1893 – Dec 05, British ship Jason strands/breaks off Pamet Riv., Truro, Cape Cod, MA– 26
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 8-24-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–26 Boston Post. “Storm of Doom. Twenty-Six Lives Lost in the Jason’s Wreck.” 12-7-1893, 6.
–26 McGuiggan. “Remembering the Wreck of the Jason.” Provincetown Independent. 7-20-2022.
–26 Snow. Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, p. 157.
Narrative Information
Snow. Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, pp. 154-158:
“….The story of the Jason is hard luck and bad luck from the start of its voyage to the finish. Even the sole survivor of the wreck died a short time later.
“The ship Jason sailed from Barry England, in February 1892….
“The new captain, McMillan by name, arrived with his ship off the New England coast the first day of December, 1893, almost two years after the Jason had left England. Thick weather prevailed, with the captain uncertain as to his exact location. Falling in with a New York pilot boat, he was given his bearings, and shaped his course accordingly. Although he did not realize it, he was then approaching Cape Cod in such a way that he was doomed should an easterly set in. Cape Cod has a natural trap for sailing vessels from which very few escape. It is a triangular area made up of Pollock Rip Shoal, Chatham, and Highland Light. Once inside this area with a strong northeast breeze, the ship’s doom is sealed, for there is not room enough to wear around and avoid the shoals to leeward or weather the Cape hard on the starboard tack.
“A driving rain now began with the wind from the northeast, and the rain shortly turned to sleet and snow. Nauset Three Lights was the first landfall the Jason made, late in the afternoon of the 5th of December. The ship was on a lee shore and the captain realized there was no hope. The men worked hard to get out their boats and prepare for the disaster which they knew was coming.
“Back on shore the vessel had been under close observation for hours. The telephone which runs from one Cape Cod life saving station to another was constantly ringing that afternoon as the Jason made her way up the coast. Captain Charles first reported the ship off his Orleans station. Every station crew from Nauset Beach to Race Point hauled out their boat and gear and awaited the inevitable…..
“Finally came the last report, ‘I’ve got her,’ shouted Captain David Rich from Pamet River over the wire. ‘She’s stranded off the beach.’
“The crew of the Pamet River Station rushed the beach cart to the scene. By this time the shore was piled high with wreckage, and the slatting of the Jason’s sails could be heard even above the storm. Unable to launch a lifeboat into the sea, the men fired their gun out to the vessel, but there was no response. Unknown to them, most of the sailors on the Jason had already perished when the mizzenmast fell into the sea. The ship, presumably weakened from her previous encounters, broke in two almost as soon as she struck. One person, a young man named Samuel Evans, had been too late to climb the mizzenmast with the others, and a great sea swept him overboard. His lifebelt secure, he swam to a nearby bale of yellow jute [long rough fiber], grasped it, and knew no more until the men picked him up on the shore.
“‘Be I saved?’ asked the lad, as he came to. Yes,’ was the answer, ‘but you’re the only one.’ Twenty-six others had been engulfed by the storm. The great jute cargo littered the beach for miles, with many of the residents reaping a rich harvest because of the disaster….”
Newspapers
Boston Daily Globe. “British Ship Ashore. Crew of 27 in Peril…Cape Cod…” 12-6-1893, p.1:
“Yesterday’s northeast storm added another wreck to those for which the treacherous shores of Cape Cod have been responsible. One man, washed ashore, is probably the only survivor of a crew of 28 of the British ship Jason, bound from Calcutta for Boston with a cargo of jute.
“Last night, exposed to ice, winds and terrible seas, 27 men clung to the rigging of the ship, which every moment seemed likely to go to pieces. Repeated attempts were made by life-saving crews to shoot a line to the poor wretches, but each proved a failure, until seeing it to be useless, the workers on shore at midnight abandoned their efforts till daylight.
“The strong wind yesterday carried its burden of snow all over New England. Sleet and rain in some places along the coast followed the flakes, but at midnight reports came of clearing and very cold weather….
British Ship Jason Ashore.
“Highland Light, Dec. 5 – At 3 o’clock this afternoon Capt. Bearse of the Nauset beach life-saving station saw a large, heavily laden ship just outside the breakers, one mile from shore, struggling northward against the storm with three lower topsails and forestaysail set.
