The Pride Of Baltimore II In The Cape Cod Canal

A reproduction of the Baltimore Clipper style of topsail schooner, the Pride Of Baltimore II sailed through the Cape Cod Canal on Saturday.

The original Pride Of Baltimore sank in a 1986 gale, all hands lost. Pride II is a memorial ship. She has sailed 200,000 miles and hit 200 ports in 40 countries.

The Army Of Two

America has produced some tough folks, people like Wyatt Earp, John Henry, Mike Tyson, Chuck Norris, LT, Sasha Banks, Batman... 

However, none of them turned back 200 of the world's best Marines. I'm not sure if Sergeant York can claim those kind of stripes, or even Captain America. In even his silliest movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't try to sell himself as being capable of taking on 200 elite Marines.

So, naturally, this feat was performed by two young girls from Scituate. They were unarmed, of course. They had no backup, and may have been raped or even hung as spies if they lost. As is generally the case when two girls decide to make a stand against 200 Marines, they used Fear as their weapon.

The War of 1812 was very unpopular in New England, and we discussed seceding from the US over it long before the Confederacy made it fashionable. This meant little to the British, other than an opportunity to perhaps drive New England out of the war if they made life hard enough for them.

Understand that Massachusetts was the first colony to send the Brits packing in the Revolution. We had already attacked British soil in Canada. The British had been chased with their tails between their legs from Marshfield, one town to the south, in the previous squabble almost 40 years earlier. There was no love lost, and the British Navy wasn't going to use the kid gloves when they decided to send a raiding party ashore in Scituate, Massachusetts.

Her Royal Navy spent quite some time smashing up Massachusetts ports. We were known as a haven for pirates/privateers, Falmouth, New Bedford and Wareham were torn to shreds by the British Navy in this war, and they had already whipped up on Scituate a few times. Scituate had ships stolen and burned. The British had shown up off of her shores in the summer of 1814, demanding provisions under the threat of more ill treatment.

The local militia assembled, and the British never came ashore. They never went away either, but the militia did. The Brits heard about this (Marshfield was heavily Loyalist when the Revolution started, and some holdovers may have been giving information to the Limey sailors) and prepared to pay Scituate back for not providing the provisions.

Keep in mind, the scholarship of this story is limited, and really good superhero stories tend to grow with time. This is especially true in areas with lots of fishermen. We're just going to give you the basic legend, and leave all of that further-study stuff to the reader.

In September of 1814, the British Navy made their move on Scituate. A ship, La Hogue, dropped anchor about a mile off of Scituate Harbor. They loaded the barges with Marines and started rowing towards the town. They had raided Scituate three times before, but had never come ashore, limiting themselves to burning/stealing ships. This time, they were coming to burn the town.

They chose a stealth approach, rowing towards isolated Old Scituate Light. Their luck was better than they could have hoped, as the lighthouse keeper (Simeon Bates) was away with most of his family. Only his wife and two daughters stayed at the station, and they were the first to see this less-musical British Invasion coming.

Rebecca and Abigail Bates were no weak sisters, however. They knew that the militia had dispersed, and that there was no way to get them assembled before Scituate was set aflame. Their home, a very valuable lighthouse that treacherous local shipping was dependent on, was probably the first thing that would be set aflame when John Bull got the matches out. They would also be the first young girls that 200 marauding sailors would get their hands on after a long time at sea.

There then commenced what I would say may have been the coolest teen-girl chattering that ever happened in America (I'm thinking hard on this, and can't get past 90210), and the two sisters decided that the British raid would be getting no further than them.

They chose an Audio defense. Grabbing a fife and drum, they hid behind a dune and started making a racket. History disagrees on who was playing what instrument, but they played loudly as they walked back and forth behind the dunes. Maybe they snuck a peek over the dunes now and then, or maybe they just put their heads down and had faith in the plan.

We do know that they played "Yankee Doodle" over and over.

As the Brits got closer to shore, there were five sounds they could hear. One was the ocean, one was the rowing, one was their officers' exhortations... and the other two were a fife and drum. Fifes and drums meant "Militia."

