Dec. 16, 2025
Gay Head, Massachusetts: 103 Souls Lost Half a Mile from Shore
In the early hours of January 18, 1884, the passenger steamer City of Columbus struck the jagged underwater rocks of Devil's Bridge off Gay Head, Massachusetts—now called Aquinnah—sending 103 people to their deaths within sight of the shore they could see but never reach. This maritime catastrophe remains the deadliest shipwreck in New England history for the nineteenth century, a tragedy that exposed fatal gaps in passenger safety while simultaneously revealing the extraordinary heroism of a small Wampanoag community willing to row into deadly seas to save strangers.
The City of Columbus had departed Boston the previous afternoon bound for Savannah, Georgia, carrying 80 first-class passengers, 22 in steerage, and a crew of 45 under Captain Schuyler E. Wright. Among the passengers were families seeking the warmer southern climate for health reasons—people newspapers of the era called "invalids"—along with women and children who made up roughly one-third of those aboard. What should have been a routine voyage through familiar waters became a nightmare when a combination of strong westward winds, lateral drift, and darkness conspired to push the iron-hulled steamer directly into the treacherous rock field that sailors had long feared.
When the lookout spotted the Devil's Bridge buoy off the port bow instead of starboard, the crew had only seconds to react. The ship struck at full speed, tearing a massive hole in the hull. Within minutes, a giant wave swept every woman and child aboard into the freezing Atlantic. Those who survived the initial chaos climbed into the ship's rigging, where they clung for seven agonizing hours as temperatures remained below freezing and their companions froze to death around them—some with hands literally locked to the ropes even in death.
Timeline of Events
January 17, 1884, 3:00 PM — City of Columbus departs Boston for Savannah with 147 people aboard under Captain Schuyler E. Wright.
January 18, 1884, 2:00 AM — Captain Wright goes below to his cabin after passing Nobska Point, leaving Second Mate Edward Harding in command.
January 18, 1884, 3:45 AM — Ship strikes Devil's Bridge rocks at full speed. Massive wave sweeps passengers overboard. Every woman and child aboard perishes.
January 18, 1884, Dawn — Lighthouse keeper Horatio Pease spots survivors clinging to the wreck's masts.
January 18, 1884, Morning — Thomas Manning and other Wampanoag rescuers launch boats into dangerous seas, beginning rescue operations.
January 18, 1884, 12:30 PM — Revenue Cutter Dexter arrives. Lieutenant John U. Rhodes makes multiple rescue attempts despite injury.
January 18, 1884, Noon — Final count: 29 survivors rescued, 103 dead.
Historical Significance
The City of Columbus disaster forced immediate and lasting changes to American maritime safety regulations. The most significant reform addressed a problem exposed by this tragedy: passenger manifests that went down with ships, leaving families with no way to know if their loved ones had survived. Within months of the disaster, Congress mandated that shipping companies maintain duplicate passenger lists—one aboard ship and copies kept on shore and filed with port authorities. This reform became standard practice across the transportation industry and remains in effect today for airlines, cruise ships, and ferries worldwide.
The disaster also transformed how the Revenue Cutter Service—predecessor to the modern United States Coast Guard—coordinated with local communities during maritime emergencies. The rescue demonstrated that local knowledge and willingness to act often proved more effective than waiting for official vessels. The Wampanoag rescuers' heroism earned national recognition: Congress passed a joint resolution thanking them, and Lieutenant John U. Rhodes received gold medals from the Humane Society and the German-American Society of Wilmington, North Carolina. Public subscriptions raised thousands of dollars for the rescuers—over $3,500 for the Wampanoag lifesavers alone.
The wreck of the City of Columbus still lies in approximately 40 feet of water off Aquinnah, visited occasionally by divers when conditions permit. The Martha's Vineyard Museum and Woods Hole Historical Museum display artifacts recovered from the wreck—pieces of the ship's distinctive white and gold china service, salvaged fittings, and personal items that connect visitors to the human cost of that January night.
Sources & Further Reading
For those interested in exploring this story further, the following resources provide excellent primary and secondary documentation:
- Vineyard Gazette Archives (January 25, 1884) — Contemporary newspaper coverage from Martha's Vineyard, including survivor testimony and detailed accounts of the rescue efforts. Available at vineyardgazette.com.
- Martha's Vineyard Museum — Houses the "Out of the Depths: Martha's Vineyard Shipwrecks" exhibit featuring artifacts from the City of Columbus including the ship's quarterboard, china, and salvaged materials. Located in Vineyard Haven.
- Woods Hole Historical Museum — Displays china and artifacts from the wreck with documentation of the tragedy's impact on Cape Cod communities.
- Wikipedia: SS City of Columbus — Comprehensive overview of the disaster with citations to primary sources and scholarly analysis.
- USCG Historian's Office — Documentation of the Revenue Cutter Dexter's role in the rescue and the commendations awarded to Lieutenant Rhodes and the crew.
