Summer hasn't ended yet, but as we get closer to Autumn in Olde Cotuit it seems like yet another perfect summer season in our village has come to a close.

HSSC received a poem the other day from one of our favorite villagers ( and member of our Board) that perfectly captures the essence of Cotuit and makes the bittersweet end of summer here, just a little bit sweeter. We hope you feel the same!

A Song of Cotuit

Cotuit's a village of sea captains' houses
where ladies tend gardens in straw hats and blouses,
where daylilies peek from between picket fences,
'round the 4th of July as the summer commences.

Cotuit's a harbor where wooden skiffs race
over waters where whaling ships were commonplace,
where picturesque homes and a beckoning steeple
frame waters beloved by sea-faring people.

Cotuit's a place where time stops for a while-
where residents greet on the Green with a smile,
and strong friendly hands are extended with cheer
when a boat makes its way to the busy town pier.

Cotuit's a village where legends abound-
where a witch guards a treasure beneath sandy ground,
where the long-ago trade of a kettle and hoe
gave this land to new people to settle and grow.

Cotuit's an oyster bed brimming with bounty,
a pearl of a village in Barnstable county.
Take comfort good friend, should you ever depart,
Cotuit shall always remain in your heart.


-Lorri Ann Devlin

*Copies of this poem on a 2017 Calendar are available in our Gift Shop!

            Cotuit’s beauty and serenity make it a place of peace, but in the past, its tranquility made it a perfect training ground for war. From July 1942 to the end of 1943, the U.S. Amphibian Engineers used Cotuit as a key center of training known as Camp Candoit.
            According to Brigadier General William Heavey, who chronicled the Amphibian Engineers in Down Ramp! The Story of the Army Amphibian Engineers, the seeds of Camp Candoit and centers like it lie in London conference in late May of 1942. General Somervell, then-Chief of Combined Operations Lord Louis Mountbatten, and General Sir John Dill decided that the Amphibian Engineers for the European theatre would train first in the U.S., and then move to England (8).
            Cape Cod became one of the U.S. training centers, its bays and harbors providing the perfect setting to practice attacking hostile shores. After opening headquarters at Camp Edwards in June 1942, the military leased an area on Cotuit Bay in July which they named “Camp Candoit.” (The Crosby Yacht Yard at Osterville became “Camp Havdonit” also in mid-July – perhaps as a cheeky salute). 
The camp straddled Old Post Road near where Cotuit Bay Shores is now, with the buildings and tent housing across the road, and a paved beach on the bay with three piers (Horsely & Witten, 5). Joan Bentinck-Smith, who lived in Cotuit at the time and interviewed others who did, chronicled their daily training schedule.

A typical training day started at about 5:30 with 6:00 breakfast and then the troops were marched to the boats to go off at about 8:00. The preliminary training was held off Popponesset Beach. (194)
Heavey stresses the military necessity of Cape Cod’s training centers. “Landing an army on a hostile shore has long been regarded as one of the most difficult of all tactical operations . . . [these maneuvers] laid the groundwork upon which the success of later operations was based” (ix, 23).

Cape Codders seem to have been enthusiastic hosts for the men who trained here (also known as the “Cape Cod Commandos” according to Jim Gould (42)). The Vineyard Gazette reports that a dance hosted on Martha’s Vineyard by the Amphibians in August 1943 was “by far the outstanding recreational event of the Island summer season.” The 2,000 attendees honored the soldiers, who staged the concert and brought a swing orchestra, with “that most flattering of compliments, almost embarrassing attention” (1). The music included a march honoring General Noce, commander of the Amphibian Engineers.
Camp Candoit closed in December 1943, their task completed (Heavey 8). They left some physical traces in the form of contamination from an underground fuel storage tank, which the US Army Corps of Engineers cleaned up the early 1990s. Their true legacy, however, is the protection they gave us by going to war – the peace and tranquility we enjoy in Cotuit today.


For more stories about Camp Candoit, see Joan Bentinck-Smith’s chapter
“A Look at 1941-1943: World War II Comes to Cotuit,” in The Life and Times of Cotuit.

-Alicia Pollard

Sources
Bentinck-Smith, Joan. “A Look at 1941-43: World War II Comes to Cotuit.” Life and Times of Cotuit. Ed. Stephen Hemberger. Cotuit: Historical Society of Santuit & Cotuit, 2012. 191-204. Print.
“Block Dance Attracts 2,000 at Oak Bluffs in First Such Outdoor Affair to Be Held Since Gay Nineties.” Vineyard Gazette [Martha’s Vineyard, MA] 10 August 1943: 1. Print.
Heavey, William F. Down Ramp!: The Story of the Army Amphibian Engineers. Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1947. Print.
United States. Horsely & Witten, Inc. Environmental Services. Phase I Site Investigation: Property: Lot 2, Old Post Road, Cotuit, Massachusetts 02635. Barnstable: 1993. Print.
3 photos of Camp Candoit are in "Cotuit and Santuit" on pgs. 42-43 - captioned "Courtesy of Peter Whittier"