The first major event that I was involved with (other than my wedding, which is a story for another day) took place during the American Bicentennial. The town had appointed me co-chairman of the town’s Bicentennial Committee, and I got it in my head that we should re-create the Battle of Cape Porpoise, an engagement that took place in August of 1782, when a British vessel entered Cape Porpoise harbor, determined to seize a schooner and sloop as prizes of war. Long story short, they didn’t, and the committee we put together wanted to re-enact the reason why. After much planning, on a Sunday afternoon in 1976, we were prepared to once again go to war. The Church on the Cape’s congregation dressed for the occasion that morning. Frank Handlen schooner “Salt Wind” became the English craft. We had riders on horseback to spread the alarm, cannons to drive back the enemy, drummers, worried wives, militia men from near and far who marched to the harbor to join in the battle, and a large crowd to watch it all. The morning of the event a thick fog covered the harbor. You couldn’t see the lobster boats on their moorings. I asked a lobsterman with radar if he would go to the Port to lead Frank Handlen to the Cape. “We have to call it off,” many said. “Too many are already here,” I replied, hiding my nerves. We decided to move the action as close to the pier as possible. It didn’t look good, but then, just before the action was set to take place, the fog lifted, not slowly, it just lifted, and the event went on as planned. Divine intervention.
Tom Bradbury