Cape Cod History

February 29 - 1974: Anxiety over gasoline shortage

1974: High gas prices bring fear of bankrupt businesses and soaring unemployment

Local businesses call for buses to move visitors around

On this day in 1974 as reported by The Christian Science Monitor:

HYANNIS - Cape Cod businessmen anticipate bankrupt businesses and soaring unemployment if the gasoline shortage continues into the summer without special provision for their tourist-based economy.

But it tourists can be moved to, from and around the cape - even without adequate gasoline - the cape's tourist industry could continue to prosper.

So Cape Cod businessmen and town officials seek renewed rail service and more bus and air service while they also push for additional gas supplies to all Massachusetts resort regions.

Their efforts so far have not met with great success.

(photo credit, www.aliciapatterson.org)

February 28 - 1974: OPEC gas boycott frightens Cape's tourists; 1996: Steve Bernard buys back Cape Cod Potato Chips; 2007: Gatemen to revisit New Bedford; Premature hope for real estate recovery

1974: Cape bound tourist concerned about gasoline shortage

OPEC boycott forced country to think about its dependence on Arab oil

On this day in 1974 as reported by The Christian Science Monitor -

HYANNIS - Cape Cod businessmen anticipate bankrupt businesses and soaring unemployment if the gasoline shortage continues into the summer without special provision for their tourist-based economy.

But it tourists can be moved to, from and around the Cape - even without adequate gasoline - the cape's tourist industry could continue to prosper.

So Cape Cod businessmen and town officials seek renewed rail service and more bus and air service while they also push for additional gas supplies to all Massachusetts resort regions.

Their efforts so far have not met with great success.

Read about the 1973 gas boycott here.

2007: Housing market on mend?
Number of single-family homes sold rose 13% in January compared to a year earlier

On this day in 2007 a sharp rise in January home sales and modest price declines indicated that the Massachusetts real estate market may be recovering from its worst slump in more than a decade. The number of single-family homes sold rose almost 13 percent in January compared to a year earlier, the first increase in the last 10 months, according to the monthly housing report released yesterday by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Sales were strongest on the South Shore of the Boston metropolitan area and on Cape Cod. The median price of a single-family home fell to $340,000, 2.4 percent lower than a year ago but virtually unchanged for the past four months.

A year later the worse Recession since 1929 hit America and the world.

2007: Gatemen to revisit New Bedford

Mayor Lang hopes for more baseball in Whaling City

On this day in 2007 the Cape Cod Baseball League played off-Cape for its all-star game for the first time since 1999, and its coming back to New Bedford for at least one regular-season game this year.  Wareham Gatemen general manager John Wylde and New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang hope both are signs the league will continue to spread west.

"This is just a great opportunity for the town of Wareham and Southeastern Massachusetts," Wylde said. "In our way, we kind of represent Southeastern Massachusetts." The Gatemen will host the Cape League All-Star Game at Spillane Field on July 28.  Wareham is the Western-most team in the league — the only organization located before the Bourne Bridge.

1996: Steve Bernard buys back Cape Cod Potato Chips from Anheuser-Busch

On February 29 (yes, on the 'Leap Year') Anheuser-Busch agreed to sell its Cape Cod Potato Chips business, as well as the plant in Hyannis MA, where the chips are made, back to the founder, Steve Bernard. Terms were not disclosed. (Dow Jones)

February 27 - 2007: Israel imitates CCBL; 1952: Two die, power out, 100 miles of Cape roads impassable

1952: Cape gets clobbered with worst snowstorm in 50 years

80% of homes without power, roads impassable, at least two are dead

On this day in 1952, at least 10 people were killed, several thousand Cape Cod homes left without heat and more than 100 miles of Cape highways rendered impassable "after one of the worst northeast snowstorms to hit southern New England in 50 years," the Associated Press reported.

Electrical power was lost to an estimated 80 percent of Cape residences, businesses and public buildings, according to the AP, while "drifts as high as 12 feet halted all modes of transportation."

