WRECK OF THE TAY AT SAND BEACH

SHIP WRECK AT SAND BEACH
"Wreck Of The Tay"
Bar Harbor Record
Aug. 2,  1911

Schooner Wrecked

In the great storm of wind and rain which was almost terrifying in the heart of the town last Friday night,  and has proven to have been most fearful at sea, the two mast schooner Tay,  Capt. I.W. Scott, of St. John N.B. bound from St. John to Boston with lumber, went ashore on the sand beach at Great Head, about 3 1/2 miles from Bar Harbor, at 12;15 o'clock Friday night and was a total loss.  One man was lost, J. B. Whelpley, the cook, of St. John N.B., who was survived by a wife and three children.  The schooner was owned by Peter McIntyre of St. John.
The lumber was owned by Stetson, Culter Co., of Bangor.
The Captain's son, Erving Scott, was a passenger and the crew numbered six besides the captain.
The Tay was doing well according to Captain Scott, and was howling along in the face of a heavy southeast gale, when the schooner sprung a leak.  At this time he was keeping her off shore and when the leak was discovered he squared away and intended to make the harbor here.
The main sheet parted and than he lost his main boom.  Capt. Scott attempted to stand off shore under under head sails, but he was too far in and was swept inside the breakers.  The Tay struck hard and was dis masted fore and aft at the first shock and began to go to pieces rapidly.  The deck load of shingles was carried away but her cargo of plank below the deck is safe on the beach.
The sand beach is the property bought by J. P. Morgan last year for his daughter, Mrs. Satterlee.
That more deaths did not result from the accident is almost miraculous.  The captain and crew attempted to save themselves by swimming or scrambling to the shore although the task was a very difficult one, all reached the beach to safety after a desperate struggle with the exception of the cook.
All day Saturday and Sunday, great crowds drove or cycled or walked to Great Head to view the wreck strewn all over the Sand Beach.  It was an impressive spectacle and a very sad one,  and helped many who had little comprehension before of the might of the sea to realize what it was when aroused by the wind.
Around the town there was considerable damage done, it was a very unusual thing for a summer blow.  The Green was pretty much sprinkled with four foot branches and leaves, window blinds in various parts of the town were unhung and smashed.  Gardens suffered severely.  Many dahllen and other tall plants were broken or badly whipped.  Many beautiful blossoms were bruised beyond recovery.

PHOTO OF AN OLD TWO MAST SCHOONER

The Connors Catboat Flirt was also piled up on Rodick Island and it is said that she is almost a total loss.  Two other catboats of the Connors fleet,  the Eureka and the Markwell, broke away and went over the bar but were uninjured.  One of the larger sloops dragging anchor touled the Connors sloop Hectar and carried away her bow spirit and head stays and in the same way the Connors Mascott lost her stern railing.  Several others of the fleet were damaged to more or less extent.
The rowboats were carried up from the floats and placed on the walk inside of the Connors office.  The floats were somewhat damaged and one slagging ring was tossed over the top of a spilling which is ordinarily five feet out of water at high tide.  The unhooking of the ring gives an idea of how high the wind swept the harbor.
About town branches and even limbs were torn from fine trees and the ground everywhere was littered with this sort of wreckage in the morning.  Signs and shutters on the waterfront suffered also.  The wind was accompanied by a very heavy rain and withal, this storm is the most severe in severity disastrous consequences that Bar Harbor has experienced for some time.
Coming in from the sea from the southeast and climbing the breakwater and the inner bar prince of heavy winds cut loose and raged with unabated fury from early in the evening until nearly midnight Friday night.  Considerable havoc was wrought in the inner harbor.  A big one masted schooner, the Island Bell owned by Nickerson, Spratt and Greely and used in the coasting trade parted her lines at the Gristmill wharf and scudded away on an ebb tide until she brought up on Rodick Island beach, where she was left high and dry.  It is thought the schooner is not greatly damaged however.
Capt. A.E. Connors, who is in the boat-letting business, suffered a loss which he estimates as upwards of $1000 at a rough but surely conservative estimate.
(final paragraph was unreadable).

SAND BEACH - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK