The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 4, April, 1884Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 4, April, 1884
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
which was a spacious cavern, where the pirates had previously deposited
some of their plunder. There the fugitive practised the trade of
shoemaking. He continued his residence here till the great earthquake of
1658, when the top of the rock was unloosed and crashed down into the
mouth of the cavern, enclosing the unfortunate man in what has been
called to this day Pirates' Dungeon or Dungeon Rock. We cannot vouch for
the complete truthfulness of this historian's statements.
In 1852, one Hiram Marble purchased from the city of Lynn a lot of
woodland in which Dungeon Rock is situated. He came, as was claimed,
influenced by Spiritualistic revelations.
Directed by the spirit of the departed pirate Tom Veal, Mr. Marble
commenced to excavate from this very hard porphyry rock in search of a
subterranean vault, into which had been poured, as was supposed, the
ill-gotten gain of all the pirates, from Captain Kidd down to the last
outlaw of the ocean. Twenty-seven years the sound of the hammer and the
drill and the thud of blasting-powder echoed through the leafy forests,
and then all was hushed.
Hiram Marble died in his lonely residence at Dungeon Rock, November 10,
1868, aged sixty-five. He was widely known for his perseverence in the
work in which he was engaged. Sixteen years he labored without a
realization of his ardent hopes. He remained a Spiritualist to the last,
and those of a like faith were invited to the funeral services which
took place on the day following his death.
"His faith has not been without works, nor his courage barren of
results, and centuries hence, if his name and identity should be lost,
the strange labor may be referred to some recluse Cyclops who had
strayed hither from mystic lands."
"Edwin Marble, who succeeded his father in the strange search for
treasure, died January 16, 1880, aged forty-eight years. He was buried
near the foot of the rock on the southwestern slope, it having been his
express desire to be interred near the scene of his hopeful, though
fruitless, labors."
The broken rock, which they removed solely with their own hands, makes
quite a mountain of itself.
We decided to enter the place where so many years of fruitless toil had
been spent. A wooden gate on rusty hinges opened and we passed in, and
the gate closed behind us.
The excavation is high enough and broad enough for two tall men to walk
abreast, and on its winding way, screw fashion, doubling upon itself, it
leads down one hundred and fifty feet into the bowels of the earth, all
the way through solid rock that had remained undisturbed for centuries
on centuries, until the work of this ill-directed Marble commenced.
Down, down we went, out of the warm sunlight into this cold, damp
subterranean passage, winding hither and thither, till we reached an
ice-cold pool of water which is constantly being supplied from some
hidden fountain, and, were it not removed by pumps, would fill the
place to the brim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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