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Tag: 1839

Wreck of the Hesperus, Dec. 15, 1839

November 15, 2025 Gordon Harris18 Comments

"It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr, To bear him company."

Posted in Legends, Shipwrecks, StormsTagged 1839, Gloucester, Hesperus, January, Norman's Woe

Wreck of the Deposit, December 23, 1839

December 1, 2023December 1, 2023 Gordon HarrisLeave a comment

Dec. 23, 1839 two days before Christmas a storm caught the schooner "Deposit" on her passage out of Belfast, Maine. Capt. Cotterall was lost, and several of the crew were buried at the Old South Cemetery.

Posted in ShipwrecksTagged 1839, December, storm, Susan Howard Boice

The Railroad Comes to Ipswich, December 20, 1839

December 23, 2022November 16, 2024 Gordon Harris1 Comment

The stagecoach era ended abruptly when the Salem tunnel opened, and two days later on December 20, 1839, a train from Boston made its first passage through Ipswich. The opening of the railroad and the end of stagecoach travel led to the decline of Ipswich as one of the most important towns of Massachusetts.

Posted in HistoryTagged 1839, December, Depot

Awful Calamities: the Shipwrecks of December, 1839

November 30, 2021December 1, 2024 Gordon HarrisLeave a comment

Three gales of unequaled fury and destructiveness swept along our coast carrying desolation and death in their stormy pathway, and overwhelming many families in the deepest mourning.

Posted in History, Shipwrecks, Stories, StormsTagged 1839, December, disaster, Gloucester, Marblehead, Rockport, storm
Ipswich MA historic photos by William Varrel

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Early Inhabitants of Ipswich, Massachusetts by Abraham Hammatt
Ipswich Massachusetts Revisited by William Varrel

© Gordon Harris 2026

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