Two hundred British marines (I am making that number up based on a force that they used for a similar attack on Wareham) are nothing to trifle with, but even they couldn't stand up to what could be 1000-1500 men, all familiar with the territory, all crack shots who have to shoot their own supper a lot and who have had months to prepare for just such a siege. The British turned around and ran like scalded dogs. OK, they were in a boat, so they didn't technically run, but I don't have a metaphor for Rowing. "They had to Row like Versus Wade".... OK, I have nothing.

Exact records for the Battle of Scituate are hard to find. The girls both lived to old age, and would tell their story for anyone who'd pay a dime to hear it. Stories may get embellished that way. It's tough for a skeptic to debate a living, breathing Primary Source.

Likewise, the British have no record of the encounter. Very few men who wanted to advance in Her Majesty's Navy (I don't know if they had a Queen at the time, I just like saying "Her Majesty's Navy") reported back to the crown that "Well, your Majesty, we were going to burn Scituate, but my 200 toughest Marines got scared off by a couple of teenyboppers pretending to be Jethro Tull." Career suicide.

(Editor: References to the aborted raid on Scituate exist in the journals of some British officers)

American soldiers have been in some tough spots. Little Round Top was defended by a bayonet charge against an enemy who had guns. The Battle of the Bulge had Americans surrounded in a snowstorm by Hitler's best troops. The Minutemen gathered on a town square and stood toe-to-toe with the world's best light infantry..

The Bates Sisters have them all beat. Two unarmed girls went to war against a veritable boatload of British Marines. I wouldn't touch those odds with a six and a half foot Pole, and neither would Rob Gronkowski. It matters not... the girls ended the day in possession of the battlefield.

The Bates sisters and their victory were not lost on military historians. General John Magruder used similar deceptions in Virginia during the Civil War. It even came full circle, with the Chinese using whistles to intimidate when attacking Americans in the Korean War. Some even say that the Vietcong used a similar strategy at Khe Sanh.

The Bates sisters did it better, though... and they have a sign to prove it.

Music hath charms...

Cape Cod Surf Check: Hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian wasn't far offshore, so we headed out to see what sort of waves she was throwing our way. All storms are girls, even ones named Dorian.

Sagamore Beach was where we ended the South Shore Surf Check article and started the Cape Cod Surf Check one.

We gambled on some high tide South Shore destruction (Cape Cod, especially the Outer Cape, gets better waves, but the South Shore builds right on the high tide line, and it makes for better Surf Check photos... generally) and lost, so we weren't on the Outer Cape at high tide. This delay gave the seas more time to build.

Someone wet the bed

You sacrifice some closeness shooting from up on a sand cliff, but you get a Seagull view of the incoming surf.

Eastham is always a good place to shoot some surf.

The surf was rough, piling up, no slow rollers. We saw one surfer, and he was beached.

This could have been worse, as Dorian was still quite powerful. There was an astronomically low tide, and Dorian was far enough offshore.

The whole vibe was "nor'easter." It was even sort of chilly.

Winds were tropical storm force.

I want potato chips.

It's cool having a famous house, unless it's famous because they show it on the news when they talk about beach erosion maybe swallowing up a house. Still, cool f***ing house...

Truro, btw...

By the time we got back to Sandwich, the seas had calmed. There was nothing left to do but go to The Drunken Seal.

South Shore Surf Check: Hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian was south of Nantucket, but close enough for fringe effects like rain, wind and rough surf. 

We got out early (6:47 AM high tide) to see what was what.

We started off in Duxbury, because things tend to get wrecked there. I don't know who planned their wedding for today (see video below), but I wish them all the best.

Duxbury was saved some damage by A) an astronomically low tide, and B) the timing/placement of the storm and high tide.

If you leave your stairs up for even the fringes of a hurricane, you sort of deserve this...

I tore down this backboard with a 360 tomahawk, then we were off to Marsh Vegas.