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: at 345 in the morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 18th, 1884, the look out aboard the passenger steamer city of Columbus screams of warning into the darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Devil's bridge buoy is off the port bow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It should be starboard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Second mate Edward Harding, yells Hardy Port, but it's too late.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The ship strikes Jagged Underwater box at full speed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The grinding cracked hairs through the Iron Hall.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The sound echoes across black water, like the scream of tearing metal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: passengers and nightclothes rush to the deck only to be swept into the black water by a massive wave that rises from nowhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Women in frozen nightgowns disappear beneath foam.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 40 men scramble into the rigging as their hands freeze and waves crush over them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They'll hang there for seven hours in the darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the deadliest New England mayor time disaster of the 19th century, and it happened just half a mile, and sure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: welcome back friend to hometown history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The podcast that takes a stroll down the main streets and back alleys of the past to uncover how local stories shaped the world.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Shane Waters and today we're exploring how a single navigation error on a cold January night sent 103 people to their deaths within sight of rescue.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight we're traveling to Gay Head, Massachusetts, now officially called Aquina, the western tip of Martha's Vineyard, where a deadly reef, seven hours of frozen darkness, and a small indigenous community, created both New England's worst maritime disaster, and its most heroic rescue story of the 1800s.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The clay cliffs there are quite striking, layers of rust red, gray, and white striped sediment rising 150 feet above the Atlantic.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's what extends from those cliffs that made this spot one of the most dangerous points on the entire New England coast, Devil's Bridge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Aquina Wapanoag, Devil's Bridge is actually Moshep's Bridge, named after the giant from their creation stories.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's an underwater ledge of massive boulders extending over a mile from the cliffs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At low tide, you can see hundreds of rocks jutting from the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At high tide, they're just beneath the surface, waiting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Strong tidal currents create what sailors called a treacherous rep, where water flowing over devils bridge collides with complex currents running through vineyard sound.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Picture yourself approaching gay head at night in 1884.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's no GPS, no radar, just the beam from the lighthouse sweeping across black water every 10 seconds, illuminating nothing but empty ocean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know Devil's Bridge is somewhere ahead, an area of jagged rocks, three quarters of a mile square, according to the lighthouse keeper who lived there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You're navigating by the position of a single buoy, trying to stay far enough offshore to avoid the rocks, while not string so far, you lose your bearings entirely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One wrong calculation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One miscalculation of the current pushing your ship sideways, and you're on the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what happened to the city of Columbus.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus was, by all accounts, a well-maintained modern vessel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Built in 1878 at Chester, Pennsylvania, she was 275 feet long, with an iron hole and a 1500 horsepower steam engine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She'd been making the Boston to Savannah Run for six years without incident.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 17, 1884, the Columbus departed Boston at 3 o'clock PM with 147 people aboard, 81st-class passengers, 22 in-steerage, and a crew of 45 under Captain Skylar E. Wright.
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[SPEAKER_00]: About one-third of the passengers were women and children.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Many were what newspapers called Invalids, folks heading south to escape the harsh northeastern winter for their health.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to the January 25th, 1884 edition of the Vineyard Gazette, whether at departure showed a strong breeze from the westward, clear skies.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright was highly experienced, he navigated these waters dozens of times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was supposed to be of routine voyage.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, routine trips can become disasters in seconds, when the margin for error is a few hundred yards of black ocean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What happened in the early hours of January 18th would expose a fatal gap in maritime safety, passenger manifests that went down with ships, making it impossible for families to know who survived.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It would spark a national conversation about navigation, responsibility, and crew conduct during disasters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And it would show that sometimes the difference between tragedy and total catastrophe is a small community of indigenous fishermen willing to row into deadly seas to save people who could literally see safety, but couldn't reach it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The voyage started exactly as planned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright passed Cross-Rip Lightship at midnight, according to testimony, before the board of steamboat inspectors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Weather was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He continued past East Chop, then West Chop.
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[SPEAKER_00]: with a strong west southwest breeze, pushing the ship along.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After passing Nopska Point around 2am, Wright made a decision that would haunt him forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He went below to his cabin, escaping the biting cold of the open bridge for the warmth of his quarters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Later, alone with his thoughts about what that warmth caused, he would testify, it was very cold, everything was working well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I went below a short time, that brief retreat from numbing wind would save his life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The passengers who never escaped the icy water below weren't as fortunate.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Harding was qualified, this wasn't unusual on overnight passages, but he was about to face a navigational challenge that required instant correct judgment, and he would not get it right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The problem started with the weather.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That strong West Southwest breeze wasn't just pushing the ship forward, it was also pushing
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[SPEAKER_00]: The racing propeller and rough seas added to the lateral drift.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In darkness, with no visual reference points, except the occasional lighthouse beam, it's quite easy to lose track of exactly where you are.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The currents there were quite unpredictable, according to every sailor who'd navigate at those waters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Navigation in 1884 relied on spotting buoys and calculating position based on known hazards.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Devil's Bridge buoy marked the edge of the danger zone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you saw it off your starboard side, you were safely north of the rocks, hugging the proper channel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you saw it off your port side, you drifted too far south.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You were in the danger zone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At 345 AM, the lookout suddenly yelled to hearting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: in that instant, harding new.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The ship was off course.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were heading directly into the rock field.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Harding immediately ordered quartermaster Rodrick a McDonald to port, trying to turn the ship north away from the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright, hearing the commotion, rushed from his cabin,
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[SPEAKER_00]: But even as the words left his mouth, he could see in the moonlight the devil's bridge buoy about 300 yards away, two points forward of the beam.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He saw the error, he understood the mathematics of disaster, full steam, no distance to turn, rocks ahead.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus, steaming at full speed, struck what the vineyard does that called a double ledge of submerged rocks with tremendous force.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The sound was catastrophic.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The jagged rocks tore a massive hole in the port bow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Iron plates buckled and screamed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The grinding crack echoed across the water, like the ship itself was dying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right immediately ordered the engines reversed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The ship backed about twice her length, briefly free from the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For a moment, there was hope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the damage, what's catastrophic, she was flooding forward fast, water poured through the gash and unstoppable torrents.
