1635 — Aug 14/15, Storm, Pinnace Watch and Wait Wrecks, Thacher Island, MA — 21
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-13-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 21 Essex National Heritage Commission. “Thacher Island Twin Lights, Rockport, Mass.”
— 21 NPS. Maritime History of MA. “Twin Lights Historic District – Cape Ann Light Station.”
— 21 Snow. Tales of Terror and Tragedy. 1979, p. 173.
— 21 Thacher Island Association. “History of Thacher Island.”
— 19 Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. 1891, pp. 2 & 7.
Narrative Information
Essex National Heritage Commission: “The island [Thacher] was later named for Anthony Thacher, an Englishman whose vessel, the Watch and Wait, was wrecked in a ferocious storm near the Island in 1635 on its way to Marblehead from Ipswich. Thacher and his wife, Elizabeth, were the only survivors of the wreck in which 21 people died. Four of Thacher’s children, and his cousin, Reverend Joseph Avery, died along with his wife and six children.” (Essex National Heritage Commission. “Thacher Island Twin Lights, Rockport, Mass.”)
National Park Service: “Cape Ann Light Station, also known as Thacher Island Twin Lights, was first established on Thacher Island in 1771. Thacher Island is located about a mile offshore of Rockport. The rocky, 50-acre island earned its name when the General Court granted it to Anthony Thacher in 1636-1637. During the Great Storm of 1635, Thacher and his wife were the sole survivors of a tragic shipwreck near the island that claimed the lives of approximately 21 passengers and crew members, including the Thacher’s children and friends.” (NPS. Maritime History of MA. “Twin Lights Historic District – Cape Ann Light Station.”)
Sumner: “August 15, 1635. Probably the earliest tropical storm on record in New England began shortly after midnight with heavy rain and a wind that had shifted from south-southwest to northeast. Later the wind increased in violence and was accompanied by torrential rain. After the gale had continued 5 or 6 hours, the wind changed to northwest and gradually subsided…” (Sumner, H. C. “Historical Storms of New England,” in “The North Atlantic Hurricane of September 8-16, 1944.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 72, No. 9, December 5, 1944, 188-189.)
Thacher Island Association: “The name [Thacher Island] comes from a shipwreck described as “pathetic” by historians. A small boat out of Ipswich , bound for Marblehead , was caught in the Great Storm of August, 1635, and was dashed to pieces on the rocks of the Island . Of the twenty-three passengers and crew, only Anthony Thacher and his wife survived, watching helplessly as their children and friends were swept away.” (Thacher Island Association. “History of Thacher Island.”)
Sources
Essex National Heritage Commission. “Thacher Island Twin Lights, Rockport, Massachusetts.” Accessed 9/17/2009 at: http://www.essexheritage.org/sites/thacher_island.shtml
National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Maritime History of Massachusetts. “Twin Lights Historic District – Cape Ann Light Station.” 9/17/2009 at: http://www.nps.gov/history/nR/travel/maritime/twi.htm
Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: The Salem Press Publishing and Printing Co., 1891. Google digital preview accessed 10-26-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2kAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Beverly MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2001 (originally published 1891, in Salem MA: The Salem Press).
Snow, Edward Rowe. Tales of Terror and Tragedy. NY: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1979.
Sumner, H. C. “The North Atlantic Hurricane of September 8-16, 1944.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 72, No. 9, 12-5-1944, pp. 187-189. Accessed 11-13-2017 at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/mwreviews/1944.pdf
Thatcher, James. History of the Town of Plymouth, from its first Settlement in 1620, to the Present Time: With a Concise History of the Aborigines of New England, and Their Wars with the English, &c. (2nd Ed.). Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1835. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=mNQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false