The storm stranded nearly 1,000 automobiles on main highways and knocked down scores of telephone and utility poles.

The 20-inch snowfall "was piled into virtually impenetrable drifts" by northeast winds gusting to 60 mph, the AP reported.

The storm also caused the loss of all telephone and electrical service on Nantucket and knocked over a 120-foot Loran Tower used by the Coast Guard as a navigational aid to vessels in the Atlantic.

2007: Israeli league won't be joke

Got idea from CCBL the previous summer

On this day in 2007 it was announced that June 24 will be Opening Day for the Israel Baseball League, six all-new professional teams and a schedule of 45 seven-inning games. So the seventh-inning stretch and God Bless (country of your choice) come in the fifth inning and a quality start is 4-1/3 innings, OK, maybe 4-2/3, it's not worth arguing about.

The Mets have three Jewish players - Scott Schoeneweis, Shawn Green and David Newhan - and at least one Jewish owner. Yesterday, two old New Yorkers, Art Shamsky (on right), who played for the Miracle Mets of 1969, and Ken Holtzman, who pitched two no-hitters and won more games than any Jewish pitcher in history.

Shamsky, 65, resembles Tommy Lee Jones, and Holtzman, 61, who teaches math, looks like a hard marker. Larry Baras is the man who came up with the idea of a professional league for Israel. He was watching a game in the Cape Cod League last summer, moms and dads sitting with their kids, when the lightbulb went on over his head.

February 26 - 1975: The end of the Lightships

1975: Nantucket Shoals becomes one of last three lightship stations in nation

On this day in 1975, the Portland, Maine lightship was replaced by an automated buoy, leaving Nantucket Shoals as one of three remaining lightship stations in the nation.

For many years after it was withdrawn from service at sea, the Nantucket Lightship was docked in the Wareham River near the center of that town.

A month later, the Boston lightship was also retired and the stations were narrowed to two -- one off Nantucket, the other at the mouth of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

"In a way, I'm sad to see them pass," Coast Guard captain and lightship commander Alfred Fearing told the Associated Press in 1975. "It's a tradition that's going to be gone."

The Nantucket posting had long been considered the most dangerous lightship assignment in the Coast Guard because it was so far from shore, 200 miles east of New York City. It is "the first point of contact in the United States for ships crossing the Atlantic bound for New York," the AP reported. "Its flashing light, radio beam and foghorn guide vessels through the stormy, treacherous waters."

In January 1959, hurricane-force winds and 50-foot seas blew the Nantucket lightship 80 miles off station and knocked out communications for several days.

Read about the
Coast Guard's Lightships here.

Lightships served as beacons to mariners off the US for 163 years, from 1820 to 1983. In that time, 116 stations were established along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts. The first station was in Chesapeake Bay; the last to be automated and its crew removed was Nantucket.

Lightship 112, known as Nantucket I, was also decommissioned in 1975. The vessel had served 39 years at the Nantucket station, the longest of any vessel. In 1989 Lightship 112 was designated a National Historic Landmark. Efforts are underway to renovate the lightship for use as a permanent museum berthed at Staten Island.

Lightship 612, also known as Nantucket II, was the last lightship to serve off Nantucket, until 1983, and the last US lightship in commission. After decommissioning, the vessel passed through a number of owners. As of the summer of 2007, it was a bed-and-breakfast in Nantucket harbor.

February 25 - 2007: Former Mashpee student killed in BU fire; 2005: Local environmental group endorses Cape Wind

2007: Former Mashpee students among two BU students killed in fire
Rhiannon McCuish graduated in 2004, regional all-star in soccer and track

On this day in 2007 a gifted former Mashpee High School athlete was found to be one of the Boston University students killed in a searing apartment fire near her college campus.  Rhiannon McCuish, 21, was found dead after 5 a.m. in a burned out, top-floor apartment at 21 Aberdeen St., the Cape Cod Times reported Sunday, quoting a Boston Fire Department official and a family member.

