History of Islands & Islets in the Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick

Front matter

of in the BAY OF FUNDY.

Charlotte County, New Brunswick:

From Their Earliest Settlement to the Present Time: Including

Chapter I: Introductory

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

The various islands lying in the Bay of Fundy and under the Government of the Dominion of Canada embrace a fair field for historical and descriptive embodiment. As those islands are no mean appendages of the New Dominion, and gradually rising in importance, it would seem a fitting time now, no longer to delay to make them better known, and thus add their quota to the grand inducements of the Dominion, generally, for an increasing population. Visitors to a few of those islands and newspaper contributors have, occasionally, presented their pen-sketches just as fancy and disposition directed them;—but, to do those tracts of sea-land something like justice, a methodical history, published in a form less evanescent than the columns of a newspaper, is needed; and to supply this requirement is the intention of the author of the present publication.

The nearer art approaches nature in her delineations, the nearer to perfection; so the nearer romance comes to reality—fiction to truth—the closer hold it takes upon our judgment and our feelings. Historical reminiscences are always fresh and new; and descriptive geography possesses a charm, recommending itself alike to old and young. The novelist, who keeps his soaring flights of imagination within the bounds of probability, commands and receives the admiration and approval of every reader who desires and delights in something more than airy nothings, flights of fancy, and incredibilities. If we feel that we are reading facts, although the record should read "strange as fiction," the impression is liable to be deep and enduring, and, in many instances, carries salutary influences with it.

The pages now in the hands of the reader, lay rightful claim to authenticity, without the embellishments of studied diction, or the tinselled adornments of romance. Indeed, such are needless here, for abundant material presents itself in progressing with the work in hand, to satisfy the most ardent lover of the marvellous, that "truth is stranger than fiction."

The reader is now introduced to the Bay of Fundy. This bay is a magnificent portion of the Atlantic Ocean, running some 150 miles up from its mouth, and separating Nova Scotia from New Brunswick. It is not our task here to award the meed of fame to Scandinavian, French, the Cabots, Americus Vespucius, Columbus, Cartier, DeMonts, Champlain, or others, as the original discoverers or explorers of the Bay of Fundy. It is enough that we have this splendid old bay before us, studded in many parts with beautiful islands. The singularity of its tides has been noted from the first dawn of its discovery by European eyes. They have a rise and fall varying from 30 to 50 feet, and sometimes 60 feet! At all times the flux and reflux of these rushing tides, more especially at the mouths of the rivers, bays, and basins of the head waters, are remarkable, presenting objects of intense interest. Not unfrequently a sort of tidal wave, which from its white froth foam has obtained the name of "bore," comes rolling in and over the low flat shores with a seemingly overwhelming rapidity and force, hardly conceivable by one who has never witnessed it, rushing swifter than the foaming speed of an Arabian charger, and with a noise more terrific than the thundering roar of an African lion!

This bay, has the unenviable reputation of being lodging-place for what seamen dread more than tempest gales—fog—and not unjustly; for during the summer months, the very period of the year when salt water margins and their scenery are sought by tourists as sources of invigorating enjoyment, that detestable foe to the sailor and the tourist, fog, comes too! It brings with it and puts on an extinguisher, not unfrequently for many days and nights in succession, over the lovely scenery of land and sea. But, even this salt water fog, dense as it may be, is bliss compared with the sultry atmosphere of the main land interior—of inland towns and crowded cities, where cholera and other contagious ills visit the sweltered citizens; while the inhabitants of those fog-visited islands in the Bay of Fundy wear the bloom of health upon their cheeks and are strong to pursue their wonted vocation. Visitors, too, soon become assimilated to the fog—become exuberant, even when saturated in a fog-mist, revelling in fog, as in sunshine, becoming as sportive as a lamb on its island home, or the tumbling porpoise in the bay.

It was a joyful sight to the eyes of the adventurous navigators of the Atlantic Ocean from the Eastern Hemisphere, when they first beheld the streak of another continent lining the horizon with its verdant sheen.

The discoverers of a western world must have felt their hearts stirred and thrilled to their depths, as the lovely islands of summer latitudes erst presented themselves before them, lying in the sunshine like "pearly gems at random set." No wonder, those daring Europeans felt constrained to give praise to God at the sight! It was meet they should, and doubtless their spontaneous outpourings of thanksgiving were heard in heaven.

