(2008)
Cape Cod Oil Works brig.
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. 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.
¶ Adapted from Building Provincetown (2015).
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. 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.”