B5F17I1

Transcribed Text (OCR)

GARY MANGIACOPA ARCHIVE
============================================================
Title:      B5F17I1
Slug:       b5f17i1
Categories: Lost Treasure
Source:     https://garymangiacopraarchive.com/b5f17i1
Pages:      7 scanned, 7 extracted
OCR:        Google Vision API (document_text_detection)
Processed:  2026-06-06
============================================================

17 Feb-1982 New Haven Evening Regul
1907 marine disaster
is still region's worst
WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) - It was
on a freezing night 75 years ago that
332 people died when the sidewheel
steamer Larchmont bound from
Providence, R.I., to New York City
collided with a coal-laden schooner
off Block Island in New England's
worst marine disaster.
The three-masted schooner Harry
Knowlton was plying from South
Amboy, N.J., to Everett, Mass., when
it rammed the port side of the Larch-
mont, ripping a hole almost half the
vessel's breadth. The Larchmont sank
within 15 minutes.
The crash occurred Feb. 12, 1907,
at about 11 p.m., only three miles off
the mainland at Watch Hill, R.I., but
because of the winds and the sea,
neither the crew nor the passengers
were able to row the eight lifeboats
and four life rafts toward Watch Hill.
The survivors, the boats, the de-
bris and the frozen dead encrusted
in ice - all washed ashore 15 miles
away on Block Island, still known for
its treacherous riptide at Sandy
Point.
"Men and women were bumping
into each other and struggling like
mad for a place in the boats. It was a
terrible sight and one that I will
never forget to my dying day," said
George W. McVay, the Larchmont's
captain.
McVay who was accused by a
passenger of cowardice for allegedly
leaving in the first and largest life-
boat, and ignoring "piteous pleas for
help" from women passengers - was
among 19 initial survivors, many
critically injured. Eventually, the
number of survivors dwindled to
nine.
According to newspaper accounts
of the disaster, the 252-foot Larch-
mont, built in 1885 at Bath, Maine,
left the South Water Street dock in
Providence at 7 p.m. and stopped at
Point Judith, R.I., at 9:30 p.m.
Many passengers had stayed up
until 10 p.m. to hear a Salvation
Army concert before turning in to
their bunks.
McVay was in bed when he heard
the danger warning of sharp short
whistle blasts. The Larchmont's pilot,
George Wyman of Taunton, Mass.,
and Quartermaster James E. Staples
of North Brooksville, Maine, were
signaling to the Harry Knowlton to
get out of the way.
"I sprang from my cot and dress-
ed hurriedly," McVay said.
McVay said later that the Harry
Knowlton did not hold its course and
suddenly veered down upon the
Larchmont. Frank T. Haley, the
Harry Knowlton's captain, said he
assumed the Larchmont would give
him the right of way, to which he
claimed he was entitled.
At the last moment, the men in
the Larchmont's pilot house tried to
steer the Larchmont away and avoid
a collision. They failed. When the
Harry Knowlton crashed into the
Larchmont, the Larchmont's main
steam pipe broke. An unknown num-
ber of passengers were killed by
steam.
Conn
p23
Passenger Harris Feldman of
Providence, who had been a sailor on
the Black Sea, said people were
panic-stricken.
Even before he and his wife left
their cabin, Feldman said, "I pulled
myself together and decided that
only those who kept cool heads would
have much chance of getting out of
the trouble alive."
Amid the screams and wild confu-
sion, the Feldmans managed to get
into a lifeboat together. Others were
not so lucky. Sadie Golub, 19, of New
York, said she saw a woman with a
little boy in her arms pleading to be
taken into a lifeboat.
"She was thrust aside. 'My baby,'
she cried. 'If we must die, we will die
together.' She snuggled the babe to
her breast and then with a shriek she
jumped overboard with the child in
her arms. It was awful."
Before winding up with the Feld-
mans, Golub begged to be saved by
men in a lifeboat who refused to help
her. "I was nearly crazy with the
terror of it all," she said.
In the water, another passenger,
Oliver Janvier, 21, of Providence
used a rope tackle to haul in two
men who grabbed the side of Janvi-
er's lifeboat, but Janvier said when
he asked the men to help a woman in
the water who was crying, "For
God's sake, save me," they ignored
her. Janvier said the men froze to
death in the lifeboat.
McVay had seven men in his boat:
a deckhand, two waiters, two fire-
men, the purser and the chief quar-
termaster. He said he was unable to
circle the Larchmont looking for
survivors, and did not see anyone in
the water to pick up.
"It was inky dark and you could
not see your hand in front of you," he
said.
Two steamers bound from Fall
River, Mass., to New York City pass-
ed by in the night, but no one on the
ships the Kennebec and the Provi-
heard the shouts of the
people in the lifeboats.
dence
One by one, the passengers in the
lifeboats suffering from hypothermia
lost consciousness and died. It was at
least seven hours before any lifeboats
reached Block Island.
Frank Hiergesell, a 16-year-old
runaway who was returning home to
Brooklyn, was the sole survivor in
another lifeboat that caught on the
sandbar at Sandy Point. Hiergesell
swam to shore and stumbled to the
lighthouse where keeper E.P. Little-
field heard him screaming at the
door.
The collision had occurred Mon-
day night and by Wednesday morn-
ing, 48 bodies had washed up on
Block Island's beaches. Many bodies
were caked in ice and floated only
because they had life preservers. A
wrecking company searched the area
but found no substantial debris.
The final report was not written
by Quartermaster James E. Staples
until 1950. It contained the toll: 332
dead, nine survivors.

