Coles says, that has ever been
known on the north shore. It lasted for two days and scores of
vessels were driven ashore and completely wrecked. The crews of
most of the vessels that went ashore on the sand beaches were
saved, but those that struck on the rocks went to pieces and all
hands were lost. For weeks after the storm the north shore was
strewn with the bodies of drowned men. Think of it! Many of them
were unknown and unrecognizable, and they were buried in Markdale
graveyard. Mr. Coles says the schoolmaster who was in Markdale
then wrote a poem on the storm and Mr. Coles recited the first two
verses to me.
"'Here are the fishers' hillside graves,
The church beside, the woods around,
Below, the hollow moaning waves
Where the poor fishermen were drowned.
"'A sudden tempest the blue welkin tore,
The seamen tossed and torn apart
Rolled with the seaweed to the shore
While landsmen gazed with aching heart.'
"Mr. Coles couldn't remember any more of it. But the saddest of
all the stories of the Yankee Storm was the one about the Franklin
Dexter. The Franklin Dexter went ashore on the Markdale Capes and
all on board perished, the Captain and three of his brothers among
them.
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