April 2009 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 29.
Maritime History:
News From Early 1901
was built by John McDonald of Bath in 1888. river at its widest point just above the dam. He 16 March: The schooners, JOHN T.
21 February: The yard of Kelley, Spear also remembered the Indians coming down WILLIAMS, POSTBOY and the pinky
& Company launched the four-masted schoo- river in their canoes to collect material for MAINE, caught in the ice at Bangor are
ner CHARLES S. HIRSCH after being chris- making baskets. He added that vessels were moving closer to shore. The WILLIAMS is
tened with a bottle of American champagne built here until the toll bridge was erected the closest in and has a mud bank under her
by Mrs. Charles S. Hirsch of New York. Her across the river. keel. When the tide falls she grounds out and
dimensions are length 173.1 feet, beam 35.5 4 March: The four-masted schooner careens over on her side. The ice, which has
feet, depth 13.3 feet, 620.67 gross tons and GEORGE C. THOMAS, Captain Kent, arrives been thawing and refreezing, has been pull-
carries 4,300 yards of sail. She sports a Hyde at Palermo in 39 days from Bucksport on her ing out some of the oakum between her planks.
windlass and engine, 90-foot Oregon pine maiden voyage. She was loaded with fruit Her owner and master were informed of this
masts, and two 3,000 pound anchors. The boxes from T. J. Stewart Company of Bangor. problem, but at this time they have done
forward cabin is finished in ash and sycamore 5 March: The Cobb, Butler & Company nothing.
and the after cabin is finished in bird’s eye launched the largest vessel, the five-master 21 March: The Belfast schooner JULIA
maple. The captain’s quarters are finished in REBECCA PALMER, ever constructed in BARKER has been libeled by William H.
oak and the ceiling is North Carolina pine. The Rockland. Her dimensions are: length of keel Coburn, owner and master of the schooner
HIRSCH is owned by Charles S. Hirsch of the 251 feet, length overall 285 feet, beam 46.1 GEORGE W. LEWIS on 17 December. This
Charles S. Hirsch & Company of New York. feet, depth 23.1 feet and gross tonnage of stems from a collision when the LEWIS was
She will be commanded by Captain H. C. 2,556.39 tons. Her main masts are 116 feet and at anchor in Gilkey’s Harbor and as the
brown of Bath, who was formerly in command her topmasts were 60 feet in length. She will BARKER sailed in she struck the LEWIS
of the DORA MATTHEWS. This schooner be managed by William F. Palmer of Boston causing hundreds of dollars in damage.
was built for the lumber trade with a capability and under the command of Captain David H. 23 March: The three-masted schooner
of carrying 500 M. This is the 105
th
vessel built Sumner of Boston. Unfortunately she was METINIC was launched from the I. L. Snow
by the Kelley, Spear & Company. damaged by hitting the bottom when she slid & Company in Rockland at 1210 hours. Her
* * * * * down the ways. She was taken to a drydock dimensions are length 112.1 feet, beam 31.4
Back in December the schooners JOHN in Boston for repairs. feet, depth 9.8 feet and 261 gross tons.
T. WILLIAMS, POSTBOY and the pinky * * * * * 1 April: The ice in the Penobscot River
MAINE were caught in the ice at the Maine Several skippers left Bucksport on the is holding well below Bangor and Brewer and
Central discharging wharf on the Penobscot steamer PENOBSCOT so as to prepare their there is no ice coming down from above.
River. This is the first time in several years boats for the upcoming season. Those that There is still a jam at High Head stretching
that this has happened. These vessels were took leave on the steamer were Captain Harvey from one shore to the other. Around the
the last to come up the river and they were so of the GRACE WEBSTER; Captain Charles upper wharves in Bangor and at the ferry way
long discharging they got caught when the Maddocks, GEORGE B. FERGUSON; Cap- is clear of ice. It is thought that the warmer
ice came. The schooners were cut down, tain Arthur Miles, PRINCE LE BOO and Cap- temperatures and tide will weaken the ice and
towed down river to the jog in the Maine tain F. H. Lowell, WILLIAM H. CARD. The break it up.
Central dock and left out in the river for the first charter this season was the OMAHA, There two schooners, PORTBOY and
winter. However, over the past two months Captain Perkins, which is loading bricks at JOHN T. WILLIAMS, which have been stuck
the schooners have moved 20 feet in towards Orland for $2. in the ice since December, have not damaged.
the wharf and if this continues they will need 11 March: At Beach Haven, New Jersey The pinky MAINE was outside the other two
to be cut down again. A person who knew the the five-masted schooner NATHANIEL T. schooners and was nearly taken down river
ways of the river explained that there was a PALMER went ashore. Her crew of 12 men by one of the big ice floes. Fortunately her
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse lost in 1851.
shift in the ice due to the westerly winds. He were rescued by breeches buoy by the life- chains held and she sustained no damage.
ing the wreck of the HYENA of Calais at East
says that the ice will move from 25 to 40 feet savers. The PALMER was making a passage Up the river there is a big field of ice at
Gloucester, Massachusetts on 7 April. The
during the course of a winter. He added that from Portland to Philadelphia and put into Basin Mills below the Veazie dam. The water
bodies were badly mangled having been found
also the sun shines on the western side more Vineyard Haven with damage after having behind this ice is building up and the field
amongst the rocks about 1,000 feet from the
and melts the ice there. been blown out to sea. While there she re- moves a foot at a time.
wreck. Captain Dix’s body was sent to his
2 March: Gardiner G. Deering of Bath placed her jib, flying jib, jigger sail and fore 10 April: The body of Captain R. B. Dix
launched the four-masted schooner staysail. and Cook Fuller has been recovered follow- Continued on Page 30.