It was with kindred emotions of amazement, joy and praise that the first explorers of the North American coast, gazed upon the broad bosom of the Bay of Fundy as they sailed over its rolling waves. The political division made in the year 1784, separating Nova Scotia into two parts (the northern part called New Brunswick) cannot separate them geographically; for they are indissoluble united by an earth ligament, called the Isthmus of Chignecto, 12 miles wide, securer more than ever were the Siamese twins and so may be called with propriety the twin sisters of the ocean; and thus, by their maritime position, an identification of interests seems natural, reasonable and necessary, each for each, even were they not nationally confederated under the new name of the Dominion of Canada.

This long arm of the ocean, the Bay of Fundy, extending from its mouth to Cape Chignecto, here separates and branches off, running up Chignecto Bay a north-easterly course, and again turns, now more northerly, sweeping up Shepody Bay into the Petitcodiac river, penetrating by its rushing tide to Moncton, It runs also from this minor cape in Shepody Bay a more easterly direction, washing the western shores of Westmoreland and Cumberland Counties, forming Cumberland Basin—the Bay de Verte, on the Strait of Northumberland, Gulf Coast, being only 12 miles distant. Here is the connecting lick, the earth ligament, the Isthmus of Chignecto, through which it has been contemplated to cut a canal to unite the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with those of the Bay of Fundy. Our great bay also turns at Cape Chignecto and runs a south-easterly course, passing several capes; the most noted, Cape Blomidon, which our seamen of the Bay sometimes honor with the appropriate name—"Cape Blow-me-down," as seldom or ever any vessel on passing can get by without paying it the compulsory compliment of "dipping" her sails, so fiercely does Cape Blomidon blow down upon them! Running up past this cape a narrow run, the Bay widens out into a broad sheet of water, called Minas Basin; and, pushing on in its mighty tide-rush, is only checked at Truro, along the shore of which it takes the name of Cobequid Bay; and looking more southerly, it also sweeps along that shore, touching the town of Windsor—receiving, in consequence, the name of Windsor River. Cornwallis, also, that fine farming district, gives its portion of the Bay its meed of praise, by calling it Cornwallis River, notwithstanding that thousands of dollars and tens of thousands have been expended to resist the mad desire of the wild "bore" of the Bay to roam at will over its fertile bosom of broad acres. The "Wellington Dyke" stands sentinel to obstruct the enemy.

The reader will please pardon the digression if we deviate a little from our course here to remark, paradox , that this connecting link, the Isthmus of Chignecto, is the dividing line between the fine County of Cumberland in Nova Scotia, and its equally fine County of Westmoreland in New Brunswick, and that Cumberland County is at present represented in the Dominion Parliament by Dr. Tupper, who is a large land owner in each Province, and accordingly seems to hold an even-handed justice and good fellowship for them both. Westmoreland County has the parliamentary guardianship of Hon. A. J. Smith, who being the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, is in duty bound to exercise his powers for the general good, irrespective of locality.

The southern shore of the Bay of Fundy washes four counties belonging to Nova Scotia—namely, Digby, Annapolis, Kings, and Hants—those counties lying on the north side of that Province.

The northern part of the Bay washes three counties on the south coast of New Brunswick—namely, Charlotte, St. John and Albert Counties.

From this brief sketch of the Bay of Fundy, the reader, hitherto unacquainted with it, may form a very good idea of the long and broad expanse of water surrounding the islands, the principal of which, appertaining to the Province of New Brunswick, is herein described. The author of this little work, feels keenly alive to the task. In this age of book-making, it requires no little hardihood to launch forth on the stormy, fluctuating and sometimes whelming waves of public opinion and newspapers' criticisms, an original production. Were the author seeking for the fame of authorship, he would not be an aspirant—were he writing as a paid scribe, he would shrink from the responsibility; but when he lifts his pen to bring into greater notoriety the islands of the Bay of Fundy, situate in the waters of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, his hand seems nerved to the undertaking; for he feels those islands merit all that truth can present in their behalf; and even then, the words of Sheba's Queen to Solomon the King, may be appropriately quoted—"The half has not been told."