Fire officials have not released the identity or age of the second victim, and were still investigating the cause.  Another man was injured in the blaze and taken to a local hospital. Rescuers found him unconscious and removed him from the flames, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.  When the fire broke out early Saturday, the building had been without power for several hours as crews performed utility work nearby, MacDonald said. Investigators will try to determine if the work played a role in the fire.

2005: Coalition for Buzzards Bay expresses support for Cape Wind

On this day in 2005, the environmental non-profit Coalition for Buzzards Bay announced "its satisfaction with the current review" for the Cape Wind to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, according to a statement released by the coalition.

The coalition said its qualified support for the Nantucket Sound wind farm was based on a "thorough review of the Army Corp of Engineers' Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)." This led coalition members to conclude that the project would bring about "significant environmental benefits" for Buzzards Bay and the region while "any environmental impacts are likely to be minor, temporary, and/or outweighed by the significant environmental benefits of developing such a renewable energy facility."

"This project presents us with an opportunity to significantly reduce our reliance on dirty fossil fuel burning plants," said Ben Bryant, marine policy specialist for the coalition. "In reviewing the DEIS, we have not found reason to oppose the project and in fact believe the project will have significant environmental benefits for our Bay and our region."

Continued support for the project, the coalition stated, would be based on "a satisfactory review of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, due out this summer, and a successful implementation of mitigation and monitoring plans to minimize any potential environmental impacts."

The coalition also updated its wind power policy statement "to recognize the potential for a future project sited in Buzzards Bay." Sure enough, a year later, Quincy developer Jay Cashman proposed a wind project for Buzzards Bay consisting of three separate turbine arrays.

Skeptical about the other, Buzzards Bay proposal

In a June 2006 op-ed in the Cape Cod Times, coalition executive director Mark Rasmussen and John Bullard, coalition president, outlined their reasons for skepticism about the Cashman proposal.

"This issue is not as simple as being 'for' or 'against' - the appropriate siting of wind farms will make all of the difference," Rasmussen and Bullard wrote. "Based on the limited information available, the Cashman proposal creates significant conflicts with busy navigation routes (sitting at the intersection of the main channel and the New Bedford channel), the safe transport of oil and other hazardous cargo through the bay, near-shore fishing and recreational uses, and endangered species nesting areas."

February 24 - 1940: Eight ships answer Cape Cod SOS; 2007: Former Mashpee student one of two BU students killed in fire; 1969: Another big snowstorm in that blustery winter; 1980: US wins Olympic Hockey

1980: US wins Olympic Hockey
Four team members from Bay State

On this day in 1980, the U.S. hockey team beat Finland to win the Gold Medal at the Lake Placid Olympics. What really captured the country's imagination occurred two days earlier in the semi-finals. The young Americans' thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Soviet Union, remembered ever since as the "miracle on ice," showed that speed and endurance could outweigh experience and technical skill.
   In a sport long dominated by Canadians and Russians, the victory boosted the popularity of hockey in the U.S. and raised the nation's spirits. Four of the team's players hailed from Massachusetts, including the goalie, Jim Craig, and the captain, Mike Eruzione, who scored the winning goal.

1969: We really got socked today on Cape Cod
It was the second major storm in two weeks

On this day in 1969, residents of the Cape and Islands awakened to yet another snowstorm during what had already been a very snowy winter. A howling nor'easter that stalled off Nantucket dumped more than two feet of snow in some areas before tapering off.

"This was the second major storm to hit New England in two weeks," the Associated Press reported. "The results had a similar ring: Logan International Airport closed, cars abandoned on clogged highways, stranded motorists seeking shelter in police barracks, and power failures."

Schools across the region were forced to remain closed on the first day of the work week, resulting in an unexpected day off for students and teachers.