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[SPEAKER_00]: right ordered the chip hoisted, attempts to head north toward shore.
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[SPEAKER_00]: With a ship less heavily to port, the plank shire about four feet under water now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Waves break continuously over the deck, each worn pushing her lower.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right makes one final attempt to drive over the obstruction.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This makes everything worse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The stern goes completely
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[SPEAKER_00]: Within minutes of striking, it's clear the city of Columbus is doomed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right gathers the 87 passengers from below.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to explain their situation calmly, they need life preservers, they need to stay cool.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But before he can finish speaking, a massive rush of water floods the cabin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone is forced to the top deck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to survivors who testified afterward, that's when the wave hit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The massive swell that would seal this disaster's place in history, as New England's deadliest maritime tragedy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The giant waves strikes the listing ship and sweeps people off the deck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to testimony before the board of steamboat inspectors, it happens in seconds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Passengers and nightclothes, many still groggy from sleep, suddenly in the frozen Atlantic.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Every single woman in child aboard the city of Columbus goes into the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The temperature is below freezing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The water temperature hovers just above it, hold enough to kill in minutes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Most of those swept overboard, drown quickly in the darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their frozen bodies pulled under by heavy nightclothes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some passengers never even made it to the deck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They drowned in their state rooms as water rushed through the ship, trapped behind doors they couldn't open against the flood.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's believed around 60 people died in those first terrible minutes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One wave, one moment, gone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The crew attempts to launch lifeboats, but ocean swells, smashed the boats against the iron sides of the ship, destroyed instantly before they can be lowered.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Wood splinters, rope, snaps, hope, breaks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: About 40 men managed to climb into the rigging of the two sail mass,
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[SPEAKER_00]: They cling to the ropes as waves crash over them, as wind-housed, as temperatures remain below freezing, they'll hang there for seven hours.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Picture yourself clinging to rigging and complete darkness, your clothes soaked through in the first wave.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Freeze stiff against your skin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Salt spray in your mouth makes you gag every time you gasp for air.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Your hands, numb now, barely feel the rope anymore.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You tighten your grip, but you can't tell if your fingers are actually responding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Every wave that crashes over you drains a little more strength, a little more hope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can see the lighthouse on the cliff, so close you could almost reach it, if you could just let go and swim, but you know you can't.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You've watched other men try, you've seen them disappear into the black water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Survivors later describe watching their companions freeze to death, in the rigging.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hands locked onto ropes, unable to let go, even in death.
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[SPEAKER_00]: others lose their grip, be numbed by cold, and fall into the sea while their companions watch helplessly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each splash in the darkness means one fewer voice calling out, one fewer person who might make it to morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to the vineyard cassette, which interviewed survivors
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[SPEAKER_00]: The ship's continued settling, the stern is completely underwater, only the bow and the two mass remain above the waves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If the mask goes under, everyone still alive will drown.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the cool part.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They can see shore.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The gay head lighthouse beam sweeps across them every 10 seconds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A reminder that safety is just half a mile away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: they can see the cliffs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They can probably see lights and windows where family's sleep unaware, so close and completely unreachable.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At dawn, seven hours after the ship struck, White Housekeeper Horatio P's spot something strange through his bygloss.
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[SPEAKER_00]: a white light burning on devil's bridge where no light should be.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He studies it, the light doesn't move, and then he sees them dark shapes, clean to mass, jutting from the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Words spreads quickly through the Womp and Know Act community of gay head.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Men grab boats, they don't wait for official orders, they don't wait for the revenue cutter that still hours away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They can see people dying have a mile offshore, that's all they need to know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas Manning, a Wampanoagdweiler, who'd recently returned from a successful voyage, launches his small boat into seas that would terrify most men.
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[SPEAKER_00]: From shore, the scene is clear.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A small craft appearing through spray and crashing waves rowing toward mass jutting from churning water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each pool of the ors fights current and wind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each wave threatens to cap size the tiny rescue boat.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Manning reaches the wreck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now comes the hardest part.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The men in the rigging have been there for seven hours.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their hands are frozen to the ropes, literally frozen, fingers locked and positioned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Manning has to pry them loose, one finger at a time, working quickly because every second counts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some men aren't unconscious, hanging by ropes wrapped around their arms, Maning climbs into the rigging himself, ties ropes around unresponsive bodies, lowers them into his boat.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He makes multiple trips.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What drove him back each time?
