It lasted for two days and scores of vessels were driven ashore and completely wrecked . The crews of most of the vessels that went ashore on the sand beaches were saved , but those that struck on the rocks went to pieces and all hands were lost . For weeks after the storm the north shore was strewn with the bodies of drowned men . Think of it ! Many of them were unknown and unrecognizable , and they were buried in Markdale graveyard . Mr. Coles says the schoolmaster who was in Markdale then wrote a poem on the storm and Mr. Coles recited the first two verses to me . '' ` Here are the fishers ' hillside graves , The church beside , the woods around , Below , the hollow moaning waves Where the poor fishermen were drowned . '' ' A sudden tempest the blue welkin tore , The seamen tossed and torn apart Rolled with the seaweed to the shore While landsmen gazed with aching heart . ' `` Mr. Coles could n't remember any more of it . But the saddest of all the stories of the Yankee Storm was the one about the Franklin Dexter . The Franklin Dexter went ashore on the Markdale Capes and all on board perished , the Captain and three of his brothers among them . These four young men were the sons of an old man who lived in Portland , Maine , and when he heard what had happened he came right down to the Island to see if he could find their bodies . They had all come ashore and had been buried in Markdale graveyard ; but he was determined to take them up and carry them home for burial . He said he had promised their mother to take her boys home to her and he must do it . So they were taken up and put on board a sailing vessel at Markdale Harbour to be taken back to Maine , while the father himself went home on a passenger steamer . The name of the sailing vessel was the Seth Hall , and the captain 's name was Seth Hall , too . Captain Hall was a dreadfully profane man and used to swear blood-curdling oaths . On the night he sailed out of Markdale Harbour the old sailors warned him that a storm was brewing and that it would catch him if he did not wait until it was over . The captain had become very impatient because of several delays he had already met with , and he was in a furious temper . He swore a wicked oath that he would sail out of Markdale Harbour that night and ` God Almighty Himself should n't catch him . '
He did sail out of the harbour ; and the storm did catch him , and the Seth XXXXX went down with all hands , the dead and the living finding a watery grave together .
Coles Hall Markdale Portland drowned first right storm weeks welkin