The author avails himself, of the opportunity afforded him in these prefatory remarks, to tender his obligations to William Dixon, Esq., of Her Majesty's Customs at Indian Island; also, to Mr. Walter B. McLaughlin, of Grand Manan, for the valuable aid rendered in obtaining and imparting very much information touching the original history of Indian Island and the Island of Grand Manan. Others, too, who have readily contributed such information as they possessed, will accept the author's thanks; for, unaided in collecting necessary material, the present volume would have been deficient in many of the most interesting events connected with our islands' history.

Chapter II: Grand Manan

CHAPTER II. GRAND MANAN.

Mythology describes Nereus as a marine deity attendant on Neptune, the god of the sea; with numerous Nereids, her daughters, as beautiful sea nymphs riding on sea horses; and the fabled description has, in part, its reality in Grand Manan, which sits as an ocean goddess out on the restless waves of the Bay of Fundy, with numerous little islands, like marine Nereids, clustered around her. This fine island and its many appurtenances of minor islands and islets, comprise the Parish of Grand Manan, in the County of Charlotte, in the Province of New Brunswick. The province, having been divided into counties—the County of Charlotte is bounded on the south by the Bay of Fundy; and on the west by the River Saint Croix and the western shore of Passamaquoddy Bay; on the east by a line running true north thirty miles from Point Lepreaux; and on the north by the line running true west from the termination of the last-mentioned line. Deputies Wilkinson and Mahood made this survey in 1838; and, subsequently, a re-survey was made by Deputy Mahood in the year 1845, establishing the original boundaries, and including all the islands adjacent thereto, and the Island of Grand Manan and the islands adjacent to it. The division of the province into counties was next followed by the division of each county into parishes; and by an Act of Legislature passed 1st May, 1854, the Island of Grand Manan, with its appurtenances, became a separate political parish, known as the Parish of Grand Manan.

It must not be understood, however, that Grand Manan was not a parish, distinct from the other parishes in the county, previous to the political divisions under, and by authority of the Act passed in 1854. The is- land had been regarded as the Parish of Grand Manan many years before—to which reference will be made on another page, connected with a circumstance of no common kind—but we must not anticipate. It was by the codification of the laws and statutes of New Brunswick in the year 1854, that the law prescribed the political division of the province into counties and parishes; and thus Grand Manan, with its island appurtenances, was, in common with the other parishes, firmly and definitely set apart, by legal statute, as the Parish of Grand Manan, in the County of Charlotte.

The boundaries of this important parish of islands having been definitely settled, the main island, Grand Manan, in extent, is 20 miles long, and 8 miles broad. "Calkin's Geography" so describes it, and as that work has been introduced as a text book into the public schools of New Brunswick, under the sanction of the Board of Education, it would be assuming more than would be conceded, to dispute its correctness, consequently, we take it for granted that this fine island is of the aforesaid dimensions. Its earliest history runs co-eval with the discovery of the Bay of Fundy; although, doubtless, many events and exciting scenes, abounding with intense interest, have sunk beneath the dark wave of oblivion, which neither grapnel, nor skillful diver, nor pearl-fisher can ever bring up to appear on historic page, which is much to be regretted.

