Sunday, May 20, 2012

Surviving A Hurricane



John Cogswell came to America hoping to start a business. The ship he sailed on was the Angel Gabriel and was headed for Massachusetts. The ship anchored at Pemaquid and was caught in a sudden storm (no National Hurricane Center to provide warnings). The strong storm sank the ship but fortunately most of the passengers had gone ashore to camp for the night near modern-day Bristol, Maine. John Cogswell recovered some of his goods but most of the barrels of items he brought to start his business were lost in the waves. He did manage to retrieve a small trunk that contained his personal belongings. The trunk has been passed down in the Cogswell family and last year, it was loaned to the Pemaquid museum. Visitors can view the trunk and a model of the Angel Gabriel.

This shipwreck has been well-documented by some other geneabloggers. Cousin Heather Wilkinson Rojo has written 4 posts about the Cogswell family and they are linked below. One includes a very amusing story about how a young girl saved the life of a cow who was choking on a potato. 

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/o/j/Heather-W-Rojo/PHOTO/0047photo.html
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Angel%20Gabriel

John Cogswell & Elizabeth
Sarah Cogswell & Simon Tuttle
John Tuttle & Martha Ward
Martha Tuttle & Mark Haskell
Martha Haskell & John Safford
Ruth Safford & Samuel Haskell
Martha Haskell & Moses Houghton
Sally Houghton & James Dunham
Florilla Dunham & Asa Freeman Ellingwood
Nina Ellingwood & George Gibbs
Annie Gibbs & Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Gabriel_(ship)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, for linking to my blog! I got a Google alert and I was curious to see what it was, and was surprised to see the mention in your post. I was just at the Cogswell grant in Essex, Massachusetts on Wednesday!

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    1. You've done such a nice job on this story and the Cogswells that I thought I should send people to your blog to read for themselves. I have other family lines linked to the Angel Gabriel & the James that I plan to write about later. I bought the book "Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon" by Dr. Warren Riess but I have only read a few chapters so far. I hope to have more to add to the story.

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