Tag: Cape cod

On a Secret Cancer Surgery

The doctor said to the large, wealthy gentleman, “That thing is a bad-acting tenant, and I would have him evicted immediately.” It was the surgeon’s way of telling the man that the cancer that had been discovered on the roof of his mouth required surgery. The gentleman smiled at the doctor’s small joke, but the point was made. Surgery was scheduled.

Now, this was 1893, and a cancer diagnosis then was pretty much a death sentence. We forget how far cancer treatment has progressed in past 130 years since then. But at that time, well, all a surgeon could do was cut away until he felt the cancer was removed, and then everyone simply hoped for the best. Post operative treatment such as any type of radiation or chemotherapy was decades in the future at that point. But the gentleman trusted his doctor, and knew that the surgery was his best, and only, chance at surviving the bad “tenant.”

The patient was in relatively good health for someone of his size and age. In his late 50s, he stood almost six feet tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds and was remarkably active for his condition. He was what some today might call “fit-fat,” in that the weight he carried hadn’t reached the point that he was incapacitated by it. No, he worked for hours daily, walked often, and enjoyed life. However, he was an inveterate cigar smoker. And the cancer had come from. And the cancer–well, left unchecked, the man would be dead sooner than later. He was sicker than he realized.

Now, this man was important to Wall Street, a man whose influence had power over the rises and falls of the stock market. To announce that he had cancer could affect the markets at a time when the United States was entering an economic downturn. Newspaper reports of the man’s cancer could send stocks tumbling. And if he were admitted to a hospital, someone might recognize him and spill the beans. So, this upcoming cancer surgery would have to be done in secret. And, so, a wealthy friend of the gentleman offered him and his doctor the use of a yacht, the Oneida, as a place for the surgery. The boat would be offshore of the man’s summer home at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The story was put out that the gentleman wanted to relax and do some fishing for a few days.

A team of six surgeons performed the delicate operation despite the moving boat and the rocking waves. It took them only 90 minutes to remove most of the roof of the man’s mouth, much of his upper left jaw, and several teeth. And they pulled all of that through his mouth rather than create an incision on his face. The thought was that no one would know about the surgery to look at him–other than a tooth extraction. The skilled surgical team even managed to salvage his distinguished mustache.

The operation was a success. The surgeons removed all the cancer. The gentleman would live another 15 years, but for the rest of his life, he wore an artificial rubber plate inserted where the roof of his mouth used to be.

But, if you looked at President Grover Cleveland, you’d never know it.

On Attacking Orleans

The town of Orleans was named, of course, for the French family of royalty.  The Valois-Orléans family provided several kings for France. But this post is about attacks on the town during two different world wars.

The first “world war” was, arguably, the Napoleonic wars of the early 1800s. Orleans was attacked by the British from the sea during this war, causing its inhabitants to develop a strong dislike for all things English. These British attacks destroyed property, livelihoods, and caused enough damage that it took several years for the area around Orleans to recover economically.  In fact, in a war some 25 years earlier, the British had even captured the town—twice. So, hostility towards the British spanned several generations in and around Orleans. 

Ironically, in one of the next world wars, the Great War, also known as World War I, these residents of Orleans found that the British were their allies in facing the Germans on the Western front of France. The Germans , like the English attackers before them, attacked Orleans by sea. The intent of the attack, apparently, was to destroy some supplies that have been stored in the town.

However, the shelling by the German guns didn’t do the damage the British had done almost 130 years before.  The attack occurred on July 21, 1918. A German submarine shot its deck guns at the town and also destroyed a tow boat and some barges. Luckily, no fatalities were incurred.

Now, it’s possible that some of you may have spotted something curious in the paragraphs above that describe the attacks on Orleans. “Wait,” you might be saying. “Orleans France isn’t a coastal town. How could the British and then the Germans attack Orleans by sea?”

The answer is, of course, this post is not about the city of Orleans in France. And it’s not about New Orleans in Louisiana, either. No, it is about the Orleans (population +/- 6000) that is located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Yes, the British captured the town twice during the American Revolution and caused damage during the War of 1812.  These attacks are why the citizens chose the name Orleans; they wanted no English-sounding name associated with their town.

However, it was the attack by the German U-boat in 1918 that really put Orleans on the map. You see, it is this attack that is remembered in history as the only time Germany attacked the land of the United States during WW1. 

True, it’s likely that the U-boat captain was only trying to damage the barges and tow boats in the harbor, causing some of his shells to miss their mark and land in and around the town. But, at no other time during World War I did Germany attack the soil of the United States—except at Orleans.