Thatcher’s Woe
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Well, not a bad day to be here by the ocean here in Rockport, Massachusetts. It's not quite spring, but it's coming, Jeff. Yeah, just a few more months and these beaches are going to start getting crowded. For those of you who don't quite know the geography, Rockport is that peninsula on Cape Ann that juts out to the furthest eastern point north of Boston Harbor. Right. And if we were to set sail due east...

But it looks like we might hit that island first. Well, right, yeah, that we would. That island is the reason we're here, Ray. It sits about three-quarters of a mile offshore, and...

We're going to row out there. Another rowboat ride in the ocean. Perfect. Yeah. So that island features twin lighthouses on the northern and eastern shores. Two lighthouses for one small island? It seems like a lot. I get it, but this island warrants the extra beacon. A lot of sailors have perished in and around it. Though today it's called Thatcher's Island, originally it was called Thatcher's Woe.

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 386 of the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. Did you know most of our story leads come from you? This one did. Thanks to Daniel LeChome for emailing us. We're always on the hunt for odd stories, ghosts, monsters, UFOs, aliens, and all the wicked strange weirdness that makes New England like no other place. You can reach out to us anytime through our website.

We'll roll out to this dark island right after this word from our sponsor.

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Okay, so it shouldn't take us too long to row out to the island. This group of islands was sighted by Samuel D. Champlain in 1605, and again by Captain John Smith in 1614. Thatcher is the most prominent island, but there's also Straitsmouth Island to the north and Milk Island to the south. There's one other on the map, but it's slightly submerged and is technically a reef. That one is called Londoner, and I found out why it's called Londoner.

because that reef sank many ships bound for England. Clearly, this is a dangerous region of water. No doubt. A region worthy of multiple lighthouses. Okay, so we're going to pull our boat right in here near the Cape Ann Light Station. Today, there are some paths around the 52-acre island. There's a wildlife refuge here. There's a campground and some buildings related to the Thatcher's Island Association. Plus, the most obvious landmarks here, the twin lighthouses. Yeah, you can't miss those.

These lighthouses were the final lighthouses built by the British government back in 1771 when Massachusetts was still under England's control. The twin lighthouses we see here now were completed in 1861. They're 124 feet high and 156 steps to reach the top. From the southern light, you can see the skyline of Boston on a clear day. It's a pretty island, no doubt. And it's easy to imagine a time when this was a busy place for ships coming and going from Europe into Salem and Boston harbors.

As the American colonies grew, so did the shipping traffic, and that meant more accidents. To find out how this island got its initial name of Thatcher's Woe, let's head back to 1635. It's August of 1635 here in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It's an exciting time of growth as new villages and towns are popping up, as colonists from Europe continue to flock here for new opportunities. One of those newcomers is Anthony Thatcher, his wife Elizabeth, and their six children.

They're in Ipswich because of Thatcher's cousin, Reverend Avery, and his family. Now, Reverend Avery is helping the Thatchers get settled, but it turns out they won't be able to settle in Ipswich. Now, why is that? Well, because Reverend Avery has recently been asked to travel to Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Marblehead being a fishing village, there's concern those salty men of the sea need a shepherd to keep them on the right spiritual path. There's two problems with Marblehead, though. What's that? Well, first, Reverend Avery preferred a different town. Okay. One more established for his wife and children. And second, Marblehead doesn't have a church yet. It would need to be built. Those are two big problems. But the magistrates and other ministers insist that Marblehead is where Reverend Avery is needed. Reverend Avery and his cousin Anthony Thatcher are close.

And Thatcher claims that if Avery has to move to Marblehead, then he and his family will also. They'll have each other. It's August 11th when Reverend Avery, his wife, and their eight children join Anthony Thatcher and his family. A Mr. William Elliott is also making the voyage. And four mariners who will pilot the vessel called the Watch and Wait. 23 souls in total.