2007: Former Mashpee student one of two BU students killed in fire

Rhiannon McCuish graduated in 2004, regional all-star in soccer and track

On this day in 2007 a gifted former Mashpee High School athlete was among two Boston University students killed in a searing apartment fire near her college campus. Rhiannon McCuish, 21, was found dead after 5 a.m. in a burned out, top-floor apartment at 21 Aberdeen St., the Cape Cod Times reported Sunday, quoting a Boston Fire Department official and a family member.

Fire officials have not released the identity or age of the second victim, and were still investigating the cause. Another man was injured in the blaze and taken to a local hospital. Rescuers found him unconscious and removed him from the flames, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.

When the fire broke out early Saturday, the building had been without power for several hours as crews performed utility work nearby, MacDonald said. Investigators will try to determine if the work played a role in the fire.

Michaela McCuish described her younger sister as "a happy, lovable girl who enjoyed playing soccer and basketball."

Rhiannon, the second-oldest of three sisters, graduated from Mashpee High School in 2004 and enrolled at Boston University the same year as a psychology major. In addition to her studies, Rhiannon recently joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Boston, mentoring a girl with the same name as her older sister.

1940: Eight ships answer Cape Cod SOS ~ Hoax suspended

On this day in 1940 came a report that an unidentified vessel with 146 persons aboard was sinking off Cape Cod. The report sent eight rescue ships scurrying to the scene last night, but radio experts declared openly the SOS might well have been a hoax. See the AP story in the St. Petersburg FL Times below:

February 23 - 2007: Man shot fleeing court, charged with attempted murder too; 1968: Pressrun in Hyannis for New Bedford newspaper; 1917: NY Times Editorial on our canal

1968: Pressrun in Hyannis for New Bedford newspaper

On this day in 1968, as reported by the Associated Press -

A power outage in New Bedford forced the New Bedford Standard-Times to call upon its sister paper in Hyannis, the Cape Cod Standard-Times, to print the newspaper on the Cape.

As the New Bedford paper was "part way through its first edition, lights went out, clocks stopped, teletypewriters went silent and typesetting machines went dead," the AP reported.

Power was lost at 11:14 a.m. and not restored in the business district of the Whaling City until 7:30 p.m. Officials with the New Bedford Gas and Edison Light Co.  attributed the outage to insulator failure at a power plant.

Faced with the specter of the next day without a newspaper, an editor in New Bedford "gathered up page mats and news copy and flew to Hyannis where the edition was completed on the presses" of the Cape Cod Standard-Times which was the name of the daily in that era.

(illustration credit, www.metaltype.co.uk)

2007: Man shot fleeing court, charged with attempted murder too

   The scene in Barnstable after Anthony Roberts' escape attempt.

 Man shot by police facing new charges

On this day in 2007 a man who was shot by Barnstable police after breaking free from court officers and fleeing in a stolen car was charged Thursday with assault with intent to murder.

Anthony Roberts, 22, also was charged with carjacking, assault and battery on a police officer, and assault with a dangerous weapon. Roberts was listed in fair condition Thursday night at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston after being shot once in the chest Tuesday morning outside Barnstable District Court.

February 22, 1934: Orleans citizens are Methuselah-like; 2007: Jackie warns Joan; 2007: Joan Kennedy's trash or treasure? 2007: Coast Guard remembers Cape Cod helicopter crew lost a sea

1934: Praise for longevity of 'Biblical proportions' among 'Orleanals'

New motto: "Come to Cape Cod and live as long as you please"

On this day in 1934, as expressed in an editorial titled "Cape Cod" in The Morning Herald of Philadelphia-

Whether it is cranberries or the succulent Cotuit or the tonic quality of the tea shoppe industry that may account for it, the fact stands that longevity as achieved by the inhabitants of the town of Orleans on Cape Cod is of virtually Biblical proportions.

Cape Cod: the last place in America where individuality was not penalized and where authentic eccentricity flourished.

