Soon the force of the gale, as it drove the rising seas against the high sides of the Morrill, slowly but surely forced her constantly nearer the shore of the harbor, dragging her anchors with her as wave after wave beat against her bow and sides. Suddenly the anchor chains snapped and the ship began her wild course of destruction across the harbor. Swinging to the right she crashed into a fishing boat and sent it to the bottom, then sharply to the left she sent another fishing boat to destruction, continuing her swinging, zigzag course until she had passed over or through three more boats. Then, as a big wave drove with great force at her quarter, she swung around towards the west and plunged into the centre of a long pier which extended into the harbor. This offered no appreciable check to her onward course; tearing through this, scattering timbers and wharf logs in every direction; then on to a short pier on the shore she smashed into a good sized building on the head of this wharf which had been used during the summer as a playhouse and restaurant. Her further progress was then checked but not until she had landed within a hundred yards of the main street in Provincetown. For miles along the shore front at Provincetown the beach was littered with wharf logs and debris by the ton. Cottages were undermined, boats were wrecked and driven ashore, buildings damaged, cellars flooded, and the whole harbor front presented a scene of desolation. The loss to property ran into thousands and thousands of dollars. In the Congress of the December Session of 1927, a bill was introduced to obtain money to reimburse the fishermen for the loss of their boats in the mad voyage of the Morrill. From 1845 to about 1870 was the period of the highest efficiency in this type of sailing craft and the full rigged ship sailed upon every sea and navigated every ocean of the civilized world, and with their great white sails spread in the sunlight, were pictures of delight upon every sea. Shortly after the Civil War steam propelled vessels began to assume a place in the passenger and freight carrying business of the sea somewhat to the exclusion of the sailing ship. Slowly but surely they were forced back and driven from the sea, growing less and less in numbers until this year of 1928 it is doubtful if there is one vessel of this type on the Atlantic coast of this country today, and very few on any ocean of the world. Steam and electric power have driven them into the discard. LOSS OF THE MONTCLAIR ON ORLEANS BEACH The beginning of 1927 was a season which resulted in many disasters along the North Atlantic coast, and especially on the outer coast of Cape Cod. It is a matter of record that not since the terrible disaster of the loss of the steamship Portland in 1898, had so many people gone to their deaths in the cold waters of the gale-swept sea from Nantucket to Boston.