[PAGE BREAK]

Sunken ship
may contain
huge fortune
Associated Press
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A
48-man crew planned to arrive
Saturday in waters off Nantucket
where they hope to find millions of
dollars worth of sunken treasure
from a turn-of-the-century British
ship.
The treasure could be worth
between $400 million and $1.6 bil-
lion, experts have told the crew.
A British luxury liner, the Royal
Mail Republic, went down about
55 miles southeast of Nantucket in
1909. At the time, its shipment of
gold coins was valued at about $3
million.
A 280-foot salvage ship, the In-
spector, left Rhode Island Friday
in search of the lost treasure. The
crew planned to reach the area
where the ship sunk sometime Sat-
urday and begin the actual search
later this week.
The operation could take up to
three months, said Mike Gerber,
chief financial officer of Sub-
Ocean Salvors International, the
Tampa, Fla., salvage company
conducting the search..
"This is what every diver
dreams about, diving for sunken
gold," said David Barber, 39, of
Nova Scotia, a crew member.
The ship went down on Jan. 23,
1909, when it was struck by an
Italian passenger ship in dense fog.
Six passengers and four crew
members were killed and more
than 2,000 people evacuated to 83
lifeboats.
The ship was transporting gold
coins bought in the United States
by France to lend to Russia to help
save Czar Nicholas II's regime,
said Martin Bayerle, who has been
researching the wreck for 12 years.
He claims the accident was co-
vered up in a conspiracy by the
United States, England, France
and the Soviet Union.
"My biggest accomplishment
will not be bringing up the gold,
but the breaking of a Watergate-
type, pre-World War I conspir-
acy," he said.
Bayerle, whose crew found the
ship in 1981, has acquired all sal-
vage rights to the ship.

[PAGE BREAK]

Hundreds of shipwrecks may lie off R.I. coast
Associated Press
NEWPORT, R.I.- For beach-
goers and boaters who crave the
sand and water in the summer,
Rhode Island has long been known
as a haven for fun in the sun.
But what those people don't see
when they gaze out on the blue
waves is what lies beneath: hun-
dreds of shipwrecks.
With estimates ranging from
500 to 1,200 wrecks off its coast,
the nation's smallest state is be-
lieved to have more sunken vessels
per square mile than any other.
Most are in Narragansett Bay.
"There is an entire other world
down there," said Kathy Abbass,
head of the Rhode Island Marine
Archaeology Project, a research
endeavor funded by government
grants and private donations.
The project recently was given
a $43,000 Navy grant and $7,000
from the state to explore Narragan-
sett Bay wrecks that include a sus-
pected slave ship and three Revo-
lutionary War vessels.
The project aims to locate, cata-
log and do a historical survey of as
many wrecks as possible. Using
volunteers, Abbass said the proj-
ect's long-term goal is to create
underwater preserves for ship-
wrecks, regulated by the state and
open to the public.
Central to preserving the
wrecks, Abbass says, is ending the
practice among many divers of re-
moving artifacts from wreck sites.
While tourism officials, marine
academics and some divers are en-
thused by Abbass' project, it has
triggered debate and controversy
about who controls the waters and
what is beneath them.
"It is an issue of some conten-
tion, because the dive community
is trying to be careful in not having
a lot of government regulation,"
said David Swain, owner of Ocean
State
Scuba in Jamestown.
CONN
Sunday page 4 20
New Haven Register
lune 1995
1, 2, 3, 4
A 1987 federal law forbids dis-
turbing wreck sites designated
"historic" by federal or state offi-
cials. While Rhode Island has a
rich maritime history, it has yet to
catalog its wrecks, so there is no
way to penalize divers who steal
from wrecks.