The intrepid and ardent Champlain, who with De Monts furrowed the waves of the broad Bay of Fundy with his adventurous koel in the years 1604–5, mentions the discovery of the island while coasting along from the St. John River to Passamaquoddy Bay. There exists a slight difference in the orthography of the word—the name of the island—as among the subjects of Her Majesty it is spelled Grand Manan; while the subjects of the American Republic invariably spell it Grand Menan. A custom's officer has only to note the "e" in the last part of the name on barrel, or box, or parcel that may reach the island, to assure himself whence it came. American authority cites the Passamaquoddy Indian in support of its orthography of the word Menan, signifying island; but Champlain speaks of it, as mentioned by him in his voyage-description, as called by the savages Manthane; and, again referring to the island, spells it Manasne; leaving the reader, as it were, to choose for himself, which seems a very easy mode of overcoming a difficulty. Champlain speaks of having anchored at one time near the Southern Head of the island, and it appears he left the best proof possible that he did so; for, in the year 1842, Mr. Walter B. McLaughlin, whose residence is at Southern Head, found the remains of a large anchor that must have lain beneath the salt water wave, subject to the corroding hand of rusty time, for over 200 years! Our informant states as his opinion, circumstances tending to confirm it, that the bold navigator, Champlain, must have run his vessel aground in one of those "fog-mulls," which almost invariably make an annual visit, enveloping for the time being the entire island, its islets, and the surrounding waters, in a pall of density so thick as to render it impenetrable to vision. Even "Peeping Tom," were he here in a fog-mull, would have to acknowledge his poor eye-sight. Mr. McLaughlin states that the shank of this anchor was eleven feet long; and, at one part of it—the shank—it was seven inches in diameter; and although it must have originally weighed some 14 cwt., it was reduced by the long lapse of time, subject to rust and the action of the sea, to less than 300 lbs—an indubitable evidence that, over two centuries had passed away, with all the strange and mighty changes which the old and the new world, the eastern and the western hemisphere, have experienced, since Champlain lost his anchor at Southern Head, Grand Manan! Traditionary legends tell us many strange stories relating to Grand Manan, as having occurred long before the advent of Champlain on its coasts—as to pirates making it their favourite rendezvous, secreting money (hence, we have a cove on the western side, called Money Cove); and at the mouth of the deep-dug hole, making an unhappy victim swear to keep that money safe from all comers for all time; and then, to make the spirit-sentinel keep good faith to the pledge given while in the body, shooting the swearer, and burying the body with the pirated silver and the gold. But those yarns, spun out by lovers of imaginative marvels to excite the wonder of the credulous, belong not to authentic history, and so they are as they ought to be discarded from its pages. It is well authenticated that the Passamaquoddy Indians were the undisputed possessors of the island until about the year 1776; for about this period a white family by the name of Bonny arrived at the island from the mainland of New Brunswick, and pitched their tent near Grand Harbour, at a place called Bonny's Brook, which name it retains to the present time, and probably will in the long future. Bonny, with his family, remained unmolested for about three years, when they were finally ordered to leave by the Passamaquoddy Indians, under the direction of a Colonel John Allan who, in 1777, conducted operations in eastern Maine. This tribe of Indians was allied to the American cause during the Revolution. In speaking of this tribe of savages, as they were then, the term Passamaquoddy comes from Peskamaquontik, and that from Peskadaminkkanti—viz., "it goes up into the open field"—and not from the word Quoddy, which signifies pollock, as generally understood.

An American writer, from whose work we make several extracts, states that from the best authority obtainable "one of the earliest settlers on the island was Moses Gerrish of Massachusetts, who adhered to the King at the breaking out of the Revolution, and was attached to the commissary department of the royal army. Also, one Thomas Ross and John Jones; Jones returning to the United States, Gerrish and Ross remaining." Of Colonel John Allan's descendants, it may not be inopportune to state that our kind informant, Mr. W. B. McLaughlin, whose name we will have occasion to use quite freely, says he is intimately acquainted with a grand-daughter of the Colonel, now residing at Lubec, Me., and, whose silver hairs count the age of 82 years. From this venerable lady, much of the history of Grand Manan has been gleaned. Of a great-grandson of the said Colonel Allan, it may be here recorded that he now lives on the island, and in a state of abject poverty. It cannot be that the sin of the great-grandfather, the Colonel, in commissioning the Indians to drive off poor Bonny from Bonny's Brook, could have been visited on the innocent great-grandson—and yet, the sins of ancestors are visited upon the children even to the third and fourth generation. So reads the Scripture—a lesson worthy of the most serious attention.

On the expatriation of Bonny and his family they settled in Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and their New Brunswick relatives and friends, not learning of their location, gave them up as lost—massacred by the Indians; but at the close of the revolutionary war, they felt the love of their old home in New Brunswick too strongly preponderating in the heart to remain as exiles, and therefore, obedient to the yearning dictates of love of home, of kith and kin, appeared again on New Brunswick soil. The first white male child born on Grand Manan was Alexander Bonny, horn at Bonny's Brook, who grow, his first year or two, like a young sea gull among the rocks, washed by the drifting salt water spray. He became a Baptist Minister, and visited his native Isle for the last time in 1862; and subsequently died at the greatly advanced age of 90 years.