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[SPEAKER_00]: The knowledge that men were still cleaning to those masks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The sound of voices calling for help across the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The simple fact that he could do something about it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By all accounts, Thomas Manning saved 20 lives that morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 20 men who would have died without his small boat and strong arms.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More Wapanoag rescuers arrived.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Chief Simon Johnston, who managed the Massachusetts Humane Society Life Saving Station at nearby Chilmark, organizes additional crews, volunteer fishermen, and wailers, row out and waves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When the revenue cutter dexter finally arrives,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lieutenant John U. Rhodes attempts to reach the deck, a piece of floating debris strikes him in the leg, a deep gash.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His crew pulls him back aboard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Rhodes changes his clothes, refuses medical attention, insists on trying again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to witnesses who later testified, Lieutenant Rhodes refused to abandon the attempt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He ties a rope around himself, dives into freezing water, climbs the rigging to reach men, to weak, to help themselves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By noon, 29 men have been rescued, they're taken to homes in a quinoa, where wap and no act families built fires, prepare food, provide dry clothes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The community opens its doors to strangers without hesitation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 103 people died, within sight of safety they could see, but couldn't reach.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus, disaster forced immediate changes in maritime safety.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The biggest problem, passenger safety manifests went down with a ship.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Families had no way to know if their loved ones survived.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Newspapers couldn't publish accurate victimless.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even the official death count was disputed for weeks, because nobody knew exactly who had been on board.
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[SPEAKER_00]: within months, Congress mandated that shipping companies maintain duplicate passenger lists, one aboard ship, one kept ashore, one filed with port authorities.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today, every airline, every cruise ship, every ferry maintains multiple passenger manifests and separate locations as standard practice.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That reform alone saved countless families from the agony of not knowing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The disaster also sparked a national conversation about crew conduct during disasters.
22:06.575 --> 22:13.984
[SPEAKER_00]: Multiple survivor accounts claimed crew members abandoned ship and lifeboats, leaving passengers behind.
22:14.986 --> 22:20.292
[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright testified before the board of steamboat inspectors that he stayed with the ship.
22:21.194 --> 22:27.081
[SPEAKER_00]: But others suggested his decision to go below at the critical moment, showed negligence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The investigation couldn't definitively assign blame.
22:31.901 --> 22:36.834
[SPEAKER_00]: The navigation error might have happened regardless of who was on the bridge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The questions it raised changed how the maritime industry thought about command responsibility.
22:45.421 --> 22:49.987
[SPEAKER_00]: The Aquinoa-Wapanoag rescuers received national recognition.
22:51.229 --> 23:01.383
[SPEAKER_00]: Congress authorized gold-life-saving medals for Lieutenant Rhodes and Thomas Manning, rare recognition for Indigenous Americans in 1884.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A public subscription raised $2300 worth over $70,000 today to be distributed among the rescuers.
23:13.552 --> 23:27.493
[SPEAKER_00]: to be fair, perhaps the most important, lasting change, was in how the revenue cutters service, the precursor to the modern coast guard, coordinated with local communities during maritime disasters.
23:29.262 --> 23:43.783
[SPEAKER_00]: The Columbus Rescue showed that sometimes the most effective rescue efforts come from local people who know the waters and are willing to risk everything, not from official vessels that can't safely access the danger zone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today's Coast Guard still partners with local fishing communities for near shore rescues in treacherous waters, maintaining those relationships that proved so vital in 1884.
23:57.983 --> 24:05.310
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, the wreck of the city of Columbus still lies in about 40 feet of water, off a quinoa.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Divers occasionally visit the site when conditions allow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Woods Hole Historical Museum displays artifacts recovered from the wreck, pieces of China, ship fittings, personal items that tell the story of that January night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in Aquinoa, the story of Thomas Manning, rowing into deadly seas to safe strangers, is still told by his descendants.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A reminder that heroism does it require official authority, or fancy equipment.
24:42.428 --> 24:51.042
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it just requires a small boat, strong arms, and the willingness to help people in desperate need.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Manning's great-great-granddaughter served as Wapanoag tribal president in the 1980s, caring forward the legacy of service that defined that January morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus disaster is new inland steadily as maritime tragedy of the 19th century, but it's also the story of a small indigenous community that refused to watch people die
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[SPEAKER_00]: with navigation failed and official rescue struggled.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas Manning and the Aquinoa Wapanoag proved that sometimes the difference between tragedy and total catastrophe is a community willing to row into hell to pull strangers for freezing water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Shane Waters, every hometown has a story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight, it's a quinoa Massachusetts, where heroism lives in the memory of boats launched into deadly seas, and lives saved, despite impossible odds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who loves, forgotten history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Every share helps keep these stories alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good night, friend.
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[SPEAKER_00]: at 345 in the morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 18th, 1884, the look out aboard the passenger steamer city of Columbus screams of warning into the darkness.
00:19.635 --> 00:22.661
[SPEAKER_00]: Devil's bridge buoy is off the port bow.
00:23.764 --> 00:25.026
[SPEAKER_00]: It should be starboard.
00:26.423 --> 00:32.231
[SPEAKER_00]: Second mate Edward Harding, yells Hardy Port, but it's too late.
00:33.272 --> 00:37.117
[SPEAKER_00]: The ship strikes Jagged Underwater box at full speed.