The voyage to Marblehead is off to a fine start. The plan is to sail along the coast, around Cape Ann, and then head south towards Marblehead's harbor. The spirits are bright. I mean, after all, they're being called to God's work. The first few days of the voyage are going slow. There's a stubborn headwind, and the seas are growing a little choppy. Nothing to be concerned with, but still, it's slow. It's now the 14th of August, about 10 p.m. at night. The wind has been building in intensity.

Oh man, the sails of the watch and wait have just split from the stream. The crew are pulling them down. Though the watch and wait has a spare sail on board, the crew thinks the winds are too fierce. The decision is made to drop anchor and wait for morning.

As hours pass, the storm is only getting worse. The wind and rain are unlike anything any of the 23 souls on board has ever seen before. The seas are swelling so high that the anchor's becoming a problem. The crew of the watch and wait are letting more rope out on the anchor so the rope doesn't break or pull the ship under or swell. But soon, they've given all the slack they can. Oh!

The rope and anchor are gone. We're drifting. This is bad. In a storm like this, we're completely at the mercy of a very angry sea.

With nowhere left to put their hope, Reverend Avery and Anthony Thatcher gather their families and pray. By now it's clear to everyone that we're caught in a hurricane. The waves are crashing. The wind and seas are pushing the ship all over the place. With each pounding wave, the crew and passengers have to wonder if this is their end. The

The ship just crashed on some rocks. We must be near the shore, but I can't see much of anything in the darkness and storm. The ship is breaking up and flooding. Some of the children are being sucked under into the water. This is terrible. I can see crates of provisions from the cargo are floating away or they're getting dashed on the rocks. The ship's masts are broken. The captain of the vessel can see all is lost. Their only hope is to escape the pounding surf or get crushed on the rocks all around the ship. Anthony and his cousin, Reverend Avery, have locked hands...

This is horrible. I can't see anything.

Okay, Anthony's now in chest-high water and frantically trying to get himself to shore. I can see Thatcher's wife, Elizabeth. She's not too far behind him. Elizabeth and Anthony made it to the land. They're huddled up near the bank. They only take a minute to rest before heading for higher ground. Okay, now they're taking shelter beneath a fallen cedar tree. They're shivering, exhausted, battered, bruised. The couple just huddle together and pray.

By morning, the seas are still rough, but the wind and rain have moved on. Anthony and Elizabeth Thatcher are marooned. They walk the shores looking for any sign of their children, their cousins, or any survivors. So Anthony's pulling some of the provisions and crates from the ship that are floating in the surf.

Thatcher's haunted by the last image he saw of his young children huddled together as he was dragged into the surf. As the storm continues to clear, the Thatchers discover the lifeless body of one of Reverend Avery's eight children. They pull the child's body up onto land where they can bury her. With the storm gone, the Thatchers explore the island, only to find it's uninhabited. They manage to pull enough provisions from the wreckage that they have some food, but there isn't much by way of shelter.

For days, the couple survives until finally a rescue ship approaches and takes them back to the mainland. 21 of the 23 passengers and crew perished in the storm. Since Anthony Thatcher was the first to live on the land, if for only a few days, he's given the honor of naming it. Anthony sighs and dubs this wretched place Thatcher's Woe. And that brings us back to today.

None of the other bodies were ever found. And that storm became known as the Great New England Hurricane. No colonist, no native person had ever experienced a storm like that in their lifetime. It was believed to have been the worst hurricane to ever hit New England.

and Thatcher and his family were caught in the middle of it. As the harbors of Salem, Marblehead, and Boston grew in shipping traffic and population, these shipping lanes became crucial to not just America, but also England. Lighthouses were needed, and eventually, England decided to build on Thatcher's island. And today, you can still visit the island. You can even camp here. And as we stand on the shores, I can only imagine what it must have been like to be on a wooden ship when a hurricane swells up around you.

Unable to pull into shore, you'd truly be at the mercy of nature. Now they say there's no atheists in a foxhole. I can imagine there weren't any on the watch and wait either.