Sorry about the blurry tower, but the wind was gusting with some tropical storm force.

No surfers were out, and we went to ten beaches between this article and the Cape Cod one, so we would know. This was rough, choppy surf, the slow rollers will arrive later.

Rexhame is where the North River used to empty before her course was altered during the Portland Gale.

Off to Plymouth we go, a bit past high tide...

Off to Cape Cod...

Sagamore Beach Cliff Erosion Control

Sagamore Beach is Bourne's frontage on Cape Cod Bay. It runs a mile or so from the Scusset Beach to the Cedarville section of southern Plymouth.

Sagamore Beach's coastline is defined by sand cliffs, and that's where we are headed today.

Sand cliffs are awesome, save for one thing... they erode. This makes them a rotten place to build a house in top of, which contrasts with the sweeping views and salt air which make them a terrific place to build a house on.

This sets up a battle between humans and erosion. It is a battle happening all along the Massachusetts coastline, and various means to win that battle are in action or being planned.

Sagamore has several different types of erosion control, and you can up that number by strolling past the White Cliffs in Cedarville. You can see more if you head up the South Shore.

You don't really win when you fight the ocean. The goal is to avoid losing completely. Failing that, you at least try to forestall the defeat long enough to hand off the problem to your children or grandchildren.

Many people on Sagamore Beach would settle for that outcome.

Sagamore Beach is somewhat protected by the barrier beach that is Cape Cod. They don't get bad surf.. These cliffs might be gone already if they were a bit north, like Duxbury or Scituate.

Places like that have seawalls. Sagamore Beach was not afforded that option. To be fair, you'd need a pretty high wall to seal off the erosion problems here, and you'd have to run it a mile.

Duxbury and Scituate also had government help with the walls. Duxbury residents were able to pay $500 per beachfront house in the 1950s for a seawall.

Saggy missed that gravy train. Anyone with .gov in their email address wants nothing to do with them these days. Sagamore Beach is on her own.

Their problem is compounded by the fact that surf is only one factor at work. Even the worst storms aren't smashing waves off the top of these cliffs. Rain, wind, human activity and even gravity will take sand from the top of that hill to the bottom of it, where the tides can wash it away.

When enough sand moves down the cliff, the houses will eventually follow.

Various means of addressing this issue can be seen at work along Sagamore Beach. We took a stroll with the camera to check them out.

The basic erosion control idea is to build a structure at the bottom of the cliff that prevents cliff sand from entering into the surf process.

That structure can be stone, vegetation or even more sand. That would be costly. Ideally, it would be the height of the cliff, but that would be very costly.

Of course, your home and family tumbling 80 feet down a cliff in a collapsing house is even more very costly.

A good structure can stop the flow of sand to a certain extent. Prevention of lower cliff erosion forestalls upper cliff erosion, which in turn forestalls houses collapsing down cliffs.

This guy has a nice looking wall at the base of the cliff under his house. It probably cost a fortune, but it also protects a fortune.

He also has the hill covered with vegetation, a proven erosion control technique. The bushes block sand, and the roots provide below-ground erosion prevention. Flat beaches like Duxbury rely on vegetation for erosion control anywhere that nobody lives at.

The stairs are a nice touch as well, with the pilings ( and the below-stairs vegetation) offering erosion protection.

You can see the advantages such an approach has over the let-nature-take-her-course approach shown below.

I grew up on a beach that was very vulnerable to erosion, so I know how it is. There is a difference between what you should do and what you can do.

This guy may also like to have a cool wall, but maybe he's underwater on the house and can't afford the enormous financial hit. He's also one erosion event from being underwater in the house.

I'm not picking on this guy, as he is influenced by factors that I may not be aware of. I'm pretty sure he has more money than me. My dumpy cottage is small enough that, if it fell down a hill, I'd just get a couple of buddies and carry it back up.

So, no insult to that homeowner. His house actually rules... until it rolls.

Taking a walk on the beach and being crushed by a house rolling down a sand dune is a very Cape Cod way to die. The victim wouldn't have time to process that thought, and it would be of little comfort to them anyhow.

