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New England Weather

1718 Wreck of the Whidah

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Chapters Overview 1635 Great Storm 1638 Earthquake The Earthquake of 1663 The Comet of 1664 1667 Strange Appearance 1676 Storm and Shipwreck The Comet of 1680 1682 Strange Appearance Dark Day of 1716 1716-1717 Winter 1718 Wreck of the Whidah 1719 Aurora Borealis Storm of 1722-23 1727 Earthquake 1740-1 Winter 1744 Earthquake 1747-48 Winter 1748 Hurricane 1749 Drought 1755 Great Earthquake 1759 Hurricane 1762 Drought 1768 Lightning 1768 Gale 1769 Summer 1770 Great Freshet 1770 Summer The Storm of October 20, 1770 Summer of 1771 1773 Hurricane The Storm of 1774 The Dark Day of 1780 1782 Hurricane 1785 Great Freshet 1786 Tornado 1786 Snow Storms The Cyclone of 1787 The Meteor of 1787 1788 Gale 1794 Whirlwind The Long Storm of 1798 1799 Hail Storm 1801 Freshet 1802 Great Snow Storm 1804 Storm 1806 Solar Eclipse The Freshet of 1807 The Meteorite of 1807 The Cold Friday of 1810 The Freshet of 1814 The Tornado in 1814 The Gale of 1815 The Cold Summer of 1816 The Tornadoes of 1821 Spring Freshet of 1823 The Spring Freshet of 1826 1826 Avalanche 1827 Gale and Freshet 1827 Wreck of the Almira1830 March Storm The Great Freshet of 1830 1833 Meteoric Display Winter of 1835-36 1839 Storms 1841 October Gale 1842 Snow Storm The Freshet of 1846 1849 October Storm 1851 Lighthouse Storm 1851 Tornado Storm of April, 1852

1716-1717 Winter

1719 Aurora Borealis

THE winter of 1717-18 was acknowledged to be unusually cold, and the spring which followed was late, windy and uncomfortable. On Saturday, April 26, a violent easterly storm prevailed along the coast of Massachusetts. It was made memorable on account of the wreck of the notorious pirate ship Whidah. The commander of it was that infamous leader among freebooters, Samuel Bellamy, stories of whose brutal cruelty and daring exploits were often told about the firesides of the people here, a century and a half ago. The Whidah carried twenty-three guns and was manned by one hundred and thirty men.

The pirates had made a visit to this section of the Atlantic coast, and had succeeded in capturing seven vessels, to one of which Bellamy transferred seven of his crew to sail the craft and guard the captive mariners who were imprisoned on their own vessel. The pirates in charge of the prize became drunken, and being at last overcome with drowsiness lay down and went to sleep. The rightful possessors of the ship, in the storm which almost immediately followed, permitted the vessel to be driven ashore on the back of Cape Cod near Truro. The pirates escaped when the vessel touched the sand, the attention of the ship's crew being entirely taken up with securing their own safety; but they were soon afterward apprehended, tried, convicted and executed.

Bellamy's own vessel was driven ashore near the table-land on the outside of Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, a few miles from Truro, and broken to pieces by the waves. The wind was so strong and the waves were so great and powerful that the sea forced its way across the Cape, which was very narrow at this place, creating a channel so large that a whale boat passed through it at the time.

Great numbers of the pirates were drowned; Captain Southack, who was sent by the government to the scene of the disaster for that purpose, finding and burying one hundred and two bodies that had washed ashore. Several of the pirates escaped, but whether their captain reached the shore in safety, or was drowned, is not known to the writer. Six of them were arrested and tried by a special court of admiralty, and being convicted were executed on the gallows at Boston on the fifteenth of November following.

Among the pirates that escaped were an Indian and an Englishman. The latter disguised himself and visited the place of the shipwreck from time to time for the purpose of replenishing his purse with money from the wreck. This was currently reported and believed by the residents of the neighborhood. Within a few years, pennies, bearing inscriptions which show that they were struck off in the reign, of William and Mary, ,have been picked up there, and the celebrated Thoreau and William DeCosta of the Charlestown Advertiser, frequenters of those haunts years ago, found some on the bar at very low tide.

As late as 1814, almost a century after the wreck occurred, portions of the vessel were seen reposing on the white sand at the bottom of the still and clear waters.

Uncle Jack Newcomb, as he was familiarly called, an oysterman of Wellfleet years ago, told Thoreau that he had seen the iron caboose of the ship on the bar at an extreme low run of tides. About 1863, the wreck was again disclosed by the action of the sea.

A story has come down by tradition, being to some extent identical with that of the Englishman, which is told as follows: A man of peculiar aspect, who was supposed to have been one of the pirates, often visited the vicinity of the wreck, the residents generally believing that he at least knew of some place there where treasure was hid, and that lie came hither for supplies as his necessities demanded. While there the hospitality of a private family was extended to and accepted by him. When the Bible was to be read aloud or prayer offered, he excused himself from being present, seeming to be greatly troubled. In the stillness of night he would talk in his sleep, and utter boisterous and profane speeches, as though quarreling or contending with some foe. After awhile he spent much of his time there, and his last days were wholly devoted to walking meditatively on the beach, seeming to have but little interest in common with the people about him. Considerable gold was said to have been carried in a money belt, which was found upon his body after death.

Source: Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Perley, 1891

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