[PAGE BREAK]

B-8/SUNDAY CAPE COD TIMES
WHYDAH
Continued from B-1
The exhibit also includes a paint-
ing of the wreck of the Whydah
and a portrait of Bellamy, both
painted by Provincetown artist F.
Ronald Fowler, who also designed
the exhibition.
Fowler used a friend as a model
for the painting of Bellamy; there
were no drawings of the pirate.
Based on records of the time, they
know he was tall for the time, had
dark hair and skin and light eyes.
"This is our vision of Captain
Bellamy, a swashbuckling pirate,'
the recording says.
MAY 26, 1991
The portrait, painted in bright
acrylics, features a bare-chested
Bellamy, long black hair flowing,
wearing a red cape. "Most of the
things he's wearing we have exam-
ples of," said Driver. "That's the
fascinating thing. We have shoes,
silk stockings, silver buttons. And
we have fragments of enough cloth
to know the kind of material he
might have worn. He might have
worn a cape like that."
The exhibit doesn't leave out the
popular myth of Bellamy's ro-
mance with Maria "Goody" Hal-
lett, the 15-year-old Eastham girl
who captured his heart. The legend
has it that Bellamy was returning
to Wellfleet to see Maria when the
ship went down. "He promised to
return when he made his fortune.
He had come to make good on that
promise. On the fateful night, April
26, 1717, myth and reality merged.
Black Sam Bellamy and Goody
Hallet never met again," the tape
says.
On one wall of the exhibit is a
cross-section of the ship. The
work, on a piece of vinyl fabric, is
from a "computerized painting
machine," said Driver. The muse-
um commissioned a watercolor
painting by British artist John Bat-
chelor. The machine reads the
drawing and converts it to paint on
both sides of the fabric.
When pointing out the ship's
magazine, where shot and gun
powder were stored, the tape re-
cording says, "Anyone entering
this room was required to wear felt
slippers to prevent static electricity
from igniting the gun powder.'
The exhibit also includes a scale
profile of the Wellfleet shoreline as
it was in 1717 and as it is today.
There is also a grid plan of the
wreck site, showing that about 20
percent of it has been excavated.
Provincetown Museum officials
have signed an agreement with the
backers of the salvage and conser-
vation project, Whydah Manage-
ment Inc., to display the exhibit for
three years. It will be open to the
public every day except Christmas.

[PAGE BREAK]

28 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1987
AUGUSTA, MAINE KENNE
NEW ENGLAND
British wreck found
in Newport Harbor
By LINDA BORG
· Providence Journal
NEWPORT, R.I. - A marine
archaeologist has discovered the
scattered remains of a British troop
ship scuttled in Newport Harbor
during the Revolutionary War.
The discovery of this wreck,
believed to be one of a dozen
Revolutionary War-era vessels aban-
doned in Newport Harbor, has
fueled a novel proposal: creating an
underwater historical district to
protect the relics.
Robert Cembrola, executive direc-
tor of the Fall River Marine Museum
and an underwater archaeologist,
discovered the wreck this fall in the
shallow waters due west of the Naval
War College.
"It's one of the most historic finds
in Rhode Island in years," the diver
said. "It's a window into the past.
Other than natural forces, nothing
has been acting on this ship since the
day it sank.'
Cembrola, 33, has Newport Elec-
tric to thank for locating the historic
remains. The utility was preparing to
lay a cable when a sonar survey
picked up a long horizontal object
on the bottom of Narragansett
Bay.
That's when Cembrola was asked
to investigate. As he dived 35 feet to
the bottom of the Bay, the first thing
he noticed was a rock pile. But they
were no ordinary rocks; they were
the type used as ballast in 18th-cen-
tury ships.
Then Cembrola found what the
sonar screen had detected: a 60-foot
iron barge in fairly good shape.
"The barge led us to the other
wreck," he said. "I started running
into features, artifacts of the ancient
wreck.
Fanning out from the barge were
two scupper lines (the drains that run
through the hull of a ship),
numerous wooden ribs, a section of
copper sheeting from the hull, even a
ceramic chamber pot.
There were no gold doubloons, no
precious gems, no sterling silver
dishes or heavy brass candelabra.
But to someone versed in the Bay's
lore, the wreck was a treasure
said. "I knew it had to be ancient.
And I was thrilled.
The uninitiated might be disap-
pointed, however. There is no intact
wreck, just the scattered remains of
the 40- to 50-foot vessel, partly
buried beneath the barge.
Judging from the artifacts, Cem-
brola figures this wreck was one of
many British troopships intention-
ally sunk shortly after Aug. 5, 1778.
Bigger and better-equipped French
vessels were getting ready to sail into
the Bay, so the British scuttled their
smaller ships to hinder the enemy
fleet's progress.
"There's some validity to calling
these ships time capsules,' Cem-
brola said. "We know they were
abandoned quickly, so by looking at
the things left on board, we find out
a lot about their priorities."
One 18th-century eyewitness
reported that British sailors carried
either a gun or club or a bottle of
rum when they abandoned ship. But
the sailors on this ship may not have
had time to drag the rum with them,
because Cembrola found plenty of
rum bottles.
Cembrola credis state archaeolo-
gist Paul Anderson with coming up
with the idea of a historical district in
Newport Harbor.
The first step is to pinpoint where
these ships are buried. Fortunately,
there's an 18th-century British chart
that maps the location of all the
scuttled vessels, although many of
the landmarks disappeared long
ago.
Once the sites have been identi-
fied, experts will decide which
wrecks should be excavated first and
how best to protect them.
Since the wreck is state property,
anyone who wants to work on the
site must get permission from the
state Historical Preservation Com-
mission. The commission is forming
a group of sport divers and archaeol-
ogists to conduct the survey, which
Cembrola hopes can begin in the
spring.
"This is very important because a
lot of these sites date from the
Revolutionary War period," said
Gail Gustafson of the Historical
Preservation Commission. "If this
isn't protected, it will end up being
"I knew what it was," Cembrola dredged away or looted.
trove.

