“When news was brought to us in the gun room that the danger was past, oh how our Hearts did then relent and melt within us!” wrote Reverend Richard Mather in his diary. The ship he had been on, the James, was part of the Great Migration of Puritans from Britain to the New World. His ship had the misfortune of being one of those at sea when what is still believed to have been the strongest hurricane to ever hit New England struck. They had no warning of what was to come and the storm tossed the James, which had broken away from her anchors, towards the rocks until to the relief of all on board, the storm moved on and they could limp into Boston harbor, thankful to be alive. Another reverend who happened to be at sea at the time was not so lucky.
Ship Name: Watch and Wait
Ship Type: Pinnace
Tonnage: Unknown
Year Built: Unknown
Nationality: Colonial America
Year Wrecked: 1635
Reason For Wreck: 1635 Colonial Hurrican
Location Wrecked: Thacher Island Cape Ann
Lives Lost: 21
Sources:
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/remembering-the-great-colonial-hurricane-1635/
http://www.newenglandlighthouses.net/thacher-island-twin-lights-history.html
Storms and Shipwrecks of New England, By Edward Rowe Snow, Published 1943 by Yankee Publishing Company
https://www.wmur.com/article/hurricane-colonial-great-1635-anniversary/37396843
https://historicipswich.net/2021/08/15/wreck-of-the-watch-and-wait-august-24-1635/
https://archive.org/details/bookofnewengland00dra/page/245/mode/1up
