October 2009 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 23.
Maritime History:
Shipbuilding News 1895
WALDOBORO DISTRICT. He has made moulds and got out the frame for a 600 pound projectile. According to Mr.
Rig/Name/Tonnage/Where Built/Builder a big steam yacht for New Bedford parties. Riley’s plans, a shot striking the side of a ship
Sloop/THOMAS B. REED/5.40/FriendshipWilbur A. Morse The firm for which he is working has built the thus protected would depress the springs
Schooner/E. MCNICHOL/28.61/South Bristol/A. & M. Gamage & Co. steam yacht RAJALO, for the McQuesiens, under the plate with which it came in contact,
Steamer/ANODYNE/6.59/South Bristol/E. P. Gamage the Gleaner, and several others recently, Nat and the springs would deaden its force and
Sloop/IDELLA/6.53/Bremen/G. M. Fassett Herreshoff has written Mr. Wardwell twice relieve the body plating of the vessel from
Sloop/LOTTIE BRYANT/9.80/Friendship/Wilbur A. Morse of late to come and work for him at Bristol, but harm. Mr. Riley proposes to make his outer
Sloop/ETHEL/5.40/Waldoboro/Thomas F. Creamer he will stay where he is at present, as he is armor of eight inch steel. The invention has
Sloop/LEROY/7.89/South Bristol/A. & M. Gamage & Co. doing well. Before leaving Rockland he had been tried with bullets from rides of small
Schooner/HENRY LIPPITT/790.28/Thomaston/Washburn Brothers some talk with parties of building two yachts calibre, and is said to work to perfection
Sloop/JENNIE R./8.69/South Bristol/A. & M. Gamage & Co. in the spring, and if the contracts are closed under that test. Mr. Riley is at work upon a
Sloop/WINNIE KANE/10.81/Friendship/Wilbur A. Morse will return in time to complete them by model of a regular single-turret monitor, of
Sloop/BLANCHE EATON/8.57/Friendship/Wilbur A. Morse summer. the old fashioned type, and will construct her
Sloop/MARGUERITE/13.00/Waldoboro/Thomas F. Creamer for a working model of his invention. The
Total: 12 vessels, 901.59 tons 31 JANUARY sides of the lowfreeboard monitor will be
SHIPBUILDING NOTES. thus covered and so will the turret, and if
BANGOR DISTRICT. Jacob Loring, Rockland’s boatbuilder, everything works well Mr. Riley will forward
Rig/Name/Tonnage/Where Built/Builder has just finished a large ship’s boat for the his plans to the secretary of war for critical
Sloop/TREMONT/64.34/Brewer/S. H. Barbour new schooner building at Belfast in the yard examination.
of McDonald & Brown. It will be shipped at
CASTINE DISTRICT. once. Loring has two captain’s gigs in frame 7 FEBRUARY
Rig/Name/Tonnage/Where Built/Builder ready to finish. SHIPBUILDING NOTES.
Sloop/HASKELL W. GRAY/6.08/Brooksville/DeForest H. Gray The Maine Shipbuilding and Bath is quite like herself again, with so
Sloop/HELEN M./5.02/Penobscot/William S. Howard Navigation Company of Wiscasset, has held much shipbuilding going on. Thursday of
Sloop/RUTH E. CUMMOCK/6.85/Brooksville/John S. Blake its annual meeting and declared a dividend of last week Bath people had the privilege of
Sloop/WAVE/6.62/Brooksville/J. C. Cousins 14 per cent. The following officers were witnessing two launchings. The JERSEY
Sloop/GRACIE/5.33/Brooklin/Austin E. Freethey elected: President Fred Lenox; Treasurer BELLE was from the Rogers yard, and is a
Sloop/EFFIE/7.60/Brooklin/Judson E. Freethey and General Manager, R. T. Rundlett; duplicate of the FOREST BELLE that was
Sloop/DIRIGO/14.11/Swan’s Island/William Gross Directors, Henry Ingalls, R. T. Rundlet, Fred launched early last year from the same yard.
Total: 7 vessels, 51.61 Lenox, A. M. Card, Lincoln Gibbs, Gustavus She was built for Capt. William H. Besse of
Rundlett, R. H. T. Taylor. New Bedford, and her dimensions are:
FRENCHMAN’S BAY DISTRICT. Orders have been received at the Kittery Length, 230.7; breadth, 42.1; depth, 18; gross
Rig. Name/Tonnage. Where Built. Builder navy yard for the construction of one 28 foot tonnage, 1335.90; net tonnage, 1273.96. The
Schooner/HENRIETTA A. WHITNEY/186.11/Ellsworth/Whitcomb, Haynes & Co. steam cutter, one 28 foot cutter, two 26 foot other launching was that of the handsome
Schooner/HATTIE LORING/46.61/Steuben/W. W. Strout cutters, and all the spars, blocks, fixtures and little three masted schooner EDWARD
Schooner/ALCION/7.25/Gouldsboro/W. O. Johnson furniture for the Unites States gunboats SMITH from the yard of Kelley, Spear & Co.
Schooner/LULU W. EPPES/70.75/Ellsworth/Daniel H. Eppes number 11 and 12, now being built at the She measures 147.9 in length, 36.2 beam, 10.6
Total: 4 vessels, 310.72 Bath, Maine, Iron Works. The order deep. Her gross tonnage is 440.06 and her net
provides for the expenditure of between 358.16. This little craft was built for Edward
MACHIAS DISTRICT. $50,000 and $60,000 and will give Smith of Brooklyn, N. Y., and was nearly
Rig/Name/Tonnage/Where Built/Builder employment to quite a number of workmen. ready for sea when launched.
