May 2009 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25.
Maritime History:
News From 1901 & 1904
The following is taken from the Bangor wheel, but also when the wheel is placed hard
Daily Commercial for 1901 and 1904. to either side it binds up. A large crew has
been placed on this job, which will likely take
1901
five to six weeks to complete at a cost of
$25,000. The PERCY’s damage is estimated at
15 June – Lieutenant Colonel D. P. Heap
about $10,000.
has devised an instrument, the Topophone,
It was always thought that Captain Jewett
to assist sailors in fog. Several others have
led a charmed life on the sea, which is really
tried to develop a device for locating a vessel
not the case. He was in command of the four-
and determining their course in fog and to-
masted schooner CHARLES P. NOTMAN,
date no one has succeeded. Professor Elisha
when she was in a collision with the steamer
Gray developed a method of ringing bells
COLORADO. The NOTMAN sank, but the
underwater and Hamilton Foster blew a dif-
collision was deemed not the fault of Captain
ferent whistle for every direction the foghorn
Jewett.
is pointed. Due to the expensive cost of these,
Shipping men in Bangor remembered
none were practical. Heap’s Topophone was
other interesting collisions. One involved the
described in the “Scientific America” as “it
three-masted schooner EDWARD H. BLAKE
consists of two acoustic receivers or trum-
of Bangor. The BLAKE was loaded with ice
pets, pointing in opposite directions and
at Bangor and was making a passage to New
supported on a vertical shaft. From the lower
York. When she was off Monhegan Island on
ends of the trumpets extend rubber tubes,
a perfectly clear day, she was struck by the
connected with the ears by specially con-
steamer OLIVETTE, causing her stern to be
structed ear pieces. The observer holds the
ripped off. The crew departed and her captain
shaft so that the instrument is above his
headed to Bangor to procure a tug to save the
head; if a sound is heard in either ear – the
vessel. She was located on her beams end
right ear for example – it shows at once hat the
with part of her cargo still in her. She was
sound must be somewhere on his right hand
towed up river, beached and a bulkhead put
side. If he then turns to the right until the
in at her stern. She was then taken to the
sound is heard in his left ear, it shows that he
railway in Bangor and hauled out where a new
has passed the direction of the sound. If he
stern was put on. The OLIVETTE’s owners
then oscillates the trumpets so that the sound
paid for all the damages, but never explained
The Heap's Topophone Heap's Tolophone in use.
is heard alternately in each ear, the sound will
how they could hit a three-master in broad
be in a direction inside the angle of oscilla-
daylight.
ELDORADO had been purchased by the Salt cod was down over 3,000,000 and this
tion; this angle generally is about one point Popham Beach Steamboat Company. The was due to a lack of bait and a scarcity of fish.
of the compass. The whole operation takes
22 July – The schooner MARCUS
president of the company, George E. Thomp- Fresh cod was also down, 5,500,000 caused
but a few seconds.”
EDWARDS was struck by lightning of
son, and others went to Portland and in- by the failure of the shackers on Sable Island,
Gloucester, Massachusetts and damaged.
spected the steamer owned by the Casco Bay Scatteri and Quero grounds.
8 July – At the South End yard of Percy
She was loaded with lumber from William
Steamboat Company. Their hope was to use
& Small in Bath is the six-masted schooner
Engel & Company and was taking this to New
her on the run from Bath to Popham. They 6 January – It was learned that the Bath
GEORGE W. WELLS, Captain Crowley, which
York. Due to the damage, mostly leaking
found the steamer in excellent condition and schooner S. P. HITCHCOCK, Captain Alcorn,
is in for repairs following a collision with the
badly, her master opted to have her towed to
immediately purchased her. She was to be was making a passage from Windsor, Nova
six-master ELEANOR A. PERCY, Captain Lin-
New York, discharge her cargo, and then
brought to Bath later and readied for the Scotia to Philadelphia with a cargo of 600 tons
coln Jewett. What made this most interesting
affect repairs.
spring. of plaster. She had been encased in ice in the
is that these are the only two six-masters in Bay of Fundy and was wrecked in Culloden
existence. There is considerable damage to
the amidship area on the portside. The dam-
1904
4 January – A report was released on the Cove, Nova Scotia. Captain and crew were
losses suffered by the fishing community of safely ashore.
aged timbers were being removed along with 1 January – It was reported at Eastport by Gloucester in 1903. Nine vessels were lost for * * * * *
the PERCY’s anchor, and then repairs would the arrival of a steamer that there was a a total tonnage of 1,298.18 tons and valued at The 18 year old niece of Captain Hoelstad,
be made to the hole. It was the anchor, which wrecked schooner on Raccoon Beach on the $129,500. The insurance covered only Helen Pipes, gave a detail account of the
caused much of the damage. When the two eastern side of Campobello Island. The $85,070. One vessel would leave port and wreck of the Bath schooner BENJAMIN
came together, it was slight with the WELLS steamer said that she had passed a lot of never be heard from again taking with her 14 SEWALL lost in the Pacific a month ago. She
just having one of her mast’s grazed and part lathes, shingles and wreckage. The wreck men. Two others were wrecked with the loss said, “When the typhoon struck us, it blew so
of the rigging snapped off. The real damage was identified as that of the three-masted of 15 men. Ten other men were washed over hard that we seemed to be sailing over an
came when the anchor caught in the side of schooner C. R. FLINT. She had loaded lumber the side of their vessel and lost. Another six endless waterfall. The ship leaped out of the
the WELLS bringing the two vessels back at St. John and was heading for New Bedford, men were lost when their dories capsized and water and then buried her nose under it. The
together. The collision was extremely violent Massachusetts when the wreck occurred. six more were lost with their dories in fog or masts and rigging bent and strained, and
causing heavy damage to the galley, pushing The lumber was loaded by Stetson, Cutler & heavy weather. A total of 73 men were lost creaked and shrieked as if they were all trying
the timbers across the vessel so as to cause Company of St. John, Bangor and New York and this left 14 widows and 40 children with- to fly off. Uncle Jack (Captain Hoelstad) had
a bulge on the starboard side and the mizzen- and was valued between $5-6,000. It was out a father. ordered the ship hove to, but at 7 o’clock the
mast was missing a large piece and was sprung. learned that there was no insurance on the In 1902 ten vessels were lost and 82 men seas and wind were so terrific that he got her
The collision also caused damage back to the vessel, but the cargo was covered by Lloyds. lost their lives in the Gloucester fisheries. about and ran before the wind under bare
poop deck, which has half to three-quarter The C. R. FLINT was built at Bath in 1871. The amount of fish landed at Gloucester poles. The men were all on the house with
inch cracks through it. The steering was also * * * * * was 87,843,020 pounds for 1903. This is com-
Continued on Page 27.
affected. There are cracks in the spokes of the It was learned that the steamer pared to 102,183,156 pounds the year before.
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