00:38.179 --> 00:41.423
[SPEAKER_00]: The grinding cracked hairs through the Iron Hall.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The sound echoes across black water, like the scream of tearing metal.
00:55.297 --> 01:03.828
[SPEAKER_00]: passengers and nightclothes rush to the deck only to be swept into the black water by a massive wave that rises from nowhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Women in frozen nightgowns disappear beneath foam.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 40 men scramble into the rigging as their hands freeze and waves crush over them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They'll hang there for seven hours in the darkness.
01:26.110 --> 01:34.399
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the deadliest New England mayor time disaster of the 19th century, and it happened just half a mile, and sure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: welcome back friend to hometown history.
01:41.025 --> 01:48.598
[SPEAKER_00]: The podcast that takes a stroll down the main streets and back alleys of the past to uncover how local stories shaped the world.
01:49.960 --> 02:02.901
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Shane Waters and today we're exploring how a single navigation error on a cold January night sent 103 people to their deaths within sight of rescue.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight we're traveling to Gay Head, Massachusetts, now officially called Aquina, the western tip of Martha's Vineyard, where a deadly reef, seven hours of frozen darkness, and a small indigenous community, created both New England's worst maritime disaster, and its most heroic rescue story of the 1800s.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The clay cliffs there are quite striking, layers of rust red, gray, and white striped sediment rising 150 feet above the Atlantic.
02:45.627 --> 02:55.062
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's what extends from those cliffs that made this spot one of the most dangerous points on the entire New England coast, Devil's Bridge.
02:56.408 --> 03:06.422
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Aquina Wapanoag, Devil's Bridge is actually Moshep's Bridge, named after the giant from their creation stories.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's an underwater ledge of massive boulders extending over a mile from the cliffs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At low tide, you can see hundreds of rocks jutting from the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At high tide, they're just beneath the surface, waiting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Strong tidal currents create what sailors called a treacherous rep, where water flowing over devils bridge collides with complex currents running through vineyard sound.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Picture yourself approaching gay head at night in 1884.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's no GPS, no radar, just the beam from the lighthouse sweeping across black water every 10 seconds, illuminating nothing but empty ocean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know Devil's Bridge is somewhere ahead, an area of jagged rocks, three quarters of a mile square, according to the lighthouse keeper who lived there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You're navigating by the position of a single buoy, trying to stay far enough offshore to avoid the rocks, while not string so far, you lose your bearings entirely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One wrong calculation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One miscalculation of the current pushing your ship sideways, and you're on the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what happened to the city of Columbus.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus was, by all accounts, a well-maintained modern vessel.
04:42.514 --> 04:52.891
[SPEAKER_00]: Built in 1878 at Chester, Pennsylvania, she was 275 feet long, with an iron hole and a 1500 horsepower steam engine.
04:54.013 --> 04:58.300
[SPEAKER_00]: She'd been making the Boston to Savannah Run for six years without incident.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 17, 1884, the Columbus departed Boston at 3 o'clock PM with 147 people aboard, 81st-class passengers, 22 in-steerage, and a crew of 45 under Captain Skylar E. Wright.
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[SPEAKER_00]: About one-third of the passengers were women and children.
05:23.238 --> 05:31.671
[SPEAKER_00]: Many were what newspapers called Invalids, folks heading south to escape the harsh northeastern winter for their health.
05:33.153 --> 05:44.571
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the January 25th, 1884 edition of the Vineyard Gazette, whether at departure showed a strong breeze from the westward, clear skies.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright was highly experienced, he navigated these waters dozens of times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was supposed to be of routine voyage.
05:56.127 --> 06:06.080
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, routine trips can become disasters in seconds, when the margin for error is a few hundred yards of black ocean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What happened in the early hours of January 18th would expose a fatal gap in maritime safety, passenger manifests that went down with ships, making it impossible for families to know who survived.
06:22.756 --> 06:29.985
[SPEAKER_00]: It would spark a national conversation about navigation, responsibility, and crew conduct during disasters.
06:31.207 --> 06:52.594
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would show that sometimes the difference between tragedy and total catastrophe is a small community of indigenous fishermen willing to row into deadly seas to save people who could literally see safety, but couldn't reach it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The voyage started exactly as planned.
06:57.667 --> 07:05.361
[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright passed Cross-Rip Lightship at midnight, according to testimony, before the board of steamboat inspectors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Weather was fine.
07:08.887 --> 07:12.574
[SPEAKER_00]: He continued past East Chop, then West Chop.
07:13.921 --> 07:18.088
[SPEAKER_00]: with a strong west southwest breeze, pushing the ship along.
07:19.331 --> 07:25.582
[SPEAKER_00]: After passing Nopska Point around 2am, Wright made a decision that would haunt him forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He went below to his cabin, escaping the biting cold of the open bridge for the warmth of his quarters.
07:35.015 --> 07:43.963
[SPEAKER_00]: Later, alone with his thoughts about what that warmth caused, he would testify, it was very cold, everything was working well.
07:45.685 --> 07:52.931
[SPEAKER_00]: I went below a short time, that brief retreat from numbing wind would save his life.
