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Legendary Storm
Thu Aug 05, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Often, a storm rages with such fury that
it becomes legendary. At other times, a legend is born from the storm itself. But rare it
is when a historic tempest spawns a story with impact as strong as the storm itself.
Such were the Great Hurricane of 1635 and the legend of Thacker Island.
New England weather had not been kind to the young Massachusetts colony. In
mid-August, 1635, a mighty wind blew into Narragansett Bay, crossed east of
Providence and then drove inland between Plymouth and Boston before heading out to
sea near Cape Ann.
The hurricane blew down thousands of trees -- plucking some by the roots and
snapping the tall mast pines at mid-tree. It overthrew houses and drove ships from
anchorage. The storm surge in Narragansett Bay swelled 14 feet over normal tide.
The greatest drama, however, occurred off the coast, where the wind's full force caught
a small sailing bark bound for Marblehead. The 23 aboard included a Reverend Avery,
his wife and nine children, and Anthony Thacker, his wife and six children.
Wind and surf beat an unrelenting tattoo upon the vessel as the two families huddled
in the torn cabin, comforting one another in the face of the cruel storm. A series of
mighty waves washed Thacker out upon the rocks; those remaining were likewise
soon swept into the sea.
Thacker miraculously found himself beached on a small island, where his wife lay
entangled in the wreckage, the only other survivor. Three days later, a boat rescued the
pair from the desolate island that Thacker himself would name Thacker's Woe. The
rock he called Avery's Fall.
Thanks to contributing writer Keith Heidorn. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by
the National Science Foundation and Subaru of America. We are a program of the
Mount Washington Observatory.
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