Mr. Small’s contract also provided that he should have the lumber
with which the temporary stable was built; then it was carted to the
Highlands in North Truro and went into the construction of a fine
cottage which bears the name of “Mayflower.”
This was begun in January, 1927, and completed in June. Fortunately no
lives were lost in this disaster, but it caused many hours of suffering
for those men who comprised the crew of the wreck.
WAS IT MURDER?
Tragedy stalks abroad on the great sea and land always, not only on the
wide stretches of the great ocean but all along the bordering coasts
and inlets.
A big ship sails away into the mists and fogs of the pulsing deep and
never comes back, a fisherman pulls out in his little boat to draw his
nets and drops as completely out of sight as though he had never been.
This little book tells of shipwrecks and disasters and in the same line
we may note the passing of human life on the sea wherever it may be.
Mystery goes hand and hand with passing events on the ever restless
waters.
The following little story is but one of many like it.
Mr. Eugene W. Haines was a much respected, active citizen of the town
of Sandwich, Cape Cod. He had held many important offices in the town
and was a member of the Board of Selectmen and engaged in several lines
of business.
During the summer season he set a string of lobster pots in the bay. He
owned a small power boat which he used in going to and from his lobster
traps.
On the 19th of November, 1927, an hour or more before daylight, as was
his custom, he sailed away in his boat to draw his lobster pots, and
from that hour he was never seen again by those on shore who awaited
his return.
For many days the waters of the bay were unruffled by any strong wind
and the waters were smooth. When he did not return by mid-afternoon
searching parties started out from many points and men patrolled the
coast beaches from Provincetown to Plymouth, and boats dragged the
nearby waters of the bay for many hours. Every foot of the coast
beaches were covered but not a single trace was found of the missing
man or his boat.
There was but one possible clue to this strange situation. A gang of
rum runners had been operating in and about the bay for some time and
some of them had been caught, and Mr. Haines had been instrumental in
bringing some of them to trial and punishment.
The theory has been advanced and quite generally accepted that these
law-breakers, holding a feeling of enmity against Haines, watched his
daily going out in his boat until there came a time in which to get him.
It is generally believed that they overtook his boat, made him a
prisoner, and took the boat in tow and then proceeded out in the sea
miles from land, where they murdered their victim, weighted his body
and dropped it to the bottom of the sea, then weighted and sank the
boat and left no trace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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