Schooner/E. I. WHITE/410.00/Harrington/E. I. White Thomas L. Merrill of Portland has a cut
Schooner/FANNIE ELLEN/13.00/Milbridge/L. H. Leighton of the barque WALON, one of several built 21 FEBRUARY
Schooner/HARRIE A. BERWIND/911.00/ Milbridge/Sawyer Brothers on the same model for parties in Plymouth, SHIPBUILDING NOTES.
Steamer/SAWYER/34.00/Milbridge/Geo. A. Sawyer Massachusetts, in Stroudwater many years The 170 foot keel for the four masted
Steamer/CURLEW/29.00/Milbridge/Leverett Strout ago. Compared with the modern craft this schooner to be constructed at the New
Total: 5 vessels, 1397.00 tons vessel appears very clumsy with its England yard in Bath, is being stretched. The
awkwardly arranged sails. This vessel also schooner will be ready for launching about
PASSAMAQUODDY DISTRICT. had its portholes painted, as is the custom on the middle of July.
Rig/Name/Tonnage/Where Built/Builder the French vessels today, the object being Work on Lightship 66 at the Bath Iron
Schooner/ALBATROSS/6.63/Eastport/Hallet Brothers doubtless to give the vessel a warlike Works is going steadily forward, and the
Schooner/VENUS/9.29/Calais/Willard Brown appearance. planking will be completed within a fortnight.
Steamer/FRANK & LLOYD/8.71/Lubec/Frank Hallet The schooner EDWARD SMITH is now The engine is ready, the boilers are well
Total: 3 vessels, 24.63 fully rigged on the stocks at Kelley, Spear & under way and the launching will probably
Co.’s yard at Bath and the intention is to take place next month.
24 JANUARY by all practical men who have examined the launch her this week. She is a duplicate of Wilbur A. Morse of Vinalhaven finished
The Hydes of Bath Iron Works fame, are
metal and the tests, superior to anything of Schooner MARGARET B. ROPER. The a 24 foot lobster boat named GENIE W.
responsible for the introduction of about of
the kind on the market for high grade bronze SMITH will probably take ice to Norfolk or JONES for E. D. Weeks of Provincetown,
about as many improvements in their line as
castings of every description. vicinity. The sails are being bent on her Massachusetts, and has another for other
any other manufacturing firm in New
before launching. A fact highly parties nearly completed of about the same
England, and now they have come forward
SHIPBUILDING NOTES. complimentary to the builders is that the size. It is reported that he has a contract for
with still another invention, which will have
A large four-masted coal barge, named owner, for whom she is named, has never two small lobster smacks of about 37 feet keel
a most important bearing on the manufacture
JERSEY BELLE, will be launched next sent his representative, or come himself to to be built the coming summer.
of metal marine apparatus. The Bath Iron
Tuesday from the yard of Hon. William Bath to supervise or inspect the beauty, J. P. Goodhardt and H. G. Newton,
Works have lately put on the market a
Rogers of Bath. The barge is owned by leaving her construction and fitting, even to commissioners appointed to examine the
manganese bronze which gives a tensile
William H. Besse of New York. She will be the selection of her cabin furniture and claims against the estate of the late H. H.
strength of 60,000 pounds to the square inch
commanded by Capt. Dollar. carpets to Kelley, Spear & Co. Hanscom, the veteran Fairhaven,
and an elongation of thirty percent. Castings
Oscar Brown of Millbridge has nearly A Bangor carpenter of an inventive turn Connecticut, shipbuilder, have thrown out
made from this metal are about equal in
completed a small fishing schooner which he of mind, J. W. Riley, has been at work for claims amounting to about $25,000 the claims
strength to good steel plate and can be
will offer for sale when done. She is a fine some time upon the perfection of an being for stock used in building schooners.
forged hot to any desired from. The
looking craft and will no doubt prove a fast invention which will, he believes, proves Many New England dealers were interested.
shrinkage of the metal in casting is about the
sailer, 30 feet long and about 5 feet deep and complete protection to vessels of war from
same as that of iron, which makes it much
nearly five tons burden. She is decked over the damaging results of battle against
superior to any of the high grade bronzes on
and has a cabin forward with modern guns with modern projectiles and
WANTED
the market for castings. A peculiarity of all
accommodations for five or six men. explosives, which now have the most
high grade bronzes made elsewhere is that
Owing to the fact that an iron steering damaging effect on anything that floats,
there is an excessive shrinkage as the metal
wheel for vessels often becomes magnetized striking it fairly. Mr. Riley’s invention is MARITIME BOOKS,
cools, which tends to weaken many forms of
and so deflects the needle of the compass necessarily simple, consisting merely in
MAGAZINES, DOCUMENTS
casting. The Iron Works have already
manufacturers are constantly seeking plates of armor metal eight by ten inches in
POSTCARDS and
received orders for the stems, stern posts,
improvements. George Torrey at his size, which are to be fastened to the regular
Rockland foundry has just completed one armor on the outside. Between the outer
PHOTOGRAPHS
rudder posts, rudders and propellers for the
revenue cutter now building in East Boston,
which overcomes this difficulty. Its rim and plate of steel and the inner body plate of the
International Maritime Library
and for all the new composite gunboats now
hub are formed of solid brass while the ship, there are to be placed heavy copper
springs, one to every square foot. These
P.O. Box 710
in process of construction, the whole
spokes are of wood, thus making the wheel
amounting in weight to over 100 tons. The
impervious to magnetic influence. plates will lie closely together, but the
Winterport, Maine 04496
new metal will be known as the “Hyde”
George Wardwell, Rockland’s yacht springs will allow them to slide back and forth (207) 223-8846
Manganese Bronze. It has been pronounced
builder, is at Weymouth, Massachusetts. under the strain of concussion produced by
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