[PAGE BREAK]

Cape Cod Times
SUNDAY, MAY 26, 1991
CAPE &SLANDS
Senior Journal
B-2
Our Towns
B-3
Obituaries
B-6
B
The Whydah's bell, on display with other artifacts from the
pirate ship at the Pilgrim Memorial Museum in Provincetown, is
being treated in a tank of sodium carbonate solution to remove
300 years of sand and mud.
Pirate ship's
treasures
on display
By ANNE COLDEN
STAFF WRITER
P
ROVINCETOWN - The
exhibit of artifacts from the
pirate ship Whydah, which
recently opened at the Pro-
vincetown Pilgrim Monu-
ment Museum, could be subtitled "the
lure and lore of the loot."
The lore is the story of the pirates, in-
cluding Capt. Black Sam Bellamy, who
led the ship to its destruction on the
shoals off Wellfleet in 1717.
The lure of the treasure left behind is
There are several weapons, including
a silver hand guard from a rapier and a
musket stock and carbine, or short
musket.
There is also a leg bone and the boot
it was found in; a silk stocking and
sash, which was tied around a pistol.
Instead of reading the story of the pir-
ates, visitors to the exhibit are given an
"audioguide," a tape-recorded tour that
lasts about 20 minutes.
In the center of the room are tanks
filled with a sodium carbonate solution
in which cannons and the ship's bell are
being treated in a process known as

[PAGE BREAK]

