Lost Ports of Cape Cod

By the late 1800's many of the Cape's ports had substantial wharves extending out into Nantucket Sound. One such wharf, circa 1880, was known as the Hyannis Railroad wharf. Not far from this exhibit at Cape Cod Maritime Museum, it extended from the end of what is today called Harbor Road, Hyannis.

The painting shows a 440 engine, typical for the day and job, pulling a load of goods off and to market. The trade goods have just been unloaded from several sizable ships all able to dock right at the wharf, rather than having to stand off and be unloaded by smaller vessels, as at many other much shallower Cape ports. The view was typical of the period with dozens of schooners and some ships standing off and awaiting their turn at the wharf.

One of the last of the packets, David K Akin, heads out of Bass River in 1910, on one of the last commercial, New York City runs of the great Cape Cod packet era. Fifty years earlier the area would have been busy with dozens, at times, hundreds of such craft. But on this morning traffic is light to almost nonexistent.

The schooner's mooring was just at the base of the Bass River Bridge, and down to the right looking out to Nantucket Sound, at what is still known today as Packet Landing. Along the Bass River many original structures have been retained and much of its new building is in line with its past.

Artist notes coming soon.