Of Moses Gerrish, according to Sabine's testimony of him, he was a man possessed of considerable ability—one who "would spread more good sense on a sheet of paper than any person of his acquaintance." Mr. Gerrish received a Magistrate's appointment, and held that office until his death. He died in the year 1830, in the 80th year of his age. Speedily following the first white settlers—fresh acquisitions added to the number—William Cheney and family from Newburyport, Mass., and others. Gerrish and Ross left no posterity; but Cheney's descendants are numerous. His daughter Barbara takes precedence as the first white female child, born on the island in the year 1787; and Moses, his youngest son, proudly asserted the prerogative of being the first male white child born here; but the Rev. Alexander Bonny disputed the Cheney claim to native heirship; and, as previously mentioned dates show, proved successfully that the modern Jacob had innocently attempted to steal away the modern Esau's birthright. Moses died in the year 1873, aged 88 years 3 months, his remains receiving interment in his native soil which he loved so well. Now followed on in rapid succession, as settlers, the Daggetts, Smalls, Guptills (then spelled Gubtail), Wormells, Ingersolls, Bancrofts, Woosters, Ingalls, Newton, and others. All of these were from the old colonies of the States; but, cherishing a patriot love for the old English flag, sought their homes on British land, although that land was a sea-girt isle, and that period presenting but few attractions to any less than the hardy and adventurous pioneer. Daggett erected a grist-mill at the head of tidal water at Grand Harbour, near the present residence of Mr. John Daggett; and Wooster, with equal industry and perseverance, built a tannery, and began the manufacture of boots and shoes; but fish were numerous and too easily taken to encourage raising grain for the grist-mill; and so, too, the tanning of hides had to give place to the capture of fish. Those were the days when herring, cod and pollock would rush into Grand Harbour in such immense schools that the ebbing tide would leave them in countless numbers on the shore, "knee deep," in the phraseology of those times. In justice to others, first settlers, the names of John Kent, Dr. Faxon, Franklin, Smith, Bryant, Blake, Blanchard, Bingham, Benson, Southwick, Rasor, Rich, Moon, Flagg, Russell, Morse, Sprague, Chapman, Richardson, Kemble, Fisher, Fry, Barker, Kimball, Shepherd, Woodberry, Drake, Cameron and Standwick may be added—others adding steadily, such as Josiah Winchester, from Nova Scotia, also, Daniel McLaughlin from Nova Scotia, of whom further mention is made on another page.

The present inhabitants of the island, on reading over the names as above recorded, will find that but very few of the original settlers have left descendants—many of the persons, whose names are here before us, have passed away from the cares and trials, the joys and sorrows of this life forever—the present residents of the island, many of them, knowing little, and caring less, about those who redeemed this beautiful island from its occupancy by the Passamaquoddy Indian, and opened up a bright, and fair, and prosperous inheritance for them, and their successors, through untold generations. But so it is. Nevertheless:—

"The waves of time may devastate our lives, The frosts of age may check our failing breath; They shall not touch the spirit that survives Triumphant over doubt, and pain, and death."

In addition to the names of the earliest settlers on the island, we find, Waller, Gaskill, Thomas, Dixon, Burke, Craig, Drugan, Redmond, Ryan, Kendrick, McLennan, McCarty, Boyle and others. Cochran Craig and Thomas Redmond taught school for several years, and earned for themselves, among the inhabitants, an esteem and a reputation that will blossom and bloom in the memory of surviving friends with perennial freshness, for years and years. Another name, Snell, merits mention—he too, taught a school on the island; and his kindliness of disposition, and other winning qualities, have endeared him in memory to those who, when in their teens, received instruction from the good old man, who now, "after life's fitful fever, sleepeth well."

The settlement of Seal Cove dates about the year 1785. It is to be regretted that no better acount can be given of one of the original settlers, if not the first one, which it seems he was, than that he was a fugitive from justice. His name was Wheeler, and he may be justly considered as the father "skedadler" of all the "skedadlers" that followed after, from time to time, even to this day. Connected as he was with a gang of counterfeiters—Ball, Gates, and Woodbury—who had their head-quarters at Devil's Head, on the bank of the St. Croix River, not far from the little village on the opposite side of the river, known as the Ledge, and here coined counterfeit silver quite extensively. Suspicion, well-grounded, soon sent officers of justice to arrest the gang, and Ball shot the officer who attempted to arrest him. The murderer was subsequently arrested, tried, convicted and executed in the State of Maine. Woodbury, being also arrested, and convicted of counterfeiting, had his ears "cropped," which must have seriously affected him auricularly, Gates eventually found his way to Nova Scotia, living to old age; but, as if the curse of false coin haunted him even to grey-haired years, he committed suicide at Granville, N. S., by hanging himself in an orchard to an apple tree! The present light house keeper of Gannet Rock Light, Mr. W. B. McLaughlin, when a boy, had often seen Gates, and heard him relate much of Grand Manan history.

