Samuel Tarbox and his wife are still remembered nearly 200 years after they froze to death in a fearful March snowstorm. To this day, some people in the Sebago Lakes Region refer to a fierce snowstorm as a ‘real tarboxer.’ ...
Read More »Stephen Hopkins, Jamestown Settler, Mayflower Pilgrim – and Shakespeare Character?
Stephen Hopkins settled both Jamestown and Plymouth, and many believe Shakespeare based a character on him. Though he wasn’t among the first Jamestown settlers, he did arrive within the first three years. He might have gotten there sooner but for ...
Read More »New England’s Beloved Shipwreck, the Schooner Nancy
Life handed a shipwreck to the owner of the schooner Nancy during a storm off the New England coast. So he made it into a tourist attraction. For many years the huge wooden boat was stuck in the sand near ...
Read More »USS Squalus Rescue: World Awaits News of Sailors’ Fate
In 1939, the greatest submarine rescue in history was undertaken off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H. This is the second part of a two-part series about the heroic efforts to rescue the trapped crew of the USS Squalus as millions ...
Read More »The Lusitania Survivor Who Founded Hill-Stead Museum
Lusitania survivor Theodate Pope was given up for dead when rescuers pulled her inert body from the Irish Sea with boat hooks. They placed her on the deck of the rescue ship in a row of corpses. Another Lusitania survivor, ...
Read More »Mr. Marconi Builds a Radio Station on Cape Cod and Comes to the Rescue of the Titanic
On Jan. 18, 1903, Guglielmo Marconi sent a message from his Cape Cod station, a greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. It was the first radio transmission to cross the Atlantic from the ...
Read More »Tiny Militia Captures Crew of Huge British Warship HMS Somerset
In one of the most remarkable engagements of the American Revolution, the tiny militia of Truro captured more than 400 sailors and marines from the massive British warship HMS Somerset. It was probably the smallest military unit to take one ...
Read More »Miss Porter’s School Finishes Socialites, Scholars and a First Lady
An educational reformer founded Miss Porter’s Finishing School for Young Ladies in 1843. She could have had no idea of the fame, fortune, scandal and accomplishment her students would achieve. Sarah Porter was born Aug. 17, 1813, the daughter of ...
Read More »Remembering the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635
The Great Colonial Hurricane, probably the strongest storm in New England's history, struck on Aug. 25, 1635, and the Rev. Richard Mather and Anthony Thacher had the misfortune of being on board ships that day. Mather, father to Increase Mather ...
Read More »Flashback Photo: The Battle of Point Judith
Just before Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied powers, 67 men were killed in the Battle of Point Judith off the coast of Rhode Island. Casualties included 55 German submariners and 12 American merchant mariners. The Nazi submarine, U-853, was harassing ...
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