07:54.633 --> 08:04.802
[SPEAKER_00]: The passengers who never escaped the icy water below weren't as fortunate.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Harding was qualified, this wasn't unusual on overnight passages, but he was about to face a navigational challenge that required instant correct judgment, and he would not get it right.
08:21.846 --> 08:23.408
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem started with the weather.
08:24.529 --> 08:34.283
[SPEAKER_00]: That strong West Southwest breeze wasn't just pushing the ship forward, it was also pushing
08:35.647 --> 08:40.156
[SPEAKER_00]: The racing propeller and rough seas added to the lateral drift.
08:41.519 --> 08:50.476
[SPEAKER_00]: In darkness, with no visual reference points, except the occasional lighthouse beam, it's quite easy to lose track of exactly where you are.
08:51.979 --> 08:57.891
[SPEAKER_00]: The currents there were quite unpredictable, according to every sailor who'd navigate at those waters.
08:59.272 --> 09:06.582
[SPEAKER_00]: Navigation in 1884 relied on spotting buoys and calculating position based on known hazards.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Devil's Bridge buoy marked the edge of the danger zone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you saw it off your starboard side, you were safely north of the rocks, hugging the proper channel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you saw it off your port side, you drifted too far south.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You were in the danger zone.
09:27.314 --> 09:36.568
[SPEAKER_00]: At 345 AM, the lookout suddenly yelled to hearting.
09:37.713 --> 09:39.895
[SPEAKER_00]: in that instant, harding new.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The ship was off course.
09:43.699 --> 09:46.302
[SPEAKER_00]: They were heading directly into the rock field.
09:47.923 --> 09:55.852
[SPEAKER_00]: Harding immediately ordered quartermaster Rodrick a McDonald to port, trying to turn the ship north away from the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright, hearing the commotion, rushed from his cabin,
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[SPEAKER_00]: But even as the words left his mouth, he could see in the moonlight the devil's bridge buoy about 300 yards away, two points forward of the beam.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He saw the error, he understood the mathematics of disaster, full steam, no distance to turn, rocks ahead.
10:26.802 --> 10:37.755
[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus, steaming at full speed, struck what the vineyard does that called a double ledge of submerged rocks with tremendous force.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The sound was catastrophic.
10:42.260 --> 10:45.644
[SPEAKER_00]: The jagged rocks tore a massive hole in the port bow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Iron plates buckled and screamed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The grinding crack echoed across the water, like the ship itself was dying.
10:57.280 --> 11:00.024
[SPEAKER_00]: Right immediately ordered the engines reversed.
11:01.065 --> 11:05.311
[SPEAKER_00]: The ship backed about twice her length, briefly free from the rocks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For a moment, there was hope.
11:08.635 --> 11:20.012
[SPEAKER_00]: But the damage, what's catastrophic, she was flooding forward fast, water poured through the gash and unstoppable torrents.
11:21.292 --> 11:26.119
[SPEAKER_00]: right ordered the chip hoisted, attempts to head north toward shore.
11:27.520 --> 11:33.448
[SPEAKER_00]: With a ship less heavily to port, the plank shire about four feet under water now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Waves break continuously over the deck, each worn pushing her lower.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right makes one final attempt to drive over the obstruction.
11:45.925 --> 11:47.287
[SPEAKER_00]: This makes everything worse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The stern goes completely
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[SPEAKER_00]: Within minutes of striking, it's clear the city of Columbus is doomed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right gathers the 87 passengers from below.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to explain their situation calmly, they need life preservers, they need to stay cool.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But before he can finish speaking, a massive rush of water floods the cabin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone is forced to the top deck.
12:18.896 --> 12:23.561
[SPEAKER_00]: According to survivors who testified afterward, that's when the wave hit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The massive swell that would seal this disaster's place in history, as New England's deadliest maritime tragedy.
12:34.597 --> 12:39.362
[SPEAKER_00]: The giant waves strikes the listing ship and sweeps people off the deck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to testimony before the board of steamboat inspectors, it happens in seconds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Passengers and nightclothes, many still groggy from sleep, suddenly in the frozen Atlantic.
12:55.140 --> 13:02.308
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single woman in child aboard the city of Columbus goes into the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The temperature is below freezing.
13:06.657 --> 13:11.285
[SPEAKER_00]: The water temperature hovers just above it, hold enough to kill in minutes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Most of those swept overboard, drown quickly in the darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their frozen bodies pulled under by heavy nightclothes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some passengers never even made it to the deck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They drowned in their state rooms as water rushed through the ship, trapped behind doors they couldn't open against the flood.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's believed around 60 people died in those first terrible minutes.
13:38.960 --> 13:43.028
[SPEAKER_00]: One wave, one moment, gone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The crew attempts to launch lifeboats, but ocean swells, smashed the boats against the iron sides of the ship, destroyed instantly before they can be lowered.
13:56.529 --> 14:02.718
[SPEAKER_00]: Wood splinters, rope, snaps, hope, breaks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: About 40 men managed to climb into the rigging of the two sail mass,
14:09.991 --> 14:21.391
[SPEAKER_00]: They cling to the ropes as waves crash over them, as wind-housed, as temperatures remain below freezing, they'll hang there for seven hours.
14:22.954 --> 14:29.526
[SPEAKER_00]: Picture yourself clinging to rigging and complete darkness, your clothes soaked through in the first wave.