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Just head over to patreon.com slash New England legends to sign up and to see some pictures of Thatcher's Island. Click on the link in our episode description, go to our website and click on episode 386. Oh, you're right. Imagining the wooden ship. I mean, yeah, anything can happen on the sea, not just a storm, but a, you know, two boats colliding or whatever. It's not the safest vessel. No. And not only that, you,

probably don't have big concerns. You're not crossing the ocean. Well, that's true, too. You're very close to the shore. Yeah, you're like, well, if there's any trouble, we'll just pull into shore, like anywhere. We'll beach it if we have to. That's the worst case. Swim if you have to. Yeah, so we're not going to be that far. I mean, you want to be far enough out that you catch the winds and stuff, but you're not going to be crossing the... You shouldn't lose sight of land, so no one would be too concerned.

And we forget, no weather service was saying, oh, by the way, there's a hurricane moving up the coast. It was just like, oh, the seas are getting a little choppy. All right, you know what? Let's just drop anchor for the night. Yeah. And then, oh, my. Having no idea what's to come. You know, had they just made for shore right then and there, you know, yeah, they probably would have been okay. But no one thinks it's going to be this bad this long. No, there was no Dickie Albert. What?

Right. There was no weather guy. No weather guy. Yeah, for sure. They probably would have predicted it wrong anyway. Yeah. But what a... I mean, I can't imagine the fear as your ship is breaking up and you can't see anything. It's just complete blackness and storm and... And then being the only two survivors out of 23 people and you've lost... All your children. Children, yeah. All of them. Yeah.

And family. And family, yeah, and all of their children. And you had to watch some of that happen. Right. That's, forget it. You'd never be the same. In fact, so most of the source for this comes from a book, a book of New England legends of folklore and prose and poetry by Samuel Adam Drake. And in that book, Drake found a letter that Anthony Thatcher had written about

which was pages of describing play-by-play everything that happened, which is where we took the story from. So he wrote in a letter everything he remembers and saw. Wow. And that's... So what we gave to you was right out of his letter. Fact? Yeah, right out of his letter. Not speculation. Yeah, right. Came right from him. Yeah, that's... Every detail was pulled from his letters. So you have to relive it, too, writing that letter. Oh, right. So now you lived it and then relive it by...

You know, writing the letter. Yeah, so tragic. But today it's a very pretty island. The lighthouses are gorgeous, the twin lighthouses. It's a nice area. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it is a very nice area. But yeah, be an interesting camp out there. And by the way, this was the most, it was called Thatcher's Woe, obviously. We told you of the woe. But there were other ships that sank and hit the London reef,

That's why there's two lighthouses. Right. And the London Reef is very close. I mean, it's probably, I don't know, a quarter mile, third of a mile, maybe half a mile from Thatcher's Island. Yeah.

It's a little bit southeast of it. Probably hard to see in the dark, I would imagine. Probably hard to see in the light. Yeah, that's true. I mean, so, yeah, imagine you're just like, oh, the island's over there. Clear shot, straight ahead, we'll be fine. Crunch, oh. You know, I mean, that's a tough... And the only way you learn that is when like 30 boats have hit it and everybody says like, look, I know you're about to make this sail, but...

Go give it a wide berth. You know, head south first. But like you said, it took a few wrecks. How would you know? To figure that out. Right? And then what if you didn't get the memo? I'm just going to take a straight path. That's the best way to go. Yeah. You and many others thought the same thing. Ugh.

So yeah, dangerous times. We take it for granted now because travel in general is so safe today. Boats have GPSs. Yeah, boats and radar and weather reports. And if you're going to sail, you're going to check the weather and so on. But back then, you were just like, skies look okay. Let's hit it. Let's hit the tide and get going. But it was a dangerous, dangerous endeavor, even when you think it's a simple one. We're not going that far. We're just going to round Cape Ann, stick within eyesight of the shore,

And we'll be there in a couple of days and then things can go horribly wrong.

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