Close To Home, A World Away
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www.blockislandinfo.com
T
He HIsTory oF Block
Island extends beyond its
sandy and rocky shores. Before the
arrival of modern navigational aids
(and even after it) countless ships
-- off-course due to fog, weather
or human error -- have met their
untimely demise on the Island's
coastline. While some have be-
come the stuff of legend, others
continue to draw sport divers from
around the east coast
In 1738 the Princess Augusta
caught fire and went down off
Sandy Point. This wreck went on
to inspire John Greenleaf Whit-
tier's poem "The Palatine," which
was published in Atlantic Monthly
in 1867 and did not paint a flat-
tering portrait of Islanders. In the
1800s, the Island historian, rev.
livermore, dispelled the allega-
tions in Whittier's poem. In the
centuries since, there have been
numerous reports of a burning
"ghost ship" sighted in the area
west of Sandy Point.
In 1846 a ship carrying hard
coal went aground in Cow Cove.
This coal eventually replaced peat
as the Island's major fuel source.
In 1907 the steamer Larchmont
collided with a three-masted
schooner, the Harry P. Knowl-
ton. Island fishermen braved the
horrific sub-zero conditions in
an effort to pluck a few survivors
from the icy water. These men
were awarded gold medals from
the carnegie Foundation for their
heroic deeds.
also in 1907, the Montana, a
schooner carrying coal, foundered
just outside the entrance to the
Great Salt Pond and now lies 75
feet underwater.
In 1939, a 416-foot Texaco tank-
er, the Lightburne, went aground in
front of the southeast lighthouse
carrying 72,000 barrels of kero-
sene and gasoline. The crew was
rescued and the ship was dynamit-
ed to create less of a navigational
hazard. The Lightburne remains
a favorite spot for ocean divers to
this day.
One of the Island's most signifi-
cant wrecks of the last 100 years
occurred on May 6, 1945 -- two
days before the German surrender.
a collier named Black Point was
torpedoed as she left narragan-
sett Bay, losing 12 men. a group
of American warships, assisted
by blimps, converged on the area
to find the culprit. Eventually
the armada located and sank the
German u-boat u-853, sending
it to the bottom with all 55 crew
members on board.
The wreck, lying in 130 feet of
water approximately seven miles
east of Block Island's clay Head,
has become a popular site for
divers. It played a crucial role in
solving the mystery in the bestsell-
ing book "Shadow Divers."
library contains copy machines,
computers, printers, free Wi-Fi, a
parakeet, a cockatoo and some
fish.
Smilin' Through is a gambrel-
roofed cottage situated on Coon-
eymus Road, where composer
and poet Arthur Penn and his
wife Nell resided in the 1920s.
Penn's musical works include
a song about the Block Island
home, "Smilin' Through." The
original cottage was built in the
1700s by John Alcock and was
rebuilt in the 1950s. The house
sits on the edge of a sloping hill,
which leads down to the waters
of Fresh Pond.
The Statue of Rebecca
stands formally in stark white at
the intersection of Water, High
and Spring streets. Named after
the biblical Rebekah-at-the-well,
the statue originally featured wa-
ter troughs for horses and dogs,
and once had running water for
human consumption. Installed in
1896 by the Women's Christian
Temperance Union, the statue
is dedicated to abstinence from
liquid spirits. The much-loved
statue was recast and reinstalled
to celebrate her 100th anniver-
sary. The conservationists who
did the work concluded that the
woman is not Rebekah but rather
Hebe, cupbearer to the gods!
SHIPWRECKS
Waves pound an old shipwreck off the southern
coast of Block Island, just one of the many sur-
rounding the Island. Photo by Celeste Sloman
Photo by Michael Melford