Image courtesy of New Bedford Whaling Museum

Provincetown’s History Told Through Artifacts

by Steve Desroches

Life at sea is a dangerous pursuit to this day. Shipwrecks and maritime tragedies are a part of the history of most every coastal community. The list of ships that went down just off of Provincetown, as well as those from Provincetown that sank somewhere in a part of the ocean far away, is a long one. Sadly, some of those stories are lost to history, while others endure. Such is the case with the Brig Telemachus, whose sinking is captured in this illustrated manuscript now in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Under the command of Captain John Atkins, who was born in Truro in 1797, the Telemachus left Provincetown and encountered a ferocious hurricane on September 24, 1826, finally sinking four days later in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The survivors, including Captain Atkins, were plucked from the sea by British Captain Sir Charles MacCarthy whose ship was traveling from St. Kitts to London when the Telemachus crew was spotted in the water. This account was from MacCathy’s log book and at some point in time was removed and framed before becoming part of the Whaling Museum’s collection. The hard to read original text was transcribed, and the passage reads as follows:

Commencement of the gale.
Brig Telemachus bound home
Under loose rigged topsails,
Sept 24th AD 1825.

Thy works of glory mighty Lord
They wonder in the deeps
The sons of courage shall record
Who track in floating ships.
Brig Telemachus Bound out on a
Whaling voyage, Command by
Capt John Atkins of Provincetown.

Brig Telemachus scudding in the gale
of the 26th of September AD1826.

Now to the heavens they mount amain, 

Now sink to dreadful deeps again
What strange affright young sailors feel,
And like a stagering drunkard need.

When land is far and death is nigh,
Lost to all hopes to God they cry,
His mercy hears their loud address,
And sends salvation in distress.

Brig Telemachus lying too
With her main top mast cut away AD1826

Brig Telemachus in the act of
Cutting away her mast in a hurricane

At Thy command the winds arise
And swell the towering waves
The men astonished mount the skies
And sink in gaping graves.

The sorrowful condition of the brig
through the night of the gale
of the 26th of September 1826

Brig Telemachus next day
after the shipwreck discovered
and aft to the leeward and bore down
Under a small jury sail.