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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 39, no. 2 (Summer 1991), p. 34-35

Horror in the Afternoon
by Peter S. MacGlashan

A day in 1911 began with a leisurely summer sail and came to a sudden and tragic ending on Commercial Wharf


On the pleasant Saturday afternoon of June 24, 1911, Captain Charles G. Coffin steered his catboat back toward Old North Wharf. He could see a larger craft with a number of young people docking at the end of Commercial Wharf. On the south side of Commercial Wharf itself, near the steamer PETREL'S landing, Miss Maggie Platt sat sketching the picturesque scene. Not far from her.in the Barnes family's boathouse, handy man Manuel Rae, their coachman Rupert Warren, and Ulysse Pahud, the butler, had finished stripping the reception room floor with turpentine. They were now engaged in applying the wax.

The Barnes's boathouse had been built in 1902 for William "Billy" Barnes Jr., a political leader and newspaper publisher from Albany, New York. A summer resident from the age of six, Barnes had purchased the old Sherburne House Hotel and remodeled it as a summer home. At that same time he built the approximately twenty-by-forty-foot boathouse. It was the largest one of its kind on Nantucket. The simple structure consisted of a large open space or "reception room," with bathroom and dressing rooms along the north wall. A smaller work room, measuring about nine by fifteen feet on the west wall, had a lavatory in the northwest corner. The building was surrounded by a deck on three sides. It was rather shallow on both the north and south sides, and on the east side, deeper, to accommodate a diving board platform. There was a float off the south side and a catwalk connected the boat-house to the rest of Commercial Wharf.

Thurlow Weed Barnes II had just graduated from Harvard and was staying with his classmate Thomas B. Kerr at the family .house on Orange Street. Thurlow's parents we re off-island at the time. His father was in New York City, while his mother, Grace Davis Barnes, was home in Albany. She was tending to their younger son, Landon, who was recuperating from an operation. The boys decided to have an afternoon sail and they invited some other summer residents to join them. Phebe Judkins came with her friend Margaret Tanner from Syracuse. Helen, Harry, and Ruth Wilson were also invited. The Wilsons were from New York and regularly summered at the Sea Cliff Inn. Tall, slender Mildred DeHaven had arrived just that morning from Brooklyn Heights and Helen asked her to join them as well.

After a pleasant sail the young people decided that they were having too good a time to let the party end. However, because the main room in the boathouse was unavailable due to the floor waxing, Ulysse Pahud set up a gramophone in the work room. He also stocked the small refrigerator with an ample supply of soft drinks before returning to his task in the reception room.

Minutes earlier in the work room one of the young men had lighted a cigarette, and dropped the match on the floor where it smoldered a bit before igniting a turpentine-soaked mop. A finger of fire crossed the floor and separated Helen Wilson and Mildred DeHaven from the rest of the party. Acting quickly, one of the boys picked up a pail of what he thought was water, and threw it on the fire.

It was nearly six o'clock. Captain Coffin was tying up at Old North Wharf and Miss Platt was still sketching by the PETREL landing. Suddenly she heard what sounded like fireworks being set off from the float at the Barnes boathouse. The loud sound was followed by screams and two women running from the building. Immediately a thick black column of smoke came up through the west wall, and then flames. One young man followed by another rushed out, their clothes engulfed in flames. To Maggie they resembled two balls of fire. While she went for help, Captain Coffin, seeing the flames erupting along the back wall of the boathouse, sounded the alarm.

The contents of the bucket one of the young men had thrown upon the fire was not water. It was turpentine, and it reacted like a flame-thrower, surrounding the two girls and the north end of the room in flames. Frightened by the initial blaze, Ruth and Harry Wilson had already exited the room. Phebe Judkins and Margaret Tanner were also able to get out safely. Maggie Platt watched Thurlow Barnes, his clothes in flames, follow them yelling back, "For God's sake Ulysse, save those girls. They are burning up." Tom Kerr, who was also in flames, raced after him.

As Pahud tried to get to the burning girls, the entire interior seemed to catch fire at once. Rupert Warren and Manuel Rae ran out and joined the others on or around the float. But even here the heat was too intense and Rupert, Thurlow, and Manuel sought refuge along the rocks. Then Uylsse Pahud, a mass of flames, came out of the burning structure and dove into the harbor. Eventually he reached the other men in shallow water.

Phebe and Margaret made their way onto Commercial Wharf along the connecting walk. In spite of his severe injuries, Tom Kerr was able to row the unharmed Ruth and Harry Wilson from the float to the platform of Alanson Barney's boathouse. He was sitting on a log on Commercial Wharf when help arrived. All three surviving burn victims, Barnes, Kerr, and Pahud, were taken to Dr. Grouard's office on the corner of East on Street and Cliff Road (Cottage Hospital was a few years away). Despite the medical attention he received, the severely burned Ulysse died that evening.

Thurlow and his friend Tom were taken to the Barnes home on 30 Orange Street. The Barnes family, Tom's brother and two uncles were telegraphed and the boys' conditions were described as critical. It was uncertain whether either one would survive. Thomas Kerr died at eight o'clock Monday evening. Thurlow Barnes did eventually recover, but not without scars.

Almost immediately after the tragedy, Grace Barnes had plans drawn up for a new boathouse to be built on roughly the same site. This one was a much larger and more impressive shingle-style building. It became the scene of many parties during the second decade of this century. It was later known as the Boat House Restaurant. It was a landmark until torn down in 1971, when Commercial Wharf (also known as Swain's Wharf) was being rebuilt.

 

Peter S. MacGlashan is the Registrar and the Audio/Visual Librarian for the Nantucket Historical Association.