In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Samuel de Champlain and Port Fortune

     “What’s in a name?”

     It is part of a famous quote from legendary scribe William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Every person, place, and thing has a name that becomes synonymous with them. In most cases when something is named that name remains unchanged through time. Cape Cod gained its name in 1602 through English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold. It has remained unchanged for more than four centuries.

    Village names on the Cape came as communities were established, mostly based upon English towns. Sandwich, Yarmouth, Falmouth, and others were named for places across the Atlantic.

     It is a rarity that a town changes its name once it has been decided upon. There have been some examples like when Hot Springs, New Mexico became Truth Or Consequences after the game show, or when Clark, Texas became DISH after the satellite television company. One change of interest locally came in 1997 when the town of Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard was changed to Aquinnah. Another name change was bandied about on Cape Cod that not many may be aware of. It was a name given to a Cape Cod town by another famed explorer. This is the story of that explorer and his journey to the Cape.

     Only a few years after Gosnold explored and gave Cape Cod its name another world famous explorer found his way to the peninsula. French explorer Samuel de Champlain made at least 21 voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to North America beginning in 1599. His first voyage was to check on the colonies in the West Indies (Caribbean) for the Spanish government. His second trip in 1603 led Champlain to present-day Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence River in Canada. It was his third New World trip in 1604 which led him to Cape Cod for the first time.

    After beginning the exploration of North America once again in Nova Scotia the expedition of three ships, including Champlain’s ship Don de Dieu, began venturing south. In the spring of 1605, after enduring a harsh Canadian winter, Champlain and the rest of the expedition headed south, mapping the coastlines of Maine, New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts. The venture was to find a suitable location for a French settlement.

     The initial contact with Cape Cod for Champlain occurred as he landed in present-day Eastham. He likely sailed into Pleasant Bay and could have landed between the location of the Salt Pond Visitors Center and Fort Hill. The stay was very brief and Champlain’s crew returned north. Ultimately a settlement was established near the mouth of the Annapolis River in Nova Scotia at the end of the summer of 1605. It was named Port Royal and became the home base for further exploration of the North American coastline.

    A voyage south to Florida in the spring of 1606 failed due to weather and lack of supplies among other things. The next trip returned Champlain to Cape Cod in the fall of 1606. It was this time that he became the first European to visit what is today known as Chatham.

Champlain's Map of Stage Harbor with Harding's Beach Point along the bottom.

     In October 1606 Champlain first returned to Eastham and was greeted in a friendly manner from the Natives. After a short visit they continued south and were nearly wrecked on the shoals surrounding Monomoy Island. Eventually they entered present-day Stage Harbor and docked. Champlain would sketch out the area and even dubbed it initially ‘Port Fortune.’

     The crew stayed on shore with the Natives for more than a week. It was initially a pleasant stay but eventually turned hostile as the Natives felt the French had overstayed their welcome. An early morning attack by the Natives on their last day at Port Fortune left four of Champlain’s crew dead and the rest of them lucky to escape the bloody skirmish. Later on Port Fortune would be referred to as ‘Misfortune’ due to this event.

Present-day view of Stage Harbor with Harding's Beach Point along the bottom. (Google Maps)

     The expedition continued on southwesterly until they gained sight of Martha’s Vineyard on October 20, 1606, although Champlain was not certain if this was part of mainland Cape Cod. A strong storm forced the ship to turn back and reluctantly dock in Stage Harbor again. It was here while awaiting favorable winds that Champlain’s crew enacted revenge on the Natives killing several of them while under the guise of friendship. 

     Once the weather was up to par the expedition left Stage Harbor and, except for a brief return to Eastham on the way back to Port Royal, would never see Cape Cod again. Champlain became the first European to visit Chatham and no other would step foot there for fifty years until William Nickerson arrived in 1656.