PAGE
B-2
SENIOR URNAL
Studds focuses on health insurance
HEALTH INSURANCE
U.S.
Rep. Gerry E. Studds, D-Mass.,
plans to continue to press in Wash-
ington for a comprehensive system
of national health insurance. The
congressman, who has long sup-
ported such insurance as a more ef-
fective and economical way to en-
sure care for all Americans, also
said he plans to schedule three na-
tional health insurance forums in
three Massachusetts locations, in-
cluding Cape Cod and the islands, in
"the very near future." Studds also
said, "We spend more as a nation
for health than we get in medical
care; 37 million Americans are total-
ly uninsured, and many more are
underinsured and vulnerable
We can do much, much better with-
out spending a dime more."
The Fal-
REMEMBERING
mouth Council on Aging reports the
Eileene Finnell Memorial Garden
will be formally dedicated at 1 p.m.
Friday at the town senior center
A decorating workshop is sched-
uled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the
Orleans Senior Center... Legal as-
sistance will be offered at 2 p.m.
Tuesday
Senior Notes
by Don Marshall
shown at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday at the
Mashpee Senior Center And at
the Osterville Free Library's 10:30
a.m. Friday film session the movie
will be "Gregory Peck: His Own
Man"... The Truro Senior Center
has scheduled a blood pressure clin-
ic for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Pil-
grim Library... The Friends of the
Edgartown Council on Aging will
get together at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the
Anchors Senior Center on Martha's
Vineyard... Songs from the '20s
will be offered by the Albert Dreyer
and Ed Larkosh Duo at 1:15 p.m.
Wednesday at the new Tisbury Sen-
ior Center, also on Martha's Vine-
yard... "Financial Security in Re-
tirement" will be the subject of a
seminar at 10 a.m. Thursday by the
Harwich Senior Center at the town
hall.
BRIEFS
Consumers assistance
are willing to act as friendly visitors Thursday at the Provincetown Sen-
to other senior citizens who may be ior Center.
housebound or lonely.
UPDATE
The
MOVING ALONG
Friends of the Truro Council on Ag-
The Friends of the ing will be sponsoring their monthly
Mashpee Council on Aging will be luncheon next Sunday at the Whit-
meeting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the
Peg Daley
town senior center
has retired from her position as re-
man House
Falmouth Area
Chapter No. 953, AARP, reports it
now has a membership roll of 933
ceptionist for the Sandwich Council members including 15 life member-
on Aging. Because tomorrow is ships. ... A whist party is listed for
Memorial Day all senior centers on
the Cape and islands will be closed
The first Mini Craft Fair to be
held at Mayflower Place Nursing
Center in West Yarmouth takes
place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday... The
Barnstable Council on Aging re-
ports there will be an immunizaiton
clinic for tuberculosis and tetanus at
9 a.m. Wednesday at the Hyannis
Town Hall... A cocktail party is
scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at
the Brewster Manor Nursing and
Retirement Home ... The Book of
the Month Club meets at 11 a.m.
1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bourne
Senior Center
vice will be offered by Barbara Ea-
Hearing aid ser-
ton at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the
Chatham Senior Center, by ap-
pointment... Jim Lyons, president
of Cape Cod Hospital, will be the
speaker at Tuesday's 2 p.m. meeting
of the Men's Forum at the Dennis
Senior Center... The bird-carving
class gets together at 1 p.m. Friday
at the Brewster Senior Center.
Don Marshall, a retired
man, lives in Hyannis.
newspaper-
will be offered Thursday at the Yar- Harwich council to distribute free food
mouth Senior Center, by appoint-
SUNDAY CAPE COD TIMES, MAY 26, 1991
ELDER SERVICES NUTRITION CORNER
Mary is one of approximately 1,000 people who benefit from the
Nutrition Program of Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands.
At 85, Mary has difficulty shopping and preparing meals, so she
receives meals on wheels daily enabling her to stay in her own
home. This assures her that someone will check on her and deliver
a nutritious meal each day. She looks forward to seeing her driver
every day and chatting with him. The nutrition program provides
her with that small bit of independence that is so important in ev-
eryone's life.
However, the program offers much more than just meals to ho-
mebound seniors. It also serves congregate meals, designed to pro-
vide older adults, with nutritionally sound meals as well as social
interaction. Apart from lunch, people enjoy the conversation,
friendship and socializing. Anyone 60 years or older, and his or her
spouse, is welcome to make reservations and eat at any local con-
gregate luncheon site.
If you would like to participate in the Nutrition Program of Elder
[AD] Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, call 394-4630 or the toll free
number listed below.
Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands serves lunch at 17
locations on the Cape and islands. Information and reservations are
[AD] available by calling (800) 244-4630. This week's luncheon menu
follows:
MONDAY: Memorial Day. Sites closed.
TUESDAY: Turkey dogs, vegetarian beans, spinach, brown
bread, fresh fruit. Meal contains 693 calories, 1,000 plus milligrams
sodium.
WEDNESDAY: Cheese quiche, baked tomato half, mixed vegeta-
bles, whole wheat bread, chocolate pudding. Meal contains 1,121
calories, 1,2990 milligrams sodium.
THURSDAY: Baked chicken with sweet and sour sauce, whipped
potatoes, corn niblets, crusty roll, chilled fruit. Meal contains 827
Aq
w to be a te to the date on
en to the pub but i que tips to boost pod budo
8-8/HVQAHM as a
ps and a po pa
- a ( )
be a p
w
as a dip of ou
a
saba
a pas de se
be a who
pe to see w
a b c d
pres de papa b c
s to a
to be as a pas
and a se te
- a b c
a b
c o pos
a b Bado de un
as a
so
e a ap
ha a
200-
*ч
a po
od
po po po
of a set of a po
-ins pш pue pues pa
plos pue suo pose to
s pa po p
-u Adsip uo uodo as a
- pa
se
ps and
as a Suede yaz
po
a ) as jeb
en be un peu de
pas e se p
pies
e samo u sвм oчм
to spada para a s
a b
c
- a b c
a b c
f
a spo
a b c d e f
pred a
-pa,, a
A
a
to B
b c d e
as a spur pages
de and we are to
be a bid of pain
a to be a sad por s
to be as a
7861 u punog sa pa
requ
pos pasur m