Story continued on pg. 86
there were two occasions – once in 1915 at
Boston’s prestigious Somerset Club, and
again in 1917 in Marblehead at his home at
Peach’s Point – when his Anglophobia and
pro-German outbursts got him into diffi culty.
In May of 1915 Frank
was having lunch at the
Somerset club, where
his great-grandfather
and namesake,
Francis Boardman
Crowninshield (1809
- 1877) had been its
fi rst president. Perhaps
baited by others, he
got into an argument
about the Germans’
sinking of the Lusitania.
Supposedly Frank
responded to the
news by saying that he
was sorry there were any survivors, and he
wished that he had been the U-boat captain
who ordered the ship torpedoed. The next
day Frank was asked to resign from the club,
and later he would refuse to return to Boston
to the house where he had grown up.
Instead, Frank would return to Marblehead
every summer and only Louise would go to
the Boston home.
Two years later America declared war on
Germany. In November of 1917 Frank was
approached by a group
of young men from the
Marblehead YMCA to
ask for a subscription
to support US troops
abroad. In response,
Frank again loudly
disapproved of the war
and refused to give
money.
Diffi cult times can
often stimulate new
directions. Happily for
both the Crowninshields
and Boca Grande, they
made the decision to
“Las Olas”, the Crowninshield
home in Boca Grande.
spend their winters here. They rented, fell
in love with the island, then bought a house
– at a point when Boca Grande did not yet
possess a real winter community.
/farlowsonthewater.com
