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November 2011 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. LIFE AND DEATH ON BOARD THE BRIG AKBAR By Amos Boyd


The double-deck brig AKBAR, built by master carpenter J. Lowell Nash of Machias, was launched May 2, 1874, and was said to be one of Nash’s best built vessels. The brig was about 430 tons, 127’ in length, 28’ in width, with a depth of 16.5 feet. Aaron Thompson was the first master of the vessel, which was owned by William Holway, Hiram Gardner, J. F. Harmon, A. J. Longfellow, and the builder J. Lowell Nash.


About four months after launching, the AKBAR sailed from Machias on a Thursday for Saint John, New Brunswick, to load cargo for Havana, Cuba.


Little detail is known about the years immediately following the launching of the AKBAR, but the brig frequently sailed from Machias or the Rim Bridge at Machiasport, carrying boards or other lumber products for West Indies ports. On return voyages she sometimes carried sugar, rum, molasses and other assorted cargo to home ports. On August 1878, shortly after sailing from Cuba on a passage to New York, the AKBAR’s crew became ill with the much- dreaded and often fatal yellow fever of the tropics. Many nations had established strict regulations to prevent spread of the virulent disease, all of which were useless because the cause of the contagious fever was still unknown. Yellow fever epidemics were se- vere in areas near the equator and in the southern parts of the United States. Thou- sands died every summer; entire families were sometimes wiped out during these sum- mer epidemics which some times reached as far north as New York City.


On board the AKBAR Captain Thomp- son and his entire crew were too sick with fever to work the vessel; they struggled con- stantly to keep their vessel headed north- ward through the heavy seas. The captain had hoped to obtain a pilot at Pensacola Bar to take them into a safe harbor, but no pilot


would board the brig when it was learned the crew had yellow fever. The AKBAR reached quarantine in New York in about a week that seemed a century to the overworked sick men. At quarantine the fever was diagnosed as the less dangerous Chagres Fever of Panama, but vessels from infected fever ports were not allowed to leave until after the first frost. Then the AKBAR loaded cargo at New York for Aspinwall on the Isthmus of Panama, where the brig found no return cargo and had to return to New York in ballast, an expense to her owners.


Newell Robinson of Machias became captain of the AKBAR in February of the next year when the brig loaded with 312M of pine boards by Holway and Ames at the Rim Bridge at Machiasport, and sailed out in February from Machias for Cienfuegos, Cuba. The smell and oppressive heat of the tropics reached the officers and crew of the AKBAR long before they arrived at Havana. There the work of unloading the cargo of pine boards went slowly in the oppressive heat, and the loading of the return cargo of sugar was even more time consuming. The brig could not be ready to sail for New York until early in July. The oppressive heat and humid- ity continued, and Captain Robinson con- tracted yellow fever and died soon afterward. Notice of Captain Robinson’s death was immediately sent by telegraph dispatch to the managing owner of the AKBAR, who noti- fied other owners and the captain’s wife who lived in Machias with their two small children. The captain was a fine man, much respected in shipping circles and he was well known and respected citizen. The sailing date of the AKBAR had been delayed by the captain’s illness and death, and a replacement had to be found quickly. Captain Moodie was given