I became obsessed with this ship ever since I saw its ghostly image far out on the bay, during a family vacation to East Brewster in the late Sixties. I'd walk far out on the flats until the tide began to come in, and just stare at it and make up stories in my mind about it. For many years I wasn't able to find any information about this ship that had enchanted me as a child, until one day 2 years ago I looked it up online and finally learned its name and read its story. I was saddened to learn it had sunk to the floor of the bay and was no longer visible.
Great view, I thought it was gone forever. My grandparents took me to Rock Harbor in the early 1970’s to see the bombing runs. It was a thrill to see the night sky flash. I followed the ship closely over the years and got every book I could about it. One of my biggest thrills was taking a boat out to see it in the early 1990’s, before it disappeared.
I remember watching them bomb the ship. We watched it from a cottage we rented on Crosby Lane in Brewster. The cottages eventually came down and the land was turned into part of Nickerson State Park. We could see the different colors, which meant different things to the planes on those missions. They came from Otis and S. Weymouth NAS. They stopped bombing in 1970 and we used to take the boat out to visit the ship. Although mostly still standing it was loaded with holes and grafitti. Each year more and more of it fell off and sank. It was cool to watch and visit. You can Google the ship for it's history. Very interesting.
I remember when you could hear the sound of the jets & booms from explosions echoing across the water during the morning when most things were still quiet, from their practice, with a fair bit of that practice likely being from runs on the James Longstreet. Talking 85-88, give or take. Also remember getting to swim around the bark Frances up off Head of the Meadow beach one year in the later 80s when it was exposed. Also, that was a great bit of video you got. Watching that ship deteriorate over the last 30something years has been fascinating. Not to mention all the photos from before my time. (I was born in 1980, but as you might expect, my memories from before 1985 or so, are quite limited) Some of those bay side beaches just go on for what seem like forever when the tide goes out, seeing that in your video made me think of just how fun it was to go out during low tide. Skaket beach in Orleans was the one I always wanted to go to if I had to go to a bay side beach. (Give me Head of the Meadow, Long Nook, or Nauset any day over the bay side stuff though)
When I was young I took my dad's boat to it during early 70s, that's back when it was still fully intact, except it looked like swiss cheese with all the holes in it left by Rockets or missiles. And I remember being surprised to see it covered with graffiti spray painted all over the rusted hull... that's when I realized wow, guess I'm not the only one that got this close to it LOL
pretty much! I used the coordinates to measure the distance to the ship from where we were standing on google maps. Then I few straight out to approximately that distance, started looking around, and there it was!
I became obsessed with this ship ever since I saw its ghostly image far out on the bay, during a family vacation to East Brewster in the late Sixties. I'd walk far out on the flats until the tide began to come in, and just stare at it and make up stories in my mind about it. For many years I wasn't able to find any information about this ship that had enchanted me as a child, until one day 2 years ago I looked it up online and finally learned its name and read its story. I was saddened to learn it had sunk to the floor of the bay and was no longer visible.
Great view, I thought it was gone forever. My grandparents took me to Rock Harbor in the early 1970’s to see the bombing runs. It was a thrill to see the night sky flash.
I followed the ship closely over the years and got every book I could about it. One of my biggest thrills was taking a boat out to see it in the early 1990’s, before it disappeared.
I remember watching them bomb the ship. We watched it from a cottage we rented on Crosby Lane in Brewster. The cottages eventually came down and the land was turned into part of Nickerson State Park. We could see the different colors, which meant different things to the planes on those missions. They came from Otis and S. Weymouth NAS. They stopped bombing in 1970 and we used to take the boat out to visit the ship. Although mostly still standing it was loaded with holes and grafitti. Each year more and more of it fell off and sank. It was cool to watch and visit. You can Google the ship for it's history. Very interesting.
I remember when you could hear the sound of the jets & booms from explosions echoing across the water during the morning when most things were still quiet, from their practice, with a fair bit of that practice likely being from runs on the James Longstreet. Talking 85-88, give or take. Also remember getting to swim around the bark Frances up off Head of the Meadow beach one year in the later 80s when it was exposed.
Also, that was a great bit of video you got. Watching that ship deteriorate over the last 30something years has been fascinating. Not to mention all the photos from before my time. (I was born in 1980, but as you might expect, my memories from before 1985 or so, are quite limited)
Some of those bay side beaches just go on for what seem like forever when the tide goes out, seeing that in your video made me think of just how fun it was to go out during low tide. Skaket beach in Orleans was the one I always wanted to go to if I had to go to a bay side beach. (Give me Head of the Meadow, Long Nook, or Nauset any day over the bay side stuff though)
When I was young I took my dad's boat to it during early 70s, that's back when it was still fully intact, except it looked like swiss cheese with all the holes in it left by Rockets or missiles. And I remember being surprised to see it covered with graffiti spray painted all over the rusted hull... that's when I realized wow, guess I'm not the only one that got this close to it LOL
It was still above water when I was a kid.
supposedly it still peaks out on moon tides, but I've never seen it!
I've flown over it via plane but have never been able to get to it via drone from the land, great job! is it a straight shot from that beach ?
pretty much! I used the coordinates to measure the distance to the ship from where we were standing on google maps. Then I few straight out to approximately that distance, started looking around, and there it was!
@@capeclasp Great job, from what I saw it always seemed like too far to make it out and back via drone...a good two miles out right?
Used to see it from rock harbor back in the 80s
in the mid 1990's I would take the family there and snokel and scuba dive with my 12 yr old at the bow and shoot Tatog.
thats awesome! we spearfish alot here in woods hole!