Likewise, they would probably not be in the mood to, as the house fell on them, think that "This is the last thing that the Wicked Witch Of The East saw."

I think this guy hired one of those dudes who spray a Chem-Lawn onto your bare yard if you are too lazy to buy and spread seed.

I want to putt here very badly. It would make a terrific 18th hole for White Cliffs Country Club.

It would be environmentally damaging, would harm the man's house and I don't advocate it... but that house would rule to go sledding at.

As someone who grew up repairing a lawn every spring that was destroyed every winter by the ocean, I can tell you that grass will work just fine... until it doesn't.

This is a groyne, a rock wall barrier extending into the sea. The purpose of it is to stop the flow of sand down the beach.

Ideally, this will protect the sand at the base of the dune. Not directly, but protection nonetheless.

Granted, it also starves the beach south from it of sand. Sagamore Beach cliffs are sorta designed to break down over time to feed Sandwich and Barnstable.

While a Sagamore Beach bum may say "Eff Barnstable," he only has to look north a bit to see the groynes at the White Cliffs Country Club keeping Manomet/Ellisville/Cedarville sand from washing down to Sagamore Beach.

A quick stroll up to Cedarville will show you other ways to fight erosion.

A great many more methods are on display here.

I am not aware of any laws banning certain types of structures, but I wouldn't faint from surprise if somebody told me otherwise.

Cedarville has a sandbag wall protecting one part of their cliffs.

I'm not sure if he is allowed to fill those bags with beach sand or not.

I hope he can, because I'd feel badly for a man living on a sand cliff overlooking a sandy beach who has to import sand.

This guy is trying the same idea, but with rocks wrapped in wire.

It looks like a Rock Lobster trap. Down, down....

You can kind of look at the yard next to him, with no protection at all, and free associate it with "Google image search result for 'futility.'"

Speaking of which...

Beach grass does indeed help against erosion. Duxbury Beach plants thousands of stalks each year... and then plant even more when the previous plantings wash away.

Beach grass is fine for gradual, gentle slopes where the enemy is wind. It is not what you want to gamble your home and family on if you live on a rapidly eroding sand cliff.

You start to think "Little pig, little pig, let me in" when looking at this method.

You know you want your own six figure Dune Tram!

Tropical Storm Watch For Cape Cod, Islands

Hurricane Local Statement Issued September 05 At 5:31am Edt  By Nws Boston

 This Product Covers Southern New England 

*

*A Tropical Storm Watch Is In Effect For The Cape And Islands

*

* New Information --------------- 

* Changes To Watches And Warnings: - A Tropical Storm Watch Has Been Issued For Barnstable Ma, Dukes Ma, And Nantucket Ma 

* Current Watches And Warnings: - A Tropical Storm Watch Is In Effect For Barnstable Ma, Dukes Ma, And Nantucket Ma 

* Storm Information: - About 840 Miles Southwest Of Nantucket Ma - 31.7n 79.5w - Storm Intensity 115 Mph - Movement North Or 10 Degrees At 8 Mph Situation Overview ------------------ Hurricane Dorian Is Forecast To Pass About 150 Miles South Of Nantucket Late Friday Night Before Moving Further Offshore Saturday.

Strong Winds, Heavy Rainfall And High Surf Will Be The Main Impacts, With The Strongest Wind And Heaviest Rain Occurring Late Friday Night Into Early Saturday. Tropical Storm Watches Have Been Issued For Cape Cod And Nantucket.

North Winds Will Increase To 30 To 40 Mph Late Friday Night Over Nantucket And The Outer Cape With Occasional Gusts To 60 Mph Possible.

Total Rainfall Of 2 To 4 Inches Is Possible With Minor Urban Poor Drainage Flooding. A Storm Surge Of 2 To 2.5 Feet Is Possible During The Saturday Morning High Tide Which May Bring Minor Coastal Flooding To Nantucket Harbor.