Had Methuselah been an inhabitant of the Cape he would doubtless have exceeded even his own tidy record of nine hundred years, since the average age of the Orleanals appears from the record to be seventy-four. Once you pass twenty-one on the Cape you have a more than even chance of seeing a comfortable eighty-five or a ripe ninety, unless "The Boston Evening Transcript's" correspondent errs.

In an admirable article some months ago in "The American Mercury" Jonathan Norton Leonard opined that Cape Cod was the last place in America where individuality was not penalized and where authentic eccentricity flourished, and if this is the case - and it probably is - it may be that the reason for longevity on the Cape is simply that life is worth living.

Cape Codders known for "loud-speaking indifference."

Not being hectored and badgered and regimented by the fatuous design of high-voltage civilization, the Orleanals, their gastric juices unimpaired by the spectacle of the social, political and economic times and their being nourished on oysters that rank among the finest known to this world, continue peacefully and happily toward ultimate but postponed disintegration.

Next to its cranberries and oysters, the Cape's most characteristic asset is what has been described as its "loud-speaking indifference." Directed against the discordant tempo of a brash and unmellow age, this indifference would seem to be a quality which should interest the statisticians of the life insurance companies.

"Come to Cape Cod and live as long as you please" may soon be a motto exploited by up and coming Cape chambers of commerce.

2007: Joan Kennedy's trash or treasure?

Relics found in storage set for the auction block

On this day in 2007 a pair of terrycloth hand towels embroidered with a pink-and-orange monogram is going for about $500. A canvas-covered life ring with a hemp rope bearing the fading name Victura is up for about $5,000. Two handwritten letters, one with incendiary allegations, are on sale for about $7,000.  A Connecticut auction house that hopes to sell the items this weekend says they are relics from Joan B. Kennedy's multimillion-dollar home in Hyannis Port, which the former wife of US Senator Edward M. Kennedy sold in 2005...

Panagopoulos said his company (Alexander Autographs) already has received dozens of bids for the memorabilia, which include Jacqueline Kennedy's old hand towels, a life ring from John F. Kennedy's sailboat, Victura, and letters Jacqueline Kennedy wrote to Joan while she and the senator were experiencing marital turbulence, he said.

Photo on right is of Jackie Kennedy's camera which will be auctioned.

2007: Jackie O to Joan K: Rein In Your Man
A $7K letter between two Kennedy women

Kennedy buffs rejoiced this day when what's thought to be the biggest-ever cache of JFK and Jackie O memorabilia was heading to auction, including a racy letter from Jackie to Sen. Edward Kennedy's former wife, Joan, urging her to rein in her wandering hubby, a life preserver from JFK's sailboat Victura, and the former first lady's own 8-mm movie camera. We've noted auctions by Alexander Autographs before, but this one, online February 24-25 is really rich. Just consider the Jackie-to-Joan letter, worth an estimated $5,000 to $7,000.

In the unsigned letter, Jackie tells Joan to take charge of the family and balk when Teddy spends too much time with his siblings or worse. "This is the 20th century-not the 19th-" she pens, "where little woman stayed home on a pedestal with the kids & her rosary." The best part is how the goods became public. Seems a former helper recovered the items from Joan's Cape Cod home and put them in storage. But she forgot to pay the bill; the stuff was auctioned off, and the top bidder is cashing in.

2007: Coast Guard remembers Cape Cod helicopter crew lost a sea
Four died in 1979  crash during rescue attempt

On this day in 2007, Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod remembered four shipmates who died in 1979. A wreath was dropped into the sea from a Coast Guard HH-60 helicopter in remembrance of the crew of the HH-3F Pelican helicopter, the CG1432.

The Pelican crew was lost February 18th, 1979 during a rescue attempt 260 miles southeast of Cape Cod. While attempting to perform a medical evacuation from a Japanese fishing vessel, the weather started to deteriorate.

