Have you ever wondered how those Cape Cod status symbols – the large iron anchors on front lawns – became available? In most cases, their original owners lost them when their sailing vessels had to leave their anchorage in a hurry. Finding anchors left behind was one of the occupations of Cape Cod watermen up until sailing vessels were no longer a popular means of carrying cargo and people.
The business was known as anchor dragging proved quite lucrative wherever boats were anchored. Several anchorages were used frequently, including off of Bass River, all along the south coast of the Cape, and in the harbors where wharves were accessible only when the tide was in. The south coast of Cape Cod was a favorite haunt of the anchor draggers, as ships coming from New York and other more southerly points would have to wait for a favorable wind before they could round Monomoy and head for Boston. Anchors have been found in Barnstable harbor and along the bay coast as well, testimony to the vessels and men who tried to save themselves from being forced aground by waves and weather.
The Register reported a gathering of vessels on the southside in 1903 – “Feb 14 – On the 9th inst. A pretty sight was witnessed from Yelverton Farm on South Sea Avenue, which has a commanding view of Vineyard Sound. During the high westerly wind then prevailing could be seen at anchor to the west of Handkerchief shoal one tug boat, seven barges, ten three-masted schooners, eight two-masted schooners, eleven four-masted schooners, one five-masted, one bark, one steamer, and farther out in the distance the new seven master Thomas W. Lawson. Farther on to the westward near Hyannis were visible fifteen others. All were probably coal-laden and bound to northern ports.”
There were no weather forecasters with computer charts back then, and if a storm or contrary wind arose suddenly, the captain would have to “Slip his lines” and leave his anchor behind, or risk being blown aground. Using a windlass to bring in an anchor was a time-consuming task, and on occasion there just wasn’t time.
Richard Henry Dana, in his epic Two Years Before the Mast, wrote of frequently slipping lines due to contrary winds. The number of times that he wrote of his vessel doing so speaks to the frequency with which anchors were left behind.
When this happened, captains or their mates took rough calculations as to where they had left their anchor and then tried to hire local watermen to retrieve it. It must have been a negotiation all in favor of the waterman, for if the price weren’t high enough, the waterman knew the location of the anchor and could retrieve and sell it later.
The proposed Bass River canal, 1887.
The problem of waiting for a favorable wind was one reason why there was interest in a ship canal across various parts of the Cape. The preferred location for a canal depended upon the kind of vessel that would use it. For sailing vessels, Buzzards Bay was very difficult to sail out of, because the vessel had to sail into the prevailing wind. A proposed Bass River canal provided easier entrance and egress for sailing vessels, but wasn’t the most convenient route between Boston and New York.
Florence Baker, in her outstanding maritime history of the Bass River area called Yesterday’s Tide, described in detail how anchors were retrieved. Small schooners were used, usually not much over 50 feet in length. Two of the more famous anchor dragging schooners of Yarmouth were the Floretta C., captained by Isaiah Covil, and the Isabel Fuller, captained by William B. Fuller. The two men were friends who often worked in tandem.
The schooner David K. Akin, also based in Bass River, was similar in shape and size to the Floretta C. and the Isabel Fuller.
The two vessels worked together. They utilized a hawser (rope) that was usually an inch or more in diameter, soaked in seawater, and attached to the two vessels. It was more than 2000 feet in length and weighed down near each schooner so that most of the line would drag along the bottom. The two vessels would then sweep through the suspected area slowly, hoping that the submerged line would catch on one of the points of the anchor, called a fluke or palm. Then, the two vessels brought the lines together making sure the anchor remained snagged, and slipped a lead ring around the two lines which would slide down the lines and secure the lines to the anchor. This lead ring was called a messenger.
Then, if the anchor wasn’t too large, the lines were attached to a windlass in the bow of one of the vessels and the anchor was literally cranked in. If it were too large to get into the schooner, it was brought near the surface and tied to the side of the schooner.
Large anchors, or those buried deeply in the sand, required the help of the tides to retrieve them. With both vessels lashed together, the lines were brought up between them and attached to both of the vessels. The lines made as taut as possible at the lowest tide. When the tide came in, the vessels floated higher from the ocean floor and the anchor was lifted out of the sand. The largest anchor retrieved by these captains was one weighing more than 7,800 pounds, almost four tons.
Sometimes the water was clear enough so that crewmen in the rigging could look down into the relatively shallow water and spot what looked to be an anchor. In some respects, finding an anchor was not unlike “sight fishing” for stripers on the sandy flats off of Monomoy today. Only the prey was different!
An anchor dragger working alone might utilize dragging irons with hooks to try and snare the chain attached to the anchor, because the chain could be as valuable as the anchor itself.
As the weather turned worse as winter approached, the anchor draggers often went south, hunting near Sandy Hook, NJ, and south to the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. During some cold winters, they went as far south as Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA.
Capt. William Hurst was an anchor dragger who lived in Bass River.
Florence Baker wrote that during one six month period of anchor dragging, William Fuller caught 99 anchors, varying in size from 25 pounds to 7800 pounds. The most brought in during one day’s work was seven.
Captain Fuller was an anchor dragger for more than 40 years, making him the most veteran of these watermen. Other South Yarmouth men who captained anchor draggers included Isaiah Covil, William Chase, William Hurst, Vinnie Crowell, Wilfred Fuller, and captains Warren and Loring.
Today, anchor dragging is just a fond memory. It harkens back to the days when Cape Cod was a place where sailing vessels visited or anchored, waiting for better weather to continue. The most visible remembrances of those good old days are the anchors that now adorn lawns and driveway entrances.
Researched and written by Jack Braginton-Smith and Duncan Oliver
