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Advocate Archives
Horse-Auto Collision, Florida Flights, High Seas Drama...
December 15, 1932
TOWN MOTORIST
COLLIDES WITH HORSE
Antone Barnes, employed by the Hilliard coal company, was driving the one-horse coal cart Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Bradford and Cook streets, headed west after delivering coal, when Joseph Roberts of Center Street, driving to the eastward lost control of his skidding car and collided with the horse. The animal was thrown to the ground by the collision. Mr. Barnes was thrown from his seat in the cart, striking his left elbow. He was not however injured.
Mr. Barnes quickly went to the aid of the fallen horse, helped by Roberts and John Woods, who later appeared in his motorcar. The horse was finally raised to his feet where bruises were found on right front and hind legs. Mr. Barnes led the horse back to the Hilliard stable.
The horse was not again taken out into harness until Tuesday. It was thought that the animal had sustained a broken leg. But beyond cuts no serious injury was suffered.
Mr. Roberts also escaped any injury. His automobile headlight was smashed.
December 15, 1949
PROVINCETOWN AIRPORT NOTES:
MIAMI AND RETURN
Just a year ago Ben Pitman of Provincetown started learning to fly at the Provincetown Municipal Airport. This past week in the second airplane that he has purchased during the year, he completed a flight to Miami Beach, Fla., and return. The plane is now in New Jersey receiving a paint job and will be shining at the Cape Tip Airport in a week or so. Ben’s new plane is another Ercoupe but is equipped with very high frequency radio transmitter landing lights and many other extras. All the way down the Atlantic coast Ben was able to keep in touch with the various radio stations. He spent four days in Miami before returning home.
December 16, 1976
YACHT, RESCUERS IN FREEZING,
DANGEROUS HIGH SEAS DRAMA
An ice-covered $25,000 luxury yacht and a Coast Guard boat sent to its rescue both fought their way to safety Monday after a dangerous daylong ordeal off Race Point.
Both Rusty Bradford, captain of the 50-foot yawl Gaivota, and Boatswain’s Mate Kelley Conaty, in charge of the 44-foot Coast Guard vessel, said the sea conditions Monday were the worst they had ever experienced.
Both boats struggled against 60 mile an hour winds, 15- to 23-foot seas, ice and razor sharp cold. Wind chill factors were 30-40 degrees below zero.
Aboard the Gaivota, ice immobilized the rigging used for sailing the boat The small staysail put out for stability while under power “froze solid as soon as we hung her,” Bradford said.
Waiting police and rescue squads took the four-man crews of both boats to Health Associates upon their arrival at MacMillan Wharf in the late afternoon. They were treated for frostbite and exposure. No one was seriously injured.
Gaivota’s journey began Sunday morning in Southwest Harbor, Maine from the Hinckley Shipyards, where the yacht was built.
The custom-made boat was being delivered to her owner, Jack Bush of West Palm Beach. Bradford, who works for Hinckley yards, delivers boats “as a side-benefit” of his job.
The problems began around 10 a.m. Monday about two miles off Truro on the backshore. Bradford said the winds peaked and his rigging began to ice up. His motor went out once, he said. He shuddered as if the cold and the fear were still close at hand.
Bradford turned the boat in the gale-force winds and could not make headway. With his radar malfunctioning and his automatic pilot broken (it allows the captain to steer from any part of the boat through a hand-held transmitting unit), he called the Coast Guard.
Race Point received Bradford’s call at 10:10. The 44-footer took off on the mission. After rounding Long Point and running into the mountainous ease building off Wood End, it turned back to Provincetown. Once in port, a new, more experienced crew was put aboard. They tried again.
Meanwhile, the 95-foot Cape Cross was sent from Gloucester to help the Gaivota. A helicopter was dispatched from Otis Air Base. Later, the helicopter stood by the 44-footer when motor trouble disabled it off Race Point. When the first helicopter’s fuel ran out, another was sent to replace it.
The Cape Cross stood by the Gaivota all day, maintaining constant radio contact. Bradford said the sea was so rough he never saw the Cape Cross until late in the day. Bradford tacked the Gaivota because he couldn’t make direct headway under motor power until he passed Wood End and steamed safely into Provincetown Harbor. The sun has set by the time they reached a mooring at MacMillan Wharf.
Still disabled off Race Point, the 44-footer was blown by northwest winds dangerously close to Herring Cove Beach. Conaty said if he had drifted any closer to the beach, he would have dropped an anchor and “weathered the storm for two days on it.”
He said he was terrified during the experience, but that he had to keep being optimistic in order to bolster the confidence of the crew. He said he never doubted that he would make it, “only when.”
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Dec 15th, 2005