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 couldn'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.