14:31.089 --> 14:33.433
[SPEAKER_00]: Freeze stiff against your skin.
14:34.983 --> 14:39.090
[SPEAKER_00]: Salt spray in your mouth makes you gag every time you gasp for air.
14:40.292 --> 14:43.817
[SPEAKER_00]: Your hands, numb now, barely feel the rope anymore.
14:44.919 --> 14:49.266
[SPEAKER_00]: You tighten your grip, but you can't tell if your fingers are actually responding.
14:50.408 --> 14:55.877
[SPEAKER_00]: Every wave that crashes over you drains a little more strength, a little more hope.
14:57.629 --> 15:06.583
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see the lighthouse on the cliff, so close you could almost reach it, if you could just let go and swim, but you know you can't.
15:07.685 --> 15:13.013
[SPEAKER_00]: You've watched other men try, you've seen them disappear into the black water.
15:14.555 --> 15:19.042
[SPEAKER_00]: Survivors later describe watching their companions freeze to death, in the rigging.
15:20.204 --> 15:25.172
[SPEAKER_00]: Hands locked onto ropes, unable to let go, even in death.
15:26.536 --> 15:35.346
[SPEAKER_00]: others lose their grip, be numbed by cold, and fall into the sea while their companions watch helplessly.
15:36.747 --> 15:45.417
[SPEAKER_00]: Each splash in the darkness means one fewer voice calling out, one fewer person who might make it to morning.
15:46.878 --> 15:55.648
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the vineyard cassette, which interviewed survivors
15:57.215 --> 16:07.613
[SPEAKER_00]: The ship's continued settling, the stern is completely underwater, only the bow and the two mass remain above the waves.
16:08.943 --> 16:13.252
[SPEAKER_00]: If the mask goes under, everyone still alive will drown.
16:14.636 --> 16:16.039
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the cool part.
16:17.021 --> 16:17.923
[SPEAKER_00]: They can see shore.
16:19.125 --> 16:23.174
[SPEAKER_00]: The gay head lighthouse beam sweeps across them every 10 seconds.
16:24.277 --> 16:28.065
[SPEAKER_00]: A reminder that safety is just half a mile away.
16:29.345 --> 16:30.367
[SPEAKER_00]: they can see the cliffs.
16:31.749 --> 16:41.345
[SPEAKER_00]: They can probably see lights and windows where family's sleep unaware, so close and completely unreachable.
16:42.908 --> 16:52.163
[SPEAKER_00]: At dawn, seven hours after the ship struck, White Housekeeper Horatio P's spot something strange through his bygloss.
16:52.143 --> 16:58.249
[SPEAKER_00]: a white light burning on devil's bridge where no light should be.
16:59.551 --> 17:19.652
[SPEAKER_00]: He studies it, the light doesn't move, and then he sees them dark shapes, clean to mass, jutting from the water.
17:20.898 --> 17:25.269
[SPEAKER_00]: Words spreads quickly through the Womp and Know Act community of gay head.
17:26.471 --> 17:34.992
[SPEAKER_00]: Men grab boats, they don't wait for official orders, they don't wait for the revenue cutter that still hours away.
17:35.950 --> 17:41.518
[SPEAKER_00]: They can see people dying have a mile offshore, that's all they need to know.
17:41.578 --> 17:54.195
[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas Manning, a Wampanoagdweiler, who'd recently returned from a successful voyage, launches his small boat into seas that would terrify most men.
17:55.525 --> 17:57.388
[SPEAKER_00]: From shore, the scene is clear.
17:58.330 --> 18:04.941
[SPEAKER_00]: A small craft appearing through spray and crashing waves rowing toward mass jutting from churning water.
18:06.504 --> 18:09.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Each pool of the ors fights current and wind.
18:10.330 --> 18:14.137
[SPEAKER_00]: Each wave threatens to cap size the tiny rescue boat.
18:15.940 --> 18:17.262
[SPEAKER_00]: Manning reaches the wreck.
18:18.505 --> 18:19.947
[SPEAKER_00]: Now comes the hardest part.
18:21.310 --> 18:24.355
[SPEAKER_00]: The men in the rigging have been there for seven hours.
18:25.437 --> 18:32.529
[SPEAKER_00]: Their hands are frozen to the ropes, literally frozen, fingers locked and positioned.
18:33.771 --> 18:41.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Manning has to pry them loose, one finger at a time, working quickly because every second counts.
18:41.965 --> 18:55.766
[SPEAKER_00]: Some men aren't unconscious, hanging by ropes wrapped around their arms, Maning climbs into the rigging himself, ties ropes around unresponsive bodies, lowers them into his boat.
18:57.188 --> 18:58.470
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes multiple trips.
18:59.712 --> 19:01.795
[SPEAKER_00]: What drove him back each time?
19:03.117 --> 19:07.003
[SPEAKER_00]: The knowledge that men were still cleaning to those masks.
19:07.023 --> 19:10.588
[SPEAKER_00]: The sound of voices calling for help across the water.
19:10.568 --> 19:14.157
[SPEAKER_00]: The simple fact that he could do something about it.
19:15.641 --> 19:19.652
[SPEAKER_00]: By all accounts, Thomas Manning saved 20 lives that morning.
