Forgotten Shipwrecks & Beachside Graves

Today, some friends and I decided to hike out to Long Point beach – essentially, the very last tip of the Cape Cod hook. Starting at the end of Rt-6A, you climb over a very long breakwater (the dotted line), then continue on up the beach. It’s was about a 1.5 hour hike out. Sure, we could’ve taken the 10 minute ferry from Provincetown, but where’s the fun in that?

About an hour in, we came across the very last remnants of the hull of a beached ship – a shipwreck! Sweet! Coming across something like this at random makes any trek more than worth it:

Another view, from the front. The ship was probably about 25 feet long or so. Note the large timber protruding at the very front of the ship:

The front of the boat. You can even see the center board of the ship still running the length of the middle:

The boards stuck out at an angle about two or three feet from the sand. I’m wondering if the boat was mostly bull-dozed, or if it really did succumb to the elements:

The rear center timber (no clue what the actual name is) poking out of the sand:

One last view of the ship, from the rear (facing Provincetown):

As we continued on, we came to another huge pile of wreckage along the shore and had to check it out:

Could this be the toppled mast of a ship, with a piece of the deck still attached and a ladder on the right?

What I think was once a tackle of some sort attached to the deck:

Piled to the left were a bunch of really interesting industrial looking pieces, whose purpose remain a total mystery to me:

This one had spouts on either end, along with a drill-like curved inner bit and some awesome valve handles.

The valve handles up close. Everything was completely covered in barnacles and netting.

There was also this bizarre iron drum:

The other side of it was cracked…

…with some pretty awesome colors if you got close (no treasure inside, sadly):

Finally, there’s this piece of…I have no clue what this is.

A little ways further, we came across this. A former boat? The broken oar was resting right next to it, incredibly.

Finally, this one might be a stretch, but I was really intrigued by four very small wooden posts sticking up out of the water. You can see them here in a diamond shape – one close to the camera, two on either side in the distance, and a fourth one further away in the center.

Each piece was only about an inch thick and a few inches above ground, but NONE of them could be budged. Obviously not the usual driftwood, and they didn’t seem to be remnants of markers. Could something much, much larger lie beneath the surface holding them in place? I wish I had brought a shovel…

Finally, we made it to the very end of the Cape Cod “arm” – here’s a picture for proof!

At the very end is the Long Point Lighthouse, built in 1875.

Another angle:

To the right of it, a cross was perched on a hill. As it turns out, it’s a memorial for Charles Darby, a soldier killed in World War II.

Darby was a member of a local group of artists known as the Beachcombers, who erected this in his memory (at least I think it’s a memorial, and not a grave).

Definitely make the journey out to Long Point next time you’re in Cape Cod. It’s well worth the hike.

-SCOUT