CHATHAM, Mass., June 25. -- Cape Cod's pretty villages never looked more attractive than at the present time. Vegetation has sprung forward so rapidly that new Summer arrivals to this supposedly sandy section of the Cape express delightful surprise at the contrast of the charms of the country and seashore in these North Atlantic coast towns...

It appears that the coming season will go on record as the liveliest in the history of the Cape...

The Hotel Chatham, on Pleasant Bay, has been reopened... Read the rest on the right.

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1675: King Philip's War begins; 1979: Cape Cod lesson in the oil crises

1675: Wampanoags kill Colonists, King Philip's War begins
The bloodiest war in America's history

On this day in 1675, Wampanoag warriors killed seven colonists in Swansea in retaliation for a series of injustices suffered at the hands of the English.

This raid is generally considered the beginning of King Philip's War, a bloody conflict that would involve every New England colony and all the peoples of the Algonquian nation. Over the next year, members of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag tribes attacked more than half of all the settlements in New England and reduced about a dozen towns in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies to ashes.

By August of 1676, more than 600 settlers had died and 1,200 homes had been burned. An estimated 3,000 Native Americans died at the hands of the English.
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1979: Managing OPEC's Money
or How the Oil Price Increases Work and Who Gets the Money

On this day in 1979, a front page story in the June 24, 1979, Sunday  Business & Finance Section of the New York Times, used the Cape Cod story below as an example to explain what was happening to its readers.

FYI - That's what's going on today again, and the news story began;

When the retired sea captain's sister-in-law came to join his household, a Cape Cod story goes, the old salt demanded $10 a week from the lady for room and board. Her sister, the captain's wife, agreed to the arrangement, provided he gave the $10 to her. Without telling her husband, she returned the money to her relative, thereby assuring the financial satisfaction of all parties...  (Read the story below)
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