428 HISTORY OF COHASSET. 



Intermarriages have taken place with the descendants 

 of the original English pioneers and with the descendants 

 of Irish newcomers, so that in many cases the dark eyes 

 and skin of the Southern race have become part of the 

 common stock. 



At about the time when these people from the Azores 

 were coming here to join our fishing force, there occurred 

 a tragedy which illustrates some of the dangers of a life 

 at the mackerel line. It was the wreck of our schooner 

 Maine, off Cape Cod, in the year 1846. 



At nine o'clock in the evening of August 16 the Maine, 

 with Captain Joshua Litchfield and his crew * of ten, was 

 pitching and heaving upon the sea at the entrance of 

 Massachusetts Bay. They were "hove to" for the night 

 and the watch was set ; but who could see anything ? 

 The murky air that blew hard from the southwest brought 

 with it a heavy burden of vapor from the land, which was 

 condensed into a black fog by the cool water. There was 

 coming towards the helpless little craft a huge ocean 

 packet, the Hibernia, just started on her way from Boston 

 to England (one of the early Cunarders). The wind was 

 just what the packet wanted, for she was one of those 

 old-fashioned side-wheel steamboats that were fitted with 

 masts and sails to help out their steam power. She swept 

 forward driven by the paddle wheels and the gale through 

 the thick fog. 



Suddenly there was a crash and a heavy thud near the 

 bow, and then one of the paddle wheels began to crunch 

 the masts and the shattered frame of the little fishing 

 schooner. The crew of fishermen were swept under the 

 great wheel like bits of rubbish in a mill race. In a mo- 

 ment the scraping and crashing was done and nothing 

 could be heard in the blackness but the shrieking of the 

 gale through the rigging. 



*Meshech Litchfield, Benjamin Litchfield, Martin Wheelwright, Isaiah Lincoln, 

 Francis M. Lincoln, Alfred F. Wood, Joseph Bowker, Luther Litchfield, Henry 

 Richardson (boy), Ezekiel Lincoln (boy). 



