Cape Cod Oil Works brig hull
Remnants of the brig hull that served the Cape Cod Oil Works. [2008, Dunlap]
“Cape Cod Oil Works opposite Provincetown, Mass. / Old hulk used as fertilizer screening house / Worth 1891” “Condemned by Dr. Moore 2/6/1919” [National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration]
Aerial view of the brig hull. [2010, Dunlap]
The brig hull is frequently under water. [2010, Dunlap]
Text last updated in 2015 | To this day, the ruin of a brig hull, as elegant in its skeletal outline as an elongated wishbone, can be seen alongside the few remaining pilings of the Atwood wharf, making the location of the Cape Cod Oil Works, which extracted everything usable from the carcasses and excreta of whales and fish.
The historian George Bryant surmised that this vessel was deliberately sunk on the spot and used as a receptacle in which maggots feasted on whale remains until they had completely cleaned the bones, which were in demand by corset manufacturers.
It forms a ghostly shape against the sand in the aerial photo above. The historical photo, brought to my attention by Dieter Groll, shows the vessel fitted out as a fertilizer screening house in 1891. The note at the bottom says: “Condemned by Dr. Moore 2/6/19.”
Dieter Groll wrote on 7 November 2014: As some or all of this vessel lies in-between the high-tide and low-tide lines, I’m not sure “sunk” is the proper term here. [Corrected.] More importantly, however, according to an 1891 photograph, this was “used as fertilizer screening house.” A later inscription at the bottom reads, “Condemned by Dr. Moore 2/6/19.”
¶ Republished on 27 December 2023.