THE WARFARE OX OUR EASTERN COAST 



207 



British officer, probably Capt. Cypian 

 Southback, sent out to capture Bellamy, 

 the pirate : 



"Ye place where I came through with 

 a whale-boat, being ordered by ye Gov- 

 ernor to look after ye pirate ship Whide, 

 Bellamy, Commander, castaway ye 26th 

 day of April, 171 7, where I buried one 

 hundred and two men drowned." 



On this chart the islands of Xantucket 

 and Martha's Vineyard are shown as a 

 group of six islands. A very great num- 

 ber of other changes in shoreline topog- 

 raphy are noted. 



new jersey's Ever-changing beach 



A survey of the coast of New Jersey 

 shows strikingly the results that are 

 wrought upon a shoreline by the wind 

 and the waves. 



The beaches for the most part are be- 

 ing driven back by the sea, but the har- 

 bors, which were accessible to coasters 

 quite within the memory of men now liv- 

 ing, are being closed by the traveling 

 drift, just as most of the mouths of the 

 streams emptying into the ocean have 

 been closed and salt - water marshes 

 formed. 



In a description of the Jersey coast, 

 published in 1879, it was stated that, prior 

 to the War of 1812, Old Cranberry Inlet 

 was one of the best anchorages on the 

 coast, and it afforded a safe harbor for 

 American privateers on the lookout for 

 British ships during the Revolution. It 

 opened one night by the angry sea break- 

 ing across the beach, and during the 

 last year of its existence as a harbor the 

 whole channel drifted nearly a mile to 

 the northward. Its closure, about 1812, 

 caused so much inconvenience that, in 

 182 1, one Michael Ortley attempted to 

 cut a new inlet near the head of Barnegat 

 Bay. With the assistance of others, it 

 was finally finished ; but the following 

 morning, to the amazement of the volun- 

 tary workers, it had closed up again. 

 Later another effort was made to effect 

 the same thing lower down the bay. The 

 cut was completed July 4, 1847, the work 

 being done by several hundred men under 

 Anthony Ivens, Jr. The water was let 

 in, and the entire community sent forth 

 its thanksgiving, but quite too soon, for 



it filled up almost as quickly as the Ort- 

 ley cut, so relentlessly was the sea's war 

 carried on. 



A few years ago Louis M. Haupt made 

 a report on shoreline changes in New 

 Jersey, and called attention to the fact 

 that the charter of Atlantic City, pub- 

 lished in 1854, "lays out metes and 

 bounds, with no accessible point of be- 

 ginning or permanent corner, without a 

 course or a distance, and no well-defined 

 contents." He then adds, "This tract of 

 land on a shifting island is set apart as 

 constituting the site of one of the most 

 popular seaside resorts in the world," the 

 legislature of X'ew Jersey having as- 

 sumed that Father X'eptune's forces will 

 never dare to disturb the site ! 



A survey at Atlantic City, in 1863, re- 

 vealed the fact that in the course of but 

 a few years the shore at Maine avenue 

 had lost 76 acres. True, most of this ma- 

 terial was deposited in the lee of the 

 point extending from New Jersey to 

 Ohio avenues, causing an advance of the 

 beach lines at Pennsylvania avenue of 

 about 1,000 feet and adding to this part 

 of the plat some 56 acres, all in the brief 

 space of a decade. This transfer of prop- 

 erty from one riparian owner to another 

 without consideration is not provided for 

 in the statutes, but might properly be re- 

 garded as inequitable, especially to the 

 original owner. However, no one has 

 yet gone into court for an injunction 

 against the sea for thus robbing Peter to 

 pay Paul. 



A VICTORY EOR MAN 



Y\ lien the lighthouse at Atlantic City 

 was threatened, in 1878, the United 

 States challenged the sea by the construc- 

 tion of a jetty at the head of Atlantic 

 avenue. Thus was inaugurated a series 

 of defensive works, which have been con- 

 tinued from time to time by individuals, 

 so that 82 additional acres have been re- 

 claimed from the sea to the great benefit 

 of the city, as well as to that of the ri- 

 parian owners ; but they had to fight hard 

 for every inch. 



The changes in the coastline seem par- 

 tial to no particular locality. At Ocean 

 Grove, X T ew Jersey, and at Point Pleas- 

 ant investigation shows traces of tide- 



