Dan's Papers - February 22, 2008

Do you know the story of the ghost of a dead sea captain whose body, 13 days after a shipwreck off Fire Island, floated home to Hampton Bays?

The frozen corpse of Captain William H. Squires reportedly drifted 30 miles against the ocean current before reaching the shore of Good Ground, his birthplace, later known as Hampton Bays, on February 23, 1895. At least one legend says the captain was found only yards from his home.

Squires, the captain of the cargo schooner Louis V. Place, froze to death in the ship's rigging and fell into the sea. The schooner ran aground 400 yards from shore off Fire Island on February 8, 1895. At the time, he was roughly 30 miles west of "Squiretown," a hamlet named after his family, making up part of Good Ground. Squires, 58, was buried in Good Ground Cemetery, located behind the United Methodist Church in Hampton Bays. He was survived by his wife Carrie, son Harry and daughter Marie.

"His stone is located in the first row of stones closest to the church because he was one of the first people buried there," said a representative of Good Ground Cemetery.

Maritime records indicate the Louis V. Place disaster occurred during a horrific storm that battered the east coast that fateful day, 113 years ago. The temperature was in the single digits. Gale force winds blew over 70 miles per hour.

According to the official report by the United States Life Saving Service (USLSS) available in the library at the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville, ice glazed the sails of the 163-foot schooner, rendering the ship unmanageable.

"The schooner struck the beach on the crest of a big wave," reported Claus Stuvens, one of the two survivors from the ship. "We knew it was her death blow, and she bumped a few times, then settled with a slight list to port nearly broadside to shore. Big seas broke over the deck and the schooner plunged with every wave that swept over her."

Captain Squires ordered his seven crewmembers to dress in layers and drink whiskey to keep warm. He then instructed them to climb up the rigging of the vessel's three masts.

"It was death to stay on deck and be swept away, while it was a more lingering death to go aloft, but we chose the latter," said Stuvens, according to Wrecks and Rescues on Long Island by the late Van R. Field of Center Moriches.

The crewmembers tied themselves to the rigging so they could stay above the icy waves that smashed the deck. Escaping the cold was impossible. Mists from waves froze to ice on the sailors' clothing and faces, making it difficult for them to even move their mouths.

The Life Saving Service wrote that the schooner sat helplessly for 40 hours before survivors could be reached. During that time heroic rescuers from the USLSS station at Lone Hill on Fire Island worked tirelessly to bring the men to safety. Pounded by the merciless winds and bone chilling cold, and suffering from hunger and lack of sleep, the crewmembers of the Louis V. Place were unable to assist in their own rescues.

Six of the eight sailors froze to death by the time a rescue boat reached them. Four of the dead, including the Captain, had fallen into the sea. Two men hung in the ship's rigging frozen to death.

"We had been hanging for several hours when I saw Captain Squires fall with a rattling sound down the shrouds, and his body was swept out to sea by a big wave," wrote Stuvens.

Stuvens and Soren Nelson survived the ordeal by crawling into the furled topsail where they were protected from the brittle winds. Nelson died of tetanus in a hospital on Staten Island within a month of being rescued.

According to James Squires, 57, of Hampton Bays, Captain Squires was a descendant of Ellis Squires, the first white settler of the Hampton Bays area. James, a seventh generation descendant, said all the Squires of Hampton Bays can be traced back to Ellis Squires, who arrived in the Hampton Bays area 1773. He navigated a whaleboat from Maine with his wife and nine children aboard.

"Many of the Squires were adventurous and took on challenges," said James, who owns a rare book by Tiger Gardiner that traces the lineage of the Squires family of Long Island's south fork.

Clearly, Captain William Squires inherited Ellis' adventurous spirit. In addition to being the captain of a cargo vessel, he also commanded ships in the West Indies.

Did the captain's spirit guide his body home so his family could lay him to rest in their burial plot in Good Ground Cemetery? If his final journey home was not a paranormal event then it was certainly an unlikely coincidence. Against all odds, Captain William H. Squires found his way home to Hampton Bays where he belonged.