The Ada K. Damon was a schooner that shipwrecked in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1909. Built in 1875, the ship was an 84-foot-long, two-masted schooner used for fishing and sand transportation.
The ship was owned by Albert K. Brewster and built at H. A. Burnham Boat Building in Essex, Massachusetts.
The ship had previously survived a few storms and lost some crew members before eventually wrecking during the storm in 1909.
In March 1892, the Ada K. Damon was one of many fishing vessels heavily damaged in a storm on the Grand Banks. The dories were smashed, and the wheel box was swept overboard. The ship arrived in its home port of Provincetown leaking badly.
On March 20, 1893, the ship got caught in a heavy snowstorm while fishing off the coast of Cape Cod, and the ship’s four dories got separated from the ship near Highland Light.
One dory found its way back to the ship, but the other three went missing. All six fishermen on board the three dories died, and their bodies washed up on shore over the next month.
The names of the deceased were Joseph Rose, James Tracey, Joseph Fierria, Robert Woodly, Frank Sway Mayo, and Manuel Maderia.
The funeral for five of the victims took place at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Provincetown on April 3, 1893, and was attended by a large crowd. The body of the last victim, Joseph Fierria, was not recovered until later that week.
A news report about the funeral, published in the Boston Globe at the time, declared it the “saddest event that has happened here for a long time, and one that has called forth the sympathies of the entire community” (“Five Hearses Drawn Up In Line,” 1893).
On April 16, 1894, a gale caused one of the ship’s dories to capsize with two fishermen, Nels and Angus Peterson, onboard while off the coast of Provincetown. The two men were able to right the dory, but they lost their oars in the process and drifted for 10 hours in the gale before eventually being rescued by the Marshall L. Adams.
On June 29, 1894, two more fishermen from the Ada K. Damon got lost at sea when their dory got lost in the fog, and they couldn’t find their way back to the ship. They were adrift for three days with no food or water when they were finally rescued by the schooner Sarah.
In September 1902, a crew member died onboard the ship in Nova Scotia due to a gastrointestinal medical issue.
In 1903, news reports state that the Ada K. Damon was struggling to catch enough cod that year, and the captain of the ship at the time, Captain West, blamed it on the fishing practices of the massive fleet of Portuguese, French, English, and American trawlers on the Grand Banks.
West said a practice called “jigging,” which involves manipulating barbed haulers to be lowered to the bottom and then jerk upward violently to impale the fish, was leading to overfishing and causing a shortage of cod.
On Christmas Day in 1909, the Ada K. Damon was anchored off Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts, preparing to load some sand when a storm sprung up. The ship’s anchor chain broke during the gale, and the ship ran aground onto Crane Beach (“Sch. A.K. Damon Wrecked Sunday.” 1909).
The ship held together long enough for Captain Brewster and his crew members to wade ashore the next day, on December 26, where they located the farmhouse on Castle Hill and spent the night there. The ship was eventually smashed to pieces by the waves.
On Monday, December 27, Brewster and some of his crew walked the five miles into town to report the shipwreck. Brewster told the press at the time that the ship was all he had:
“I owned the Ada for some time and we have been hauling loads of sand. That little vessel is the last thing which I held a clear title of. Now she is gone and I have not a penny, and if it was not for the kindness of the man who lives that beach, where my vessel’s went ashore, I wouldn’t have a place to lay my head. It was only just a little while ago that I was obliged to mortgage my house, and now my boat is gone.” (“Schooner Ada K. Damon Wrecked in Storm,” 1909).
It’s not clear who the man living at the beach was since the owner of Castle Hill, farmer John Burnham Brown, died in 1908 and the Crane family didn’t purchase the property until 1910, but it was most likely an heir of the estate or possibly a caretaker employed by the Brown family.
About a year later, on January 9, 1910, another ship, the schooner M.L. Wetherwell, ran aground during a storm at the northern point of Plum Island, Massachusetts, and wrecked just a few hundred feet from the Ada K. Damon (“Sand Schooner Total Wreck,” 1910).
News reports state that the storm was hammering what was left of the two wrecked ships, leaving them in pieces.
The Ada K. Damon shipwreck is still located on Crane Beach today and becomes visible from time to time with the shifting sands.
In September 2020, Hurricane Teddy hit the area and tore the hull of the ship apart and scattered debris across the beach. As of May 2021, only a few beams and the cast iron galley stove remain on Crane Beach, according to the Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.
In March of 2024, a 50-foot section of the ship’s hull became visible again after a storm.
Sources:
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources Final Minutes of Public Meeting–27 May 2021.
“Schooner Leaks Badly.” The Boston Globe, 7 Mar. 1892, p. 2.