The helicopter lost power and was forced to land on the water. The heavy seas quickly overturned the downed aircraft and only one crew member was able to escape. Each year, the members of Air Station Cape Cod remember their fellow Coast Guardsmen lost nearly 30 years ago, by laying a wreath at a memorial on the air station or in the sea.

February 21, 1814: British invade Orleans. 1924: Prohibition-era booze washes ashore

1814: The British invade Orleans, repulsed by local militia

MHS Newcastle demands $1,000 ransom to not bombard town

The HMS Newcastle frigate.Although the locally famous Battle of Rock Harbor actually happened this week in December 1814, about a week before the War of 1812 ended, its roots are in September when townspeople refused to pay a $1,000 ransom levied by British Captain Rich Raggot of the HMS Newcastle. See the ransom note below.

Orleans historian and photographer Bill Quinn wrote about the battle for the Orleans Historical Society, "Cape Cod was particularly vulnerable during the War of 1812 and took part in a great number of naval conflicts. Rock Harbor, located on the west side of Orleans, is a relatively narrow and shallow inlet that serves as the town’s gateway into Cape Cod Bay. This tranquil cove was the site of a skirmish between locals and the British navy on December 19, 1814.

"The British demanded that the town of Orleans ante up a hefty sum of $1,000 for the safety of its citizens; otherwise the town would be bombed and the local saltworks destroyed. The neighboring towns of Eastham and Brewster had already paid handsomely to save their saltworks, but Orleans refused the insulting proposition."

The British Marines came ashore and were repulsed by Orleans militiamen at Defiance Lane on Rock Harbor Road, so named for the skirmish.

According to Bill Quinn the British were not content with the outcome of the failed landing, and the Newcastle began to fire its cannons into the town, but the ship was too far offshore and the cannonballs fell short. Five days later, on Christmas Eve, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed and the War of 1812 was over.

The large and powerful Newcastle lived out a much more mundane career and was eventually disassembled and sold for scrap in 1850.

1924: Five-gallon cans of alcohol in wooden cases came bobbing ashore
It was a hot time in Provincetown for the next several days

On this day in 1924, as reported in The Lowell Sun:

PROVINCETOWN - From Wood End to Pamet River, more than 15 miles of the sandy shore of the tip of Cape Cod, five-gallon cans of alcohol in wooden cases came bobbing ashore yesterday (Dec. 21) or floated alongside the surf.

Coast guardsmen located and destroyed many of them, the Race Point station accounting for more than 40 cases.

The absence of wreckage indicated, the Coast guard officials, that the cases were thrown overboard when a run-rummer was pursued by revenue agents rather than risk destruction of any craft.

They denied that Santa Claus had any responsibility for the appearance of liquor in the holiday season.

(The photo at right shows disposal of illegal alcohol, location uncertain, during Prohibition - photo credit, vintageperiods.com)

February 21 - 1960: Swedish tanker runs aground off Provincetown

1960: 285-foot tanker Monica Smith on a beach in Ptown
Crew waved to sightseers and played Hillbilly music

The Monica Smith's 37 crew members "waved cheerfully back to the crowds, then adjourned to the forecastle to listen to hillbilly music on the radio."

On this day in 1960, Provincetown residents awakened to discover that the 285-foot tanker Monica Smith had run aground overnight off Race Point.

Two tugboats tried in vain to free the 1,744-ton ship at high tide while thousands of sightseers, many from off-Cape, watched from the shoreline. The ship had dropped off a cargo of cement in Fall River before running aground on a sandbar.

The Monica Smith's 37 crew members "waved cheerfully back to the crowds, then adjourned to the forecastle to listen to hillbilly music on the radio," according to a United Press International story.

The tanker remained stranded for three more days until it was extricated through a combination of the crew's own efforts and steady pulling of the tugboat Orion.

The crew used an old mariner's trick of kedging, which involves fastening anchors in deep water and winching toward them from the vessel itself.  After the ship was once again afloat, its skipper said he intended to resume his interrupted journey to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

(photo credit, Associated Press)