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Fragment from the Shipwreck Horace, 1838
The Horace was built in Scarborough and owned by the Perkins brothers of Kennebunkport, Maine. Her captain, also from Kennebunkport, was 32-year-old Leander Foss. On April 11, 1838, the Horace set sail from New Orleans with a cargo of nearly 1200 bales of cotton, bound for Liverpool, England. Not long into the voyage, as they were heading up the eastern coast of the United States, a small band of crew members staged an unsuccessful mutiny. Knowing that mutineers must be brought before a federal court, Captain Foss decided to head for shore, where he intended to hand over the mutineers and recruit for four reliable replacements. Weather conditions approaching Boston Harbor were poor, so Foss decided to bypass the major port and anchor off Kennebunkport, Maine, instead. The mutineers were shipped ashore and summarily tried in a court in Portland, Maine. Two days later, Captain Foss was ready to resume his voyage, but bad weather delayed his departure. In the dead of night on May 4, 1838, amidst a worsening gale, two of the anchor cables parted. The ship would not hold in the raging seas, and Captain Foss desperately called all hands aloft in an attempt to reach the safety of open water. His efforts were futile, and heavy breakers smashed the Horace into the ledges, where she lost her rudder and false keel. She eventually ran aground on Boothby’s Beach. The crew survived, but the ship did not. In the ensuing weeks, teams of oxen were sent out to the wreck to recover the cargo of cotton. Because of water stain and damage, the cotton could not be sold at market, so many a girl in the Kennebunks ended up with a new dress that summer spun and woven locally from Horace cotton. This fragment of the Horace was exposed at Kennebunk Beach on September 6, 1979.
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