Tag: Boston Harbor

The Prisoners of Peddocks Island (episode 194)

You may have heard stories about the Confederate prisoners who were held at Fort Warren on Georges Island during the civil war.  In this episode, we’ll explore a different island that housed prisoners during a different war.  Our story will start with the only soccer riot in recorded Boston history, which broke out at Carson Beach in South Boston on July 16, 1944.  It will end up with Italian war prisoners confined at Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor.  Along the way, we’ll meet bootleggers, artillerymen, Passamaquoddy seal hunters, opium fiends, and Portuguese-American fishermen.  We’ll also be taking a virtual visit to one of my personal favorite places in the Boston area, and one that is on the brink of being sold off to luxury hotel developers.


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A Forgotten Battle on Boston Harbor (episode 186)

245 years ago this week, provincial militia and royal marines battled it out in what is now East Boston.  The battle of Chelsea Creek was sandwiched between the battle of Lexington in April and Bunker Hill in June, and it’s often overshadowed by the larger battles in our memories.  While the casualties and stakes were lower than those familiar battles, this skirmish over livestock was an important testing ground for the new American army.  It proved that the militias of different colonies could plan and fight together, it confirmed the wisdom of maneuvering and firing from cover instead of facing the redcoats head-on, and it bolstered provincial morale with a decisive victory.  The ragtag American army even managed to destroy a ship of the Royal Navy in the fighting!


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Whale Watching on Washington Street (episode 185)

In the 1860s, Bostonians could pay 20 cents and watch a captive whale swim in a custom built aquarium on Washington Street in Boston’s Downtown Crossing.  Today, there’s no sea world near Boston, and our New England Aquarium doesn’t hold any whales or dolphins.  Perhaps that’s for the best, as we now realize how intelligent these giants of the sea are.  However, things were different 160 years ago, when an entrepreneurial inventor did the impossible, bringing a beluga whale alive from the arctic ocean to Boston and keeping it alive here for at least 18 months, before being betrayed by the greatest showman, PT Barnum himself.


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The Deleterious Effects of Marsh Miasmata (episode 177)

Instead of profiling a historic Bostonian or bringing you a dramatic story, let’s read a letter together. This brief letter gives an account of a strange, frightening, and funny occurrence on Boston’s Long Wharf in the summer of 1797. Along with one delightfully funny incident, the letter includes details about Boston’s infrastructure and commercial port at the turn of the 19th century. Don’t worry, we’ll flesh out the letter with context from other sources, as well.


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The Missing Passengers of Flight 30 (episode 175)

World Airways flight 30 landed at Logan Airport on January 23, 1982, in the middle of an ice storm. The plane touched down late on a slippery runway, sliding into Boston Harbor and breaking in half.  The passengers and flight attendants pulled off an impressive self rescue, and fewer than 40 of the 198 passengers and 12 crew were hospitalized. While the FAA, Massport, and World Airways all argued publicly about who was to blame for the accident, they all agreed that it was a miracle that nobody had been killed in the crash…  Or had they?


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The Secret Tunnels of Boston’s North End (episode 143)

If you’ve ever taken a walking tour of Boston’s North End, or if you’ve talked to the old timers in the neighborhood, you’ve probably heard stories about the network of so-called secret pirate tunnels or smugglers’ tunnels that connects the wharves to the basements of houses, Old North Church, and even crypts in Copp’s Hill burying ground.  Sometimes the tunnels are attributed to a Captain Gruchy, who’s often called a pirate or a smuggler, and who is portrayed as a shadowy figure. It doesn’t take much research to debunk this version of the story, and yet there is historical evidence for tunnels under the streets of the North End. This week, we’ll take a look at that evidence and try to separate fact from fiction.


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The Underground Railroad on Boston Harbor (episode 135)

In the 19th century, a network of abolitionists and sympathizers in Boston helped enslaved African Americans find their way to freedom in the Northern states or Canada.  It’s a topic we’ve talked about before, but this time there’s a twist. We’re going to be examining how Boston’s position as an important port city changed the dynamic of seeking freedom.  Jake sat down with National Park Service ranger Shawn Quigley to discuss how the underground railroad ran right through Boston Harbor.


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Boston Standard Time (episode 113)

With New Year’s Eve comes the ball drop in Times Square at the stroke of midnight.  But in the late 1800s, Boston dropped a ball every day to mark the stroke of noon, because telling the time was serious business. The time ball, along with telegraphic signals and fire alarm bells, announced the exact time to the public, at a time when the exact time was critical to navigation on the high seas and safety on the newfangled railroads.  With ultra-precise clocks made by local jewelers and true astronomical time announced daily by the Harvard Observatory, Boston Standard Time became the de facto standard for a wide swath of the country long before time zones were officially proposed and adopted.


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Boston’s Barons of the Sea (episode 89)

In this week’s episode, we sit down with author Steven Ujifusa to discuss his new book Barons of the Sea, and Their Race to Build the World’s Fastest Clipper Ship, which will be out this Tuesday, July 17.  Steven will tell us about 19th century drug smuggling, what it meant to trade for tea in China or gold in California, and why America’s most prominent families were involved in the shipping business. Most of all, he’ll tell us about the East Boston shipyard where Donald McKay built the fastest, most graceful ships the world had ever seen.  


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The Wreck of the Mary O’Hara (episode 88)

In January 1941, the two masted fishing schooner Mary O’Hara collided with a barge in Boston Harbor.   At least 18 sailors died in the ice cold waters of Boston Harbor, while they were almost in sight of their own homes.  Only five members of the crew managed to cling to the exposed mast for hours until help arrived.  At the time, headlines called it Boston Harbor’s worst disaster.


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