“The ship was unable to weather the cape and is stranded one mile south of Highland light. When darkness hid the doomed craft from the view of the watchers on the beach at Nauset the ship was seen to be pitching heavily and her crew were making heroic efforts to avert the disaster which threatened them. There was no turning back, and the sailors spring to the yards and soon the three upper topsails were loosened and sheeted home. Two staysails were hoisted forward and the ship drove furiously in the sea that was sweeping her decks. The added sail helped to force her on, but she was making such a drift that she was given up for lost by those who saw her disappear in the darkness.
“Every man of the life saving service was on the alert. The watchers were doubled, and through the howling gale and blinding storm these sturdy surfmen paced up and down the sands, expecting every moment to find washed up at their feet some evidence of the terrible disaster which they knew was inevitable.
“Patrolman Hopkins of Pamet river station, struggling northward on his beat at 7:15, saw the towering masts and great hull of a ship which had at that moment driven upon the bar, 200 yards from shore. In a moment his light was flashed into the darkness to cheer the shipwrecked crew. Hurrying back to his station he gave the alarm.
“Capt. Worthen and crew of the Highland station and Capt. Cole of Cahoon Hollow were equipped to hurry to the scene to aid Capt. Rich of the Pamet station. These crews joined in pushing the rigging over the yielding sands, through darkness that could almost be felt, while the storm beat in fury on their load of mortar boats and life line.
“Through the surges that drove over the ship came wreckage of all kinds, broken boats and spars, torn sails and splintered spars, and over all shrieked the ever increasing gale.
“Suddenly coming over the waves they saw a body. In a minute it was at their feet. Strong hands grasped the half-drowned sailor before the waves could carry him back in their undertow. They carried him to the station, where stimulants and care brought him back to life. The man was Samuel Evans, one of the crew of the ill-fated ship. He said:
‘Our vessel is the British ship Jason, Capt. McMillan, from Calcutta for Boston, with a cargo of jute. We made the land off Cape Cod at 3 o’clock this afternoon during a blinding snow storm, but when we saw it, we were so near we could not weather the point and were lost.
While clinging to the lee rail after the ship had struck, a great sea swept me overboard. How I reached the shore, God only knows, but I knew if I once could gain the beach someone would be there to help me.’
“It is believed that the entire crew with this one exception, will perish. At 10 p.m. the ship’s spars were coming ashore. Her mainmast has gone and she is believed to be breaking up. It is thought that the ship’s crew are in the rigging. A life line has been shot over the vessel but the sailors cannot secure it. It is hoped the ship will hold together until daylight, when a line can be shot to her crew.
“The crew of the ship Jason numbered 28. She was built in 1870 at Greenock, Scotland and is owned there. She is 1540 tons.”
Boston Post. “Storm of Doom. Twenty-Six Lives Lost in the Jason’s Wreck.” 12-7-1893, p. 6:
“Highland Light, Dec. 6 – Twenty-six souls went down to death with the wreck of the Jason in Tuesday’s terrible storm. But one of the crew was saved – Samuel J. Evans, a young English lad, whose story of the disaster is probably all that will even be known of this latest of the tempest tragedies along old Cape Cod’s rugged coast.
“None of the bodies have been washed ashore, but where the tide ebbed this afternoon the body of one of the ship’s crew was discovered tangled in the rigging over the vessel’s side. The fierce sea, which is still running, prevented its recovery, but it is expected that tomorrow it will be possible to reach the ship, when other bodies may be found….
“The crew were made up of Irishmen, Norwegians and Swedes…. [and English]
“The Jason’s cargo consisted of 10,816 bales of jute butts, worth about $100,000 and consigned to the Ludlow Manufacturing Company of Boston….
“Samuel J. Evans, the boy who was washed ashore, is 19 years old. He belongs in Monmouthshire, England….”
Sources
Boston Daily Globe. “British Ship Ashore. Crew of 27 in Peril in the Rigging on Cape Cod Sands.” 12-6-1893, p. 1. Accessed 8-24-2024 at:
https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-dec-06-1893-p-1/
Boston Post. “Storm of Doom. Twenty-Six Lives Lost in the Jason’s Wreck.” 12-7-1893, p. 6. Accessed 8-24-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-dec-07-1893-p-11/
McGuiggan, Amy Whorf. “Remembering the Wreck of the Jason.” The Provincetown Independent, MA. 7-20-2022. Accessed 8-24-2024 at: https://provincetownindependent.org/visual/2022/07/20/remembering-the-wreck-of-the-jason/
Snow, Edward Rowe. “The Bad Luck of the Jason.” Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Boston: Yankee Pub. Co., 1943, pp. 154-158.