Wheeler was lucky enough, for the time, to get to Grand Manan, and, as has been stated, settled at Seal Cove. How fared it with him? Let us see. All around the cove at that time, a thick wilderness of woods presented a well-chosen retreat for Wheeler; but, only for a brief period, for he literally starved to death! His remains now lie, secure from all arrest, on a hill on Lot No. 46. At his death, his emaciated, starving wife, with a woman's true devotion under the most trying circumstances, travelled over sharp and rugged rocks from Seal Cove to Harbour Island, to obtain assistance to bury her husband. A hop vine, planted by his guilty hand, still marks the spot where his log cabin sheltered him and wife. Thus ended the mortal career of those counterfeiters, who having commenced their nefarious business at Devil's Head, ended their guilty lives under the devil's influence. Surely, the "way of the transgressor is hard."

It may not be uninteresting to state that the dies used by those wretched counterfeiters, were committed to a watery grave by casting them out of their boat near the centre of Seal Cove Sound, between the red cliffs near W. B. McLaughlin's residence, and Hardwood Hill on Great Wood Island. The crucibles were discovered and recovered a few years ago, nigh the spot where Wheeler's log hut stood—most probably hid by him for future use. After the death of Wheeler, two brothers, John and Joseph Blanchard, came to the island from the States, and made their permanent settlement at Seal Cove. Next followed Henry Kemball and James Parker; and in the year 1800, Doctor John Faxon came, settling at Seal Cove Creek, on Lot No. 46. The Doctor brought his family with him; and, under the influence of his enterprising spirit, Seal Cove seemed to start, as if by magic, into new life. With a mind capable of comprehending the resources lying dormant all around his new and chosen location, he was keenly alive to the advantages already ripe for development, and at once commenced action, by having a passage opened through the "sea wall" into the cove. This accomplished, a splendid little high water harbour was at once ready for small vessels and boats; and the fishermen and coasters, who make the Seal Cove Creek Harbour their safe and convenient haven, should ever remember with gratitude the name of the good and energetic physician, Doctor John Faxon. Connected with the arrival of Dr. Faxon at Seal Cove, is a circumstance which cannot well be omitted. The Doctor brought with him a Scotchman by the name of John Tar. As he was a sailor by profession, nothing could be more appropriate than to call him "Jack Tar," for so in name and verity he was. Now this Jack Tar had sailed under the flag and command of Captain Paul Jones, and as Paul Jones had been historied as a pirate captain, so our Seal Cove emigrant, Jack Tar, must have been, as one of the crew, a pirate too. It was the boast of Jack Tar at Seal Cove, especially, when "on a spree" -under the influence of liquor - that he fought under Paul Jones on board the Bon Homme Richard, in the bloody engagement with the British frigate. Serapis, Captain Pierce.

Jack Tar, was exceedingly vain of this battle, and, when on his bacchanalian riots, would vaunt on the carnage of that sanguinary conflict, with all of a sailor's enthusiastic volubility, and in addition, sing sea songs and songs composed by enemies of King George the Third. Dr. Faxon having brought Tar over to the island as bis "man Friday," endured much of his bad conduct patiently for a length of time; but that forbearance at last was exhausted, and, accordingly, when Tar in one of his sprees played up the old tune of Paul Jones and King George, and the Bon Homme and the Serapis, and the scuppers running blood, and the wild hurra of the pirate song, the Doctor, at the hour of midnight, and while a storm was raging without, put the old sailor out of doors to seek shelter where he would or could. Tar attempted to get to James Parker's, about a mile distant from Faxon's; but, in the storm and darkness, and in liquor as well, he fell over a cliff, and was found on the rocks beneath, the next morning, with his brains scattered over the stones! His remains lie buried near the sea on Lot No. 1, the same lot on which Cyrus Benson now resides. The cove, where Tar was killed is called Tar's Cove to this day. A rough stone, unchiselled and unlettered, taken from the beach, marks the spot were John Tar, the Scotch pirate, is shut in and shut out from battles and from grog.