New Bedford Yacht Club Final Moments

A rare look at The New Bedford Yacht Club c1905. Photo taken of the south facing part of the building. Photo Courtesy of The Claire T Carney Library UMASS Dartmouth.

The New Bedford Yacht Club in it's heyday looking east on Rt 6 towards Fairhaven. Old postcard photo c1910


By MLBaron Hurricane Historian and westislandweather.comThe final moments of The New Bedford Yacht Club at Pope's Island during the 1938 Hurricane. People can be seen looking out the windows on the top floor. (photo below)

     "Some were having a "hurricane party" including some students from the recent FHS Class of '38" stated one graduate, the late Mary Battainy of Fairhaven. She told me that she was one of those looking out the window. Just minutes after this photo was taken from Marine Park looking towards the club everybody ran from the club as high winds exceeding 110MPH caused the building to lean back and sway. A huge wave then crashed into It and disintegrated into a large debris field that scattered across RT 6 and into the parking lot across the highway. 

The remains of The New Bedford Yacht Club among the wreckage of demolished cars after the '38 Hurricane 

    Nothing was left of the legendary NB Yacht Club and it was never replaced. All survived, but one naked man was seen clutching to the top of a broken mast as it headed underneath the New Bedford Fairhaven Bridge and blown up the Acushnet River, nothing was ever heard of him again. Standard-Times photo from The MLBaron Historic Archives.