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THE SHIPWRECK OF THE CATHERINE

The flow of immigrants to Nutfield did not stop after the group led by James McGregor arrived in 1719. Emigrants looking to join their family and friends or simply looking to start life anew in America continued to leave Ireland for decades following the original settlement of Nutfield. One of those groups left for America on the ship Catherine in 1737. On June 4 of that year, the ship departed from Rush, a small seacoast town in Dublin, Ireland, with 202 passengers aboard. The ship carried solely the belongings of the passengers, which included enough gold and silver for the ship to be considered the richest vessel to have ever departed from Ireland at the time.

The 110-ton snow, a ship similar to a brig, left port with Commander Robert Walker at the helm and Adam McNeal and David Thompson as freighters, their job being to load the cargo onto the ship. Expecting to arrive in Boston, Massachusetts, in just over two weeks, the passengers had a relatively mundane and easy passage until thirteen days into their trip, when they neared Nova Scotia. On that day, the weather made a turn for the worse when the wind began blowing with a frightening strength and large waves slammed against the ship. The ship’s tiller, used to steer the rudder, was broken in two, and the ship was eventually grounded on a large sandbar about a mile from the nearest shore. However, the power of the seas proved to be great enough to free the Catherine from the sandbar, driving it straight to the shore.

Once the Catherine was finally run aground, the weather began to tear the ship apart. First went the main mast, which was carried away by the current. Within minutes, the ship was broken into pieces, leaving the passengers at the whim of the raging storm. It is unclear if any of the passengers had perished prior to the ship’s being driven ashore by the storm. All that is known is that ninety-eight people, almost half the ship’s passengers, died in the torrential currents off the shore of Nova Scotia. Among those who were killed were two prominent Irish cloth merchants who had intended to manufacture diapers, fabric with a woven design that made it more absorbent, in America.

The rest of the passengers were forced to the shore by the waves, battered and bruised from the debris of the shipwreck. Some of their injuries were so severe that several more passengers died soon after they reached the shore. Waiting until daylight to venture farther onto the island, the group gathered on the side of a nearby hill where they erected a makeshift tent out of the main sail from the ship. Numerous featherbeds were also washed ashore with the sail, and these were used by the survivors to shelter themselves from the inclement weather on the island. When the weather became more hospitable, the group of survivors did their best to provide a proper burial for the bodies of the deceased that had washed ashore.

Although one of the ship’s longboats did survive the storm, it was riddled with holes and, thus, required about two days’ worth of work to be restored to usable condition. With tools scavenged from a carpenter’s chest that had washed ashore, the men of the group did their best to repair the boat using pieces of broken boards and some canvas from the sail. A group of nine men, including the freighters, navigated the salvaged longboat about 110 miles to the town of Canso, Nova Scotia. They made good time, reaching the town in just three days.

After arriving in Canso, the group alerted the governor and several other men about the shipwreck and the remaining survivors. Acting with a sense of compassion, a schooner was readied, and a ship’s captain was located to rescue the survivors. Leaving on the day after the men arrived in Canso, the schooner reached the rest of the survivors, some being very weak and requiring the care of a doctor, the next day. The schooner brought the survivors to a now unknown town where half of them eventually went by ship to Piscataqua. About half of this group then made their way to Nutfield.

Among the group on the ship were members of the Tufts family. A period newspaper account notes that a John Tufts perished in the shipwreck. However, some of the literature relating to the history of the Tufts family suggests another Tuft, a young boy also named John, might have survived the wreck and eventually come to live with a childless family in Nutfield. It is important to keep in mind that Tufts family historians have conflicting stories of John’s life before he came to Windham. One conflicting account says he was born in Massachusetts; however, the true story of the early years of his life has likely been forever lost to history.

What is known is that he was born in 1723 and would have been only fourteen at the time of the shipwreck. He became a deacon and is recorded as having arrived in Windham sometime around 1745. In 1752, he purchased land from Jonathan Morrison on the east side of town. There he constructed a sawmill a few years later. He sold his land on June 30, 1774, seeking to move to Maine, where he lived until his death in 1802. Tufts became one of the founders of the city of Belfast.

Before leaving Windham, John Tufts invented an astronomical instrument to aid in navigation. His motivation is unknown, but it is likely he had wanted to prevent shipwrecks like the one that killed his parents. Ship navigation was still rather crude in the later half of the eighteenth century, and had his invention proved useful, it could have been a potentially valuable instrument to sea captains. Although there is no evidence that his instrument ever progressed beyond the development stage, New Hampshire governor Wentworth saw promise in the invention and invested ten dollars into its development in 1773.