    Samuel de Champlain died on Christmas Day in 1635 in Quebec City. He had returned there in 1633 and acted as governor until his death. His legacy was as the ‘Father of New France’ for his cartography of much of the eastern coast from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod and his establishment of Quebec in Canada. However Champlain’s connection to Cape Cod came back to the forefront three centuries after his death.

     In 1937 the Port Fortune Society was formed with the intention of changing the name of Chatham to the name originally given to the land by Champlain upon his arrival. The idea for the change came from the minds of two people. There was Chatham artist Harold Dunbar who thought the name change would be a way to honor Champlain as the ‘grandfather of our country.’ The second was retired Professor Carol Wight of Johns Hopkins University who did not see the appeal in honoring William Pitt the English Earl of Chatham who never stepped foot on the land.

     Their cause was championed by Ben Adams Buck who was president of the Port Fortune Society, a lifelong Chatham resident and Cape Cod historian. In April 1937 the group’s intentions were declared in a long newspaper article. Though initially making waves with its declaration nothing came of the name change attempt and the Port Fortune Society became a mere footnote in Cape Cod history.

The Champlain stone marker near Stage Harbor.

     In the end the Port Fortune name did end up being a part of Chatham. There was the seasonal restaurant and lodge on the corner of Main Street and Hallett Street called The Port Fortune. It started as a restaurant in the 1930’s and later became a bed and breakfast called the Port Fortune Inn. This existed until just after the turn of the 21^st century when it became a private home.

Samuel de Champlain’s connection to the Cape today still remains.

     Though unsuccessful at changing the name of Chatham to Port Fortune Carol Wight succeeded in having a stone marker commemorating Champlain’s Cape Cod visits created near Stage Harbor in the 1930’s. Champlain’s detailed map of Stage Harbor can still be viewed and some fixtures of Chatham’s landscape like Mill Pond and Oyster Pond can be made out in the sketches.

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View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Great Colonial Hurricane

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Cape's Conservation Story

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In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Wreck of the Montclair

     Cape Cod has seen countless shipwrecks over the centuries. Its shifting shoals and sand bars have always been hazardous to passing vessels especially on the Atlantic Ocean facing coastline. Between Race Point Beach in Provincetown and the southern tip of Monomoy Island in Chatham is nearly fifty miles of some of the most dangerous waters in the world. Estimates by the National Parks Service say there are upwards of 1,000 lost vessels in what is common referred to as an ‘ocean graveyard.’ Legendary wrecks include the 17^th century Sparrowhawk, the 18^th century Whydah pirate ship, the 19^th century Portland, and 20^th century Pendleton. Even vessels as large at the 473-foot Eldia, which was grounded on Nauset Beach in 1984, have not been able to escape the pull of the Cape’s sand bars.

     

     Some of these vessels, like the Sparrowhawk, have been revealed due to the shifting sands and had their wooden carcasses removed and put on display in local museums. One wreck that has been appearing and disappearing over the last decade is that of the Montclair. Located on southern Nauset Beach it is a glimpse into history and an adventure to explore. However it is a real ship and a real tragedy with numerous lives lost which happened nearly a century ago. This is the story behind the remains that have been photographed and shared throughout social media over the last several years. This is the story of the wreck of the Montclair.

The Orleans Lifesaving Station circa 1900, courtesy of Sam's Scrapbook.com

     The vessel known as the Montclair was a three-masted schooner. The 371-ton wooden ship was built in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1918 and designated a transport vessel. It was owned by Captain C.B. Martin of Partridge Island, Nova Scotia.

     On Tuesday March 1, 1927 the 142-foot Montclair set sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia en route to New York City with a cargo of 2.5 million wood laths. It was headed by Captain William McLeod with a total crew of seven men. That same day a British vessel, the Frederick H., also left Nova Scotia with New York as its destination. Neither would reach its destination. The very next day the vessels began to feel the effects of a strong late-winter storm raging in from the southwest. Winds of up to 60 mph tore at the ships as they rounded Provincetown and headed down through the shoals of the Atlantic side of Cape Cod on March 3rd. McLeod had the utmost confidence in his vessel and pressed on south.

