The Wreck of the Circassian
Near The Hamptons, New York
On the eleventh of December, eighteen seventy six, the cargo ship Circassian ran hard aground on the outer bar off Mecox Bay, near Bridgehampton, only a few hundred yards from the beach. Most of the crew were saved at first, and a salvage crew took over, trying to work the stranded vessel free. Among those hired for the dangerous job were ten Shinnecock men, expert boatmen and whalers, with names remembered today as Bunn, Cuffee, Kellis, Lee, and Walker.
When a violent storm rolled in near the end of the month, the salvage master ordered the men to stay aboard rather than abandon the wreck. In the early hours of the thirtieth of December, the hull broke apart in the surf. All ten Shinnecock men drowned, part of a total loss of most of the souls still on the ship.
The disaster left nine widows and dozens of fatherless children in a small community, and it cut deeply into a nation already fighting for its land. The Shinnecock still gather to remember those men, with drumming, dance, and the reading of their names, so that the sea does not have the last word.
