Cape Cod has a rich tradition of local lore, stretching back to a time before the Pilgrims arrived. Ancient Wampanoag legends like Granny Squannit and Princess Scargo are as familiar as tales of pirates and explorers, including "Black Sam" Bellamy and Donald Baxter Macmillan. Felines often blocked "Cat's Alley" in pursuit of food from fishermen's boats. The remnants of Billingsgate Island can be seen at low tide, and visits from Jenny Lind and Helen Keller contrast with the mysterious stories of the "Lady of the Dunes" and New England's Dark Day. Author Robin Smith-Johnson shares historic tales of shipwrecks, murders, hauntings and more from the Cape.
Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts is a collection of legends and historical accounts about witches and warlocks from the Bay State. Organized by region, city and town, the book's dozens of stories include the earliest Puritan accounts of 17th century witches, urban legends about desolate locations haunted by ghostly witch hunt victims, tales of Cape Cod sailors battling witches, and other stories of sinister (and sometimes sympathetic) spellcasters. Massachusetts has a rich history of witchcraft that spans nearly four centuries. Most people are aware of the Salem witch trials but fewer know about the Dogtown witches, the Pepperell farmer who hired a hypnotist to save his bewitched daughter, or Half-Hanged Mary, the witch who died twice and inspired The Handmaid's Tale. These stories are known locally in the towns where they occurred but have never been collected into one book before.
"From the Barnstable sea captain who kept Siamese twins in his woodshed and the Sandwich man who taught dancing to King George V and Queen Mary of England, to the well-heeled Falmouth family that made a practice of weighing their guests before feeding them, Cape Cod, as you will find, is a never ending source of strange and unusual tales." -- P. [4] of cover.
Venture back to 1715, when a fifteen-year-old Cape Cod girl named Maria Hallett was seduced by a twenty-six-year-old Englishman named Samuel Bellamy. Bellamy soon left her to become one of the most infamous pirates of his day--Black Sam Bellamy. Maria remained on the Cape but was forced to live in solitude after giving birth to Bellamy's child. Two years later, Bellamy returned to his love, and Maria watched from the dunes as his flagship, the Whydah, sank in the worst nor'easter in the history of the Cape. The legend of Maria Hallett has been passed down for over two hundred years, and Cape Cod writer Kathleen Brunelle brings a fresh breath of sea air to this epic tale in her search for Bellamy's bride.
Winner of the IPPY North-East Best Regional Nonfiction Bronze Medal. Tiggie: The Lure and Lore of Commercial Fishing in New England begins more than 30 years ago in a remote cove on Cape Cods Pleasant Bay. Macfarlane, a young marine biologist newly deputized by the Orleans shellfish warden, gathers up her courage to confront one of the Capes crustiest, crankiest commercial fishermen, a local legend named Tiggie Peluso. Its more than a contest between youth and age, or rules and reason, or book knowledge and hard-earned practical experience. Its a clash of two strong wills and two warring cultures a bucolic, rustic Cape Cod that is in the process of changing beyond recognition, and an industry that is losing its past under a tsunami of foreign competition, legalisms and new technology. In Tiggie we hear both their voices. Tiggies personal stories about fishing in the 40s, 50s and 60s are at once poignant, matter-of-fact and haunting in his appreciation of the beauty around him, and reverence for all life, especially in the sea. We meet his crew mates and friends, learn about their idiosyncrasies and their humanness, their struggles to make ends meet, their financial binges in good times. We come to understand their disdain for those who try to regulate what they do, their less-than-perfect relationships with women and, above all, their love of the life they have chosen. Sandy Macfarlane is the author of Rowing Forward, Looking Back, a chronicle of life in a small coastal community bombarded by development pressures. She and Tiggie, now both retired, met regularly at the local coffee shop over several years. Their breakfast conversations and Tiggies stories interweave past and present and the threads of their very different lives. Tiggie is more than a memoir or a how-to book, but it combines the virtues of each. With detailed insights into the catching of fish and moving reflections on the beauty of the rituals, the surroundings, the characters, it captures the moments and the moods of a vanishing way of life.
Known as the spot where the Pilgrims first set foot on Cape Cod in 1620, it's no surprise that Provincetown, Massachusetts, is a hotspot for tourists as well as hauntings--including over twenty historic, crime, nightlife, overnight, secret, and Truro haunts. Take a stroll along Commercial Street where the historic Lancy mansion is allegedly haunted by an old woman who died in the late 1800s, but due to the frozen ground, she couldn't be buried, so her son kept her propped up at an open window all winter long. Learn about the historic "Black Flash" of Provincetown--a grim reaper-type beast that would snatch children away in the 1930s. From the historic maritime-themed buildings lining Commercial Street to the shores of the Provincetown Harbor, it is clear that there is hardly a corner of the tip of Cape Cod where the paranormal cannot be experienced.
These reflections on herbs, gardens, and nature by naturalist/writer Beston (best known for The Outermost house, a record of a year spent on Cape Cod's beach) were first published in 1935 and are here lovingly reprinted letterpress with woodcuts by John Howard Benson and an introduction by Horticulture magazine editor Roger Swain. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Gives voice to the many divergent--and equally passionate--points of view that surround ghosts. After a decade of research, the authors have produced a work of surprising substance and depth. Enter Cape Cod's historic, soulful homes--such as the nationally-renowned cover image of Wendell Minor--and discover a world in which the past is very much alive. Original.
On the morning of July 21, 1918--in the final year of the First World War--a new prototype of German submarine surfaced three miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The vessel attacked an unarmed tugboat and its four barges. A handful of the shells fired by the U-boat's deck guns struck Nauset Beach, giving the modest town of Orleans the distinction of being the only spot in the United States to receive enemy fire during the entire war. On land, lifesavers from the U.S. Coast Guard launched a surfboat under heavy enemy fire to save the sailors trapped aboard the tug and barges. In the air, seaplanes from the Chatham Naval Air Station dive-bombed the enemy raider with payloads of TNT. Author Jake Klim chronicles the attack from the first shell fired to the aftermath and celebrates the resilience of Orleans at war.
