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Advocate Archives
In this week’s trip back into the Advocate Archives we visit 1938 for a brief discussion of modern education; 1948 where we learn about plans for the first ever Blessing of the Fleet; and 1962 when a whale sighting prompted reports of a sinking submarine.
June 23, 1938
In Our Town: A Liberal Education
She is such a quiet little old lady that she is hardly ever noticed by the neighbors. She has lived in the same, little out-of-the-way house on Commercial Street for a number of years. She is a native Cape Codder.
Every year she is visited during the Summer for a couple of weeks by one of her numerous great-nephews. He is something of a philosopher. At least, he tells others that he likes to pretend he is.
One evening last July when he and his elderly relative were discussing the trends of modern education, he waxed eloquent over the new streamlined curriculum of one of the better known universities in the South. She listened attentively as he wound up his impromptu paean of praise. But she was plainly unimpressed. After an uncomfortable silence he said, “Aunt, don’t you think I’m right? Doesn’t that curriculum sound sensible? It’s modern.”
She eyed him casually and at last replied:
“I don’t know much about your modern courses and teaching methods. I was graduated from Provincetown High School a great many years ago and I never went to college. But in my opinion a good, cover-to-cover reading of The Advocate once a week for four years is equivalent to any university course given anywhere in the United States.”
June 24, 1948
Bishop Cassidy Will Bless Fleet In Colorful Ceremony Here Sunday
Favorable weather is all that will be needed to make the first blessing of Provincetown’s fishing fleet on Sunday by the Most Rev. James F. Cassidy, D.D., Bishop of Fall River Diocese, the most dramatic religious ceremony ever witnessed here. Practically all of the details of the arrangements have been worked out and it is expected that some 75 Provincetown and Truro boats will participate in the ceremony.
Events connected with the blessing of the fleet will take up most of the day with the fishermen assembling in front of the Knights of Columbus hall at 10:30 in the morning to march, escorted by members of the Bishop Feehan Assembly 4th Degree Knights of Columbus, to the Church of St. Peter the Apostle where Bishop Cassidy will celebrate the high mass at 11.
At 2:30 the fishermen will again assemble at the Knights of Columbus hall to march to the church to escort Bishop Cassidy, with members of the Bishop Feehan Assembly as honor guard, to the Town Wharf where the bestowal of the blessing will take place.
Around the south east end of the wharf the fishing boats, which have been cleaned, painted and flag-bedecked for the event, will be tied up and when the procession reaches the end of the wharf and the dignitaries take their places on the special platform to be erected, they will slowly pull out of the harbor and make a great circle on the spacious expanse of water. Each boat will come close to the platform on which Bishop Cassidy will stand to receive the individual blessing. Included in the fleet will be draggers, scallopers, trapboats and dory fishing boats.
June 21, 1962
Whale Calls Out Coast Guard?
The 30-ft. patrol boat from Race Point Coast Guard Station and the station’s 36-foot motor lifeboat, together with two helicopters from Otis Air Force Base at Falmouth and five from the Coast Guard’s air station in Salem, and all vessels in the area, taking part in a six hour search for what was first supposed to be a sinking submarine, were called off at 10 o’clock Monday morning after no trace of the submarine was found. It is now believed that whoever sounded the distress alarm had seen a spouting whale.
According to the Coast Guard a message was received at 4:35 p.m. Monday which stated that the U.S.S. Argonaut had flashed a “May Day” and the submarine said to be afire, was reported at the bottom of the bay off Cohasset. The search was called off when word was received from Washington officials that the Argonaut was safely tied up at Norfolk, Virginia, and that there were no other submarines in the area. Coast Guard officials added, however, that the case would remain “open” pending further developments. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Robert H. Marr, in charge of the Race Point Station here, said the area where the Argonaut was reported to have sunk was about eight miles north of the Station and, according to his information, the submarine, if it was a submarine, was in 120 feet of water and 7 1/2 miles east of H buoy, which would be about eight miles north northwest of the Race Point Station. Coast Guardsmen aboard the 30-footer from the station, after they returned Monday night, said they could see no submarine and that all they did see were numerous boats and whales.
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Jun 21st, 2007