“Supposed to be Lost.” Nashua Daily Telegraph, 30 Mar. 1893, p. 1.
“Went Astray in a Snowstorm.” Gloucester Daily Times, 31 Mar. 1893, p. 1.
“Three More Bodies Washed Ashore.” Nashua Daily Telegraph, 31 Mar. 1893, p. 1.
“Six Fishermen Supposed to Be Lost.” New-York Tribune, 31 Mar. 1931, p. 1.
“Given Up By the Sea.” Gloucester Daily Times, 1 Apr. 1893, p. 4.
“Five Hearses Drawn Up in Line.” The Boston Globe, 3 Apr. 1893, p. 1.
“Six Sailors Drowned.” The Boston Post, 7 Apr. 1893, p. 2.
“Given Up By the Tide.” The Boston Globe, 10 Apr. 1893, p. 2.
“Last Body Found.” The Evening Journal, 10 Apr. 1893, p. 1.
“Adrift in a Dory.” The Boston Post, 17 Apr. 1894, p. 1.
“Adrift in a Dory.” Gloucester Daily Times, 17 Apr. 1894, p. 7.
“Faced Death.” Daily Kennebec Journal, 17 Apr. 1894, p. 1.
“Fishermen Picked Up.” Gloucester Daily Times, 9 Jul. 1894, p. 1.
“Drowned in the Harbor.” The Boston Globe, 8 Feb. 1894, p. 4.
“Provincetown.” Gloucester Daily Times, 17 May. 1895, p. 1.
“The Ada K. Damon Sails.” The Boston Herald, 24 May. 1902, p. 3.
“Death of Provincetown Fisherman.” The Boston Globe, 10 Sept. 1902, p. 2.
“Provincetown Fisherman Dead.” Gloucester Daily Times, 10 Sept. 1902, p. 4.
“The Mate Died.” Gloucester Daily Times, 6 Oct. 1902, p. 7.
“Hard Times for Fishermen.” Foster’s Daily Democrat, 16 Oct. 1903, p. 3.
“Patches of Cod.” Newburyport Morning Herald, 17 Oct. 1903, p. 1.
“Poor Catches of Cod.” Gloucester Daily Times, 17 Oct. 1903, p. 1.
“Baitless Barbs Cause Poor Catches of Cod.” The Boston Herald, 17 Oct. 1903, p. 3.
“Schooner Ada K. Damon Wrecked.” The Catholic Press, 28 Dec. 1909, p. 8.
“Aged Captain of the Damon Lost His All.” The Boston Record, 28 Dec. 1909, p. 3.
“Wreck on Castle Hill Beach.” The Boston Transcript, 28 Dec. 1909, p. 2.
“Loses His All.” The Boston Post, 29 Dec. 1909, p. 4.
“Driven Ashore.” Daily Kennebec Journal, 29 Dec. 1909, p. 10.
“Sch. A.K. Damon Wrecked Sunday.” Gloucester Daily Times, 29 Dec. 1909, p. 1.
“Schooner Ada K. Damon Wrecked in Storm at the Mouth of Ipswich River.” Newburyport Daily News, 29 Dec. 1909, p. 3.
“Other Wrecks Yesterday.” The Boston Herald, 29 Dec. 1909, p. 12.
“Schooner Ada K. Damon Ashore at Castle Hill Beach.” Biddeford Weekly Journal, 31 Dec. 1909, p. 1.
“Sand Schooner Total Wreck.” The Boston Traveler, 13 Jan. 1910, p. 7.
“Sand Drogher Ashore Near Knobs Beach Call Out the Life Saving Crew.” Newburyport Morning Herald, 14 Jan. 1910, p. 3.
“Two Ships Pounding to Pieces.” The Boston Post, 15 Jan. 1910, p. 12.
“Two Schooners Doomed to Destruction in Storm.” Atlanta Georgian and News, 15 Jan. 1910, p. 1.
“In Grip of Storm.” Richmond Palladium, 16 Jan. 1910, p. 10.
Brown, Adora. “Shipwreck revealed on shore of Crane Beach.” Boston.com, 8 Mar. 2024, boston.com/news/local-news/2024/03/08/shipwreck-revealed-on-shore-of-crane-beach/
Riley, Neal. “Large piece of century-old shipwreck revealed on Massachusetts beach.” CBS News, 12 Mar. 2024, cbsnews.com/boston/news/ada-k-damon-shipwreck-ipswich-crane-beach/
Shemkus, Sarah. “Stormy Weather Unearths New Portion of Historic Shipwreck in Ipswich.” Northshore Magazine, 13 Mar. 2024, nshoremag.com/community-news/stormy-weather-unearths-new-portion-of-historic-shipwreck-in-ipswich/