Cape Cod: Articles: History, Weird -- post an article

The Ghosts Of Cape Cod’s Ships

Very wild have been the storms that have lashed the shores of Cape Cod where it faces the open sea, and even where the half-encircling arm bends as though to shield the ships on the sea and the dwellers on the shores of the little towns, the waves of Massachusetts Bay have often pounded in relentless fury.

So often have the ships of brave men from Cape Cod and from many another seafarer’s land been overwhelmed and drowned in these waters. So many indeed, that on a large map only may their resting places be indicated, for on a small map there is no space to mark them. As time passes, the vivid memories of some of these wrecks and of the men who went down with them to watery graves grow dimmer and dimmer, but the ships themselves, so full of life and a sort of personality that their men loved them and called each one “She,” do not forget the ports they never reached.

For at times they come in spirit into harbor, that they may swing once more at their old moorings and that their men may gaze for a while upon the familiar wharves and their little houses they used to call home.

• tell-a-friend • link to this post •