19:19.672 --> 19:25.607
[SPEAKER_00]: 20 men who would have died without his small boat and strong arms.
19:27.224 --> 19:29.567
[SPEAKER_00]: More Wapanoag rescuers arrived.
19:30.628 --> 19:45.345
[SPEAKER_00]: Chief Simon Johnston, who managed the Massachusetts Humane Society Life Saving Station at nearby Chilmark, organizes additional crews, volunteer fishermen, and wailers, row out and waves.
19:46.867 --> 19:49.350
[SPEAKER_00]: When the revenue cutter dexter finally arrives,
19:50.647 --> 19:59.879
[SPEAKER_00]: Lieutenant John U. Rhodes attempts to reach the deck, a piece of floating debris strikes him in the leg, a deep gash.
20:00.740 --> 20:02.463
[SPEAKER_00]: His crew pulls him back aboard.
20:03.764 --> 20:10.393
[SPEAKER_00]: Rhodes changes his clothes, refuses medical attention, insists on trying again.
20:10.373 --> 20:17.328
[SPEAKER_00]: According to witnesses who later testified, Lieutenant Rhodes refused to abandon the attempt.
20:18.250 --> 20:26.728
[SPEAKER_00]: He ties a rope around himself, dives into freezing water, climbs the rigging to reach men, to weak, to help themselves.
20:28.126 --> 20:41.279
[SPEAKER_00]: By noon, 29 men have been rescued, they're taken to homes in a quinoa, where wap and no act families built fires, prepare food, provide dry clothes.
20:42.460 --> 20:46.645
[SPEAKER_00]: The community opens its doors to strangers without hesitation.
20:46.665 --> 20:54.893
[SPEAKER_00]: 103 people died, within sight of safety they could see, but couldn't reach.
20:58.366 --> 21:03.253
[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus, disaster forced immediate changes in maritime safety.
21:04.555 --> 21:09.082
[SPEAKER_00]: The biggest problem, passenger safety manifests went down with a ship.
21:09.983 --> 21:12.988
[SPEAKER_00]: Families had no way to know if their loved ones survived.
21:14.390 --> 21:17.114
[SPEAKER_00]: Newspapers couldn't publish accurate victimless.
21:18.156 --> 21:24.525
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the official death count was disputed for weeks, because nobody knew exactly who had been on board.
21:25.855 --> 21:38.515
[SPEAKER_00]: within months, Congress mandated that shipping companies maintain duplicate passenger lists, one aboard ship, one kept ashore, one filed with port authorities.
21:39.811 --> 21:50.388
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, every airline, every cruise ship, every ferry maintains multiple passenger manifests and separate locations as standard practice.
21:51.730 --> 21:56.838
[SPEAKER_00]: That reform alone saved countless families from the agony of not knowing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The disaster also sparked a national conversation about crew conduct during disasters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Multiple survivor accounts claimed crew members abandoned ship and lifeboats, leaving passengers behind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Wright testified before the board of steamboat inspectors that he stayed with the ship.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But others suggested his decision to go below at the critical moment, showed negligence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The investigation couldn't definitively assign blame.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The navigation error might have happened regardless of who was on the bridge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The questions it raised changed how the maritime industry thought about command responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Aquinoa-Wapanoag rescuers received national recognition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Congress authorized gold-life-saving medals for Lieutenant Rhodes and Thomas Manning, rare recognition for Indigenous Americans in 1884.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A public subscription raised $2300 worth over $70,000 today to be distributed among the rescuers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: to be fair, perhaps the most important, lasting change, was in how the revenue cutters service, the precursor to the modern coast guard, coordinated with local communities during maritime disasters.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Columbus Rescue showed that sometimes the most effective rescue efforts come from local people who know the waters and are willing to risk everything, not from official vessels that can't safely access the danger zone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today's Coast Guard still partners with local fishing communities for near shore rescues in treacherous waters, maintaining those relationships that proved so vital in 1884.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today, the wreck of the city of Columbus still lies in about 40 feet of water, off a quinoa.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Divers occasionally visit the site when conditions allow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Woods Hole Historical Museum displays artifacts recovered from the wreck, pieces of China, ship fittings, personal items that tell the story of that January night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in Aquinoa, the story of Thomas Manning, rowing into deadly seas to safe strangers, is still told by his descendants.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A reminder that heroism does it require official authority, or fancy equipment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it just requires a small boat, strong arms, and the willingness to help people in desperate need.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Manning's great-great-granddaughter served as Wapanoag tribal president in the 1980s, caring forward the legacy of service that defined that January morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Columbus disaster is new inland steadily as maritime tragedy of the 19th century, but it's also the story of a small indigenous community that refused to watch people die
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[SPEAKER_00]: with navigation failed and official rescue struggled.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas Manning and the Aquinoa Wapanoag proved that sometimes the difference between tragedy and total catastrophe is a community willing to row into hell to pull strangers for freezing water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Shane Waters, every hometown has a story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight, it's a quinoa Massachusetts, where heroism lives in the memory of boats launched into deadly seas, and lives saved, despite impossible odds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who loves, forgotten history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Every share helps keep these stories alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good night, friend.