     The wind and waves pounded the Montclair and began pushing it in toward the shore as it headed past Nauset Beach. The ship lost two of its three masts, the fore and mizzen masts. Unable to control the vessel they could only hang on as it was pushed into the sandbars roughly a mile off shore just south of Nauset Beach. It was at this point, early on March 4^th, that the peril of the Montclair awakened Captain Edward L. Clark. Clark was part of a skeleton crew of three men at Coast Guard Station #40 located just east of Little Pochet Island, two and a half miles south of the current Nauset Beach parking lot. The station had been designated inactive in the early 1920’s ironically due to the fact that there had not been any shipwrecks in the area for decades.

The wreck of the Montclair in 1927, courtesy of the William Quinn Collection

     Clark notified the Provincetown and Old Harbor (Chatham North Beach) Coast Guard stations and people rushed to the scene. After one last attempt to swing the Montclair clear of the shoals it was tossed up on to the sand where it was beaten by the waves of the high rising tide. The brave Coast Guard crews headed out into the wind and waves for an attempted rescue even managing to shoot three weighted lines over the stern of the crippled ship. Five members of the ship’s crew grabbed on to one line while the other two men grabbed another before the Montclair was broken in half near the middle. The five crew members including Captain McLeod were washed overboard while the other two men were picked up and brought back to shore.

     The splintered ship was eventually lifted off the sandbar by the tides and brought to shore where it was tossed up onto the sands of Nauset Beach. Its cargo of wood laths scattered for miles along the sand. The two survivors of the wreck Nathan Bagg and Gartland Short were treated for hypothermia and hysteria at the Coast Guard station. The body of Captain McLeod was quickly recovered while three of the other four missing were also quickly pulled from the water as the storm subsided and the sea calmed. The fifth and final deceased member of the Montclair’s crew would be discovered on March 15^th on North Beach in Chatham by Wesley Eldredge mostly buried under the sand.

The remains of the Montclair today

     Much like with the grounding of the Eldia decades later countless residents came out to see the wreck of the Montclair with some helping themselves to some of the unbroken wood laths that had been deposited for a half-mile along the coast. Considered to be the worst maritime disaster on the Cape in more than twenty-five years questions were raised after as to whether more lives could have been saved if the Orleans Coast Guard station had been active.

     The Frederick H., which had left Nova Scotia the same day as the Montclair, also ran into the destructive storm as it sailed around Cape Cod. Badly damaged as well it managed to limp its way into Vineyard Haven only thanks to constant pumping of the water from the hold and galley of the vessel by the crew.

     Along the coast of Cape Cod at the same time author Henry Beston was residing at his ‘Fo’castle’ beach shack, writing his soon-to-be classic ‘The Outermost House.’ The news of the wreck of the Montclair made its way to Beston who immortalized the disaster in his book’s sixth chapter. Deputy Collector Thomas Finnegan reported to the scene from New Bedford with a team of eight men as the Montclair had been a suspected rum-running vessel. He questioned the two survivors but did not secure any useful information. One blessing from the disaster of the wreck was that the Orleans Coast Guard station was restored to full strength after it happened.

The remains of the Montclair today

     The shifting sands have buried and uncovered the remains of the Montclair several times over the decades. In the 2010’s it was revealed repeatedly, each time slightly more decayed than before. The wood is soft and rotting away, while the iron is rusty and gives the ship a ghostly skeletal appearance currently. It is nearly a two and a half miles walk over the sand to reach the remains of the Montclair.

     Though an interesting adventure taking the walk out to find its remains it is a somber and solemn reminder of the dangers of the sea. It is important to remember the five men who lost their lives aboard the Montclair as well: William Downing, William Stewart, George Cains, Jerome Butler, and Captain William McLeod.

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View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Storyland Amusement Park, Hyannis

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Mill Hill Club

                              

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