MALCOLM B. SEAVEY. Her dimensions are:
length 203.2 feet, beam 40 feet, draft 21.5 feet
and a gross tonnage of 1,247 tons. She will be
The Greatest Threat to America?
commanded by Captain E. D. Atkins, formerly
By George William Kittredge the enemy, and ran away at a knot and a half submarine could dive. Although the TROUT
of the schooner HORATIO L. BAKER.
At two o’clock in the morning on the 9
th
which is less than two miles an hour. We was not nuclear powered, because of its high
* * * * *
of August 1942, an event occurred which could not stay submerged over 48 hours submerged speed and the deep depth to
It was remembered that schooners were
changed my naval career. I was sitting in without running out of air. Half of my class at which it could operate, I never had any trouble
once built above the Bangor dam on your way
Turret Two on the heavy cruiser, USS CHI- the U. S. Naval Academy, who went into breaking contact with destroyers during fleet
up river to Veazie. It was noted that Bangor
CAGO, waiting for Admiral Mikawa and his submarines, are still out there in the Pacific exercises.
was originally centred at this location, which
task force to appear. We had just completed making their final war patrol. Now, a new weapon has appeared on the
is at the Penjajwock Stream and the Red
two days of bombardment after landing the Winston Churchill said that the only sea, the nuclear attack submarine. It has been
Bridge. The only rocks blocking their down
Marines at Guadalcanal. We had been under thing he feared during World War II was the used only once in war. The HMS CON-
stream passage was known as Treat Falls,
air attack for almost the whole time. Admiral German submarine threat. The Type VII U- QUEROR won the Falkland War for the Brit-
which were named for Captain Robert Treat.
Mikawa and his cruiser/destroyer force ar- boat was the most numerous of all the subma- ish 26 years ago when it sank the Argentine
Vessels of considerable tonnage and draft
rived within an hour of when an Australian rines Germany built during the war. It was also cruiser GENERAL BELGRANO with the loss
were able to negotiate these falls and go up
coast watcher on Bouganville had predicted. powered by an electric battery when sub- of over 380 Argentine sailors. The Argen-
river to the bend where a majority of the
The result was the Battle of Savo Island, the merged. Germany lost 38,000 men from their tines immediately brought their aircraft car-
merchant activity took place in the early 1800s.
worst defeat the U. S. Navy ever received in submarine effort, but the U boats sank about rier and the rest of their navy back to port
They mostly loaded bark, lumber or potatoes.
wartime. Four heavy cruisers were sunk, three 20 million tons of Allied shipping. Our subma- because they knew that a second British
It was also here that the Indians came to trade
of them American. My own ship, the CHI- rine losses were never as great as the Ger- nuclear submarine was operating off their
at the old truck house, which was once owned
CAGO, had forty feet of her bow blown off. I mans nor was the tonnage which we sank, coast. The Argentine General, who com-
by William Forbes. This house stood on the
determined right then, that if I was going to equal to the U boats, but still, the American manded 15,000 troops in Stanleyville then
western side of the Red Bridge where the
serve out the rest of the war, I wanted to be submarine force sank two thirds of all Japa- surrendered because he knew he could not
railroad bed is now. One of the first settlers of
on a ship which, if it sank, could surface again nese merchant shipping and one third of the get logistic support from his country. The
Bangor was Deacon William Boyd and it was
so I volunteered for submarines. Japanese Navy, including eight aircraft carri- Argentine Government fell. The Falkland War
he who launched the first vessel on the
I made seven war patrols during the next ers. Incidentally, our submarine force never was over.
Penobscot River. Boyd was born in Worces-
three years, two on the SUNFISH and five on numbered more than two percent of the total A nuclear attack submarine like the Rus-
ter, Massachusetts in 1745 and when 24 he
the HADDOCK. I don’t think the public then, personnel in our Navy during World War II. sian Akula class, can go faster submerged
was married and settled at Bristol, Maine. He
or now, had any idea of what it was like to be I ended the war in command of the GROU- than any displacement type warship can go
remained there for approximately 20 years
on a fleet type submarine during World War PER (SS-214), a fleet type submarine. I was 26 on the surface. It does not have to be refueled
before coming to Bangor about 1780. He died
II. The public, in general, has no knowledge years old when I was given command. Later, for two years and can stay submerged almost
here on 24 March 1830. The lumber for her
of either what our submarines did during the I commanded the STERLET (SS-292), another indefinitely. According to a speech made in
construction came from right there, but her
war nor do they have any idea of the limita- fleet type submarine. Finally, I was ordered to Congress by Rep. Murtha, China is building
masts came from the Brewer side. She was
tions of the electric batteries which powered put a new, fast attack submarine, the TROUT more than twenty nuclear attack submarines
built for Major Robert Treat. Daniel Webster,
them. On six of the seven war patrols, we were (SS-566), in commission. TROUT was being this year.
an elder resident of this area, remembers that
depth charged, once so severely that the built at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut. I wonder what Winston Churchill would
Captain Samuel Lowder built several vessels
conning tower was dented in and had to be The TROUT made the standardization trials say about the threat from nuclear submarines
here. One schooner he remembered was the
replaced by the navy yard when we returned for the fast attack class. On its trials, TROUT if he were alive today?
EDDINGTON. He said that one problem was
to port. We evaded depth charging in two made nineteen knots submerged and dived to
the gravel bar, which extended across the
ways, we went deep, kept our stern towards a depth more than twice as deep as a fleet type
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