Tag Archives for CCNS Wood End

CCNS Wood End | Measured Mile

 

Maritime trials continued for decades off Provincetown, which — ideally for such purposes — offered deep seas close to shore. A measured mile course ran from Wood End to Long Point: three pairs of “target” towers which, when visually aligned, offered navigators a fix on the beginning, middle and end of a nautical mile. More pictures and history»

Cape Cod National Seashore | Wood End

U.S.S. S-4 crash site

Torpedo room of the U.S.S. S-4 (1919), courtesy of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Torpedo room of the U.S.S. S-4 (1919), courtesy of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Thirty-four sailors, four officers, and two visitors were aboard the U.S.S. S-4 submarine for a trial run on 17 December 1927, when it was hit by the U.S.C.G. Paulding off Wood End. The sub sank more than 100 feet. A day later, a Navy diver pounded out Morse code on the hull: How many survivors? “There are six; please hurry.” Gale-force winds hindered the rescue. The Navy rebuffed assistance from local fishermen. “Please send us oxygen, food and water,” said a coded message on the 19th. The Navy could not. The rescue was abandoned on the 22nd. “There is a special terror in the memory of those men waiting, tapping their patient messages, and dying,” Mary Heaton Vorse wrote. “Everyone in Provincetown had a feeling that it was their individual task to save these men and no one could do anything.”

More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.

Cape Cod National Seashore | Wood End

West End Breakwater

West End Breakwater, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

West End Breakwater, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

With the scale and majesty of a natural feature, the mile-and-a-quarter-long West End Breakwater — more properly called a dike — easily qualifies as the most imposing structure in town. A walk across is a bracing journey, for the sure-footed. The granite boulders stretch out like a highway to the sea. Look closely and you can see blasting holes bored into the rock. You’ll find plenty of shell remnants from seagull meals. If you’re lucky, a cormorant may alight. In the distance is a splendid panorama of town. Below are jade green pools, especially at high tide, deep enough to dive into. If you listen closely, you can hear the water singing in the rocks. And all of it is utilitarian, to prevent a permanent breach that would isolate Long Point and fill the western end of the harbor with sand. The Navy’s interest in protecting this deep-water harbor of refuge prompted the construction of a timber dike in 1871-72 to block the flow of sand from Lancy’s Harbor (present-day Herring Cove). By the 1880s, engineers envisioned a dike from Stevens Point to House Point Island, and from there to Wood End; enclosing the whole tidal marsh. Construction ran from 1910 to 1915. The 1,200 granite blocks were quarried in Quincy, Mass., and brought by scow. More than 30,000 tons of stone were deposited annually. The first bend in the dike marks the location of the long-vanished House Point Island.

It is now thought that the structure may have done as much harm as good, by restricting the ebb and flow of the salt marsh, a vital breeding ground for fish. Questions have even been raised as to how well it protects the beaches. So the next major repair may involve putting holes into the dike.

More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.

Cape Cod National Seashore | Wood End

Wood End Station

Wood End Life-Saving Station, from "The Life Savers of Cape Cod" (1902).

Wood End Life-Saving Station, from “The Life Savers of Cape Cod” (1902).

Almost dead ahead from the West End Breakwater once stood the Wood End Life-Saving Station. This Duluth-style structure (a prototype designed by George Tolman), built in 1896, was similar to the Old Harbor station that’s now at Race Point. Perhaps the best known commander was Capt. George Bickers, who joined the Life-Saving Service at 33 after a career of coasting and whaling. In The Life Savers of Cape Cod, Bickers was credited with having saved many mariners’ lives in wrecks off Wood End. After his time, Wood End was witness to an awfully protracted maritime disaster: the sinking of the submarine U.S.S. S-4 in 1927. The station was demolished in the 1960s.

More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.

† CCNS Wood End | Wood End Station

 

Almost dead ahead from the breakwater once stood the Wood End Life-Saving Station of 1896. This “Duluth”-style structure was similar to the Old Harbor station from Chatham that’s now at Race Point. Perhaps the best known commander at Wood End was Capt. George H. Bickers (b 1858), who joined the Life-Saving Service at 33 after a career of coasting and whaling. In The Life Savers of Cape Cod, Bickers was credited with having ensured that numerous wrecks off Wood End occurred without fatalities. (Bickers is pictured here in a painting by Alice C. Bevin.) After his time, Wood End was witness to the most awfully protracted maritime disaster off Provincetown in the 20th century: the sinking of the submarine U.S.S. S-4 on Dec. 17, 1927. The station was demolished by the federal government in 1961.

Cape Cod National Seashore | Wood End

Wood End Light

Wood End Light, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Wood End Light, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Wood End Light emerges from a seemingly endless horizon, with marsh grass and tidal ponds in the foreground. This stout, squared, 39-foot-tall lighthouse was constructed in 1872. It looks like Long Point Light and, like Long Point, it’s under the care of the American Lighthouse Foundation. But where Long Point flashes green, Wood End flashes red, every 10 seconds. Its fog horn is especially chatty. The keeper’s house was torn down after the light was automated in 1961, but an oil house remains. Among the naval officers who have seen duty in the submarine proving grounds off Wood End was a future president, Lieut. Jimmy Carter, aboard the U.S.S. K-1, in 1951.

More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.