Potential Impacts ----------------- 

* Wind: Prepare For Dangerous Wind Having Possible Significant Impacts Across Cape Cod And The Islands. Potential Impacts In This Area Include: - Downed Trees And Power Lines.

- Some Roads Impassable From Large Debris, And More Within Urban Or Heavily Wooded Places.

- Scattered Power And Communications Outages, But More Prevalent In Areas With Above Ground Lines.

Also, Prepare For Hazardous Wind Having Possible Limited Impacts Across Southeast Ma.

* Surge: Minor Coastal Flooding Is Possible Along Nantucket Harbor During The High Tide Saturday Morning.

* Flooding Rain: Prepare For Locally Hazardous Rainfall Flooding Having Possible Limited Impacts Across Cape Cod And The Islands. Potential Impacts Include: - Flood Waters Can Enter A Few Structures, Especially In Usually Vulnerable Spots. A Few Places Where Rapid Ponding Of Water Occurs At Underpasses, Low-Lying Spots, And Poor Drainage Areas.

Several Storm Drains And Retention Ponds Become Near-Full And Begin To Overflow. Some Brief Road And Bridge Closures.

Elsewhere Across Southern New England, Little To No Impact Is Anticipated.

Precautionary/Preparedness Actions ---------------------------------- 

* Evacuations: Watch/Warning Phase - Listen To Local Official For Recommended Preparedness Actions.

* Other Preparedness Information: Now Is The Time To Check Your Emergency Plan And Emergency Supplies Kit And Take Necessary Actions To Protect Your Family And Secure Your Home Or Business.

Closely Monitor Weather.Gov, Noaa Weather Radio And Local News Outlets For Official Storm Information. Listen For Possible Changes To The Forecast.

* Additional Sources Of Information: - For Information On Appropriate Preparations See Ready.Gov - For Information On Creating An Emergency Plan See Getagameplan.Org - For Additional Disaster Preparedness Information See Redcross.Org Next Update ----------- The Next Local Statement Will Be Issued By The National Weather Service In Boston/Norton Ma Around Noon Edt, Or Sooner If Conditions Warrant.

Duxbury Beach Hires Quint

After a contentious town meeting where some violence occurred, the village of Duxbury Beach will move aggressively against their Great White Shark population.

They will procure the services of noted shark hunter Captain Quint.

"Captain" is actually his first name, as long as your definition of "actually" hangs on asking Quint his first name and getting an answer of "Captain."

Rumors of Quint's untimely demise in a Martha's Vineyard shark interaction have been, as they say, greatly exaggerated.

Duxbury's shark population was thought to be non-existent, but numerous sightings in recent years culminated in a widely-seen video this week of various sea devils devouring a whale.

A shark attack in nearby Manomet a few years ago nearly offed two kayakers. That shark had been filmed by a state police helicopter the day before, off Duxbury. A fatal 1800s attack also went down off Scituate, far enough offshore that it was essentially off Duxbury.

It was feared that, when the whale carcass was removed, sharks would then be needing a food source, and realize it as they swam past the thousands of bathers at Duxbury's beaches.

Local officials were unapologetic regarding their decision to offer a blood-money contract on a protected species.

"Unlike Cape Cod, we won't send our people into the water while a limousine with teeth is lurking offshore," said Duxbury Beach Mayor Stephen Bowden. "While Cape Cod dithers, Duxbury Beach acts."

Terms of the deal with the shark hunter were undisclosed, and we were unable to determine if the Duxbury Beach Reservation funded the hiring as we go to press.

Quint is chumming off the shores of Duxbury Beach as you read this. He is unconcerned with protests over his lucrative mission.

Duxbury Beach is closed to swimming until the hunt us over.

He is at sea upon the Beyonce, as his prior boat, the Orca, is said to be damaged.

Quint doesn't plan to use harpoons on this shark. "I plan on drinking 17 Naragansetts and tricking the shark into eating a scuba tank, which I will then detonate with a high powered rifle."

"If that doesn't work, I'll lure the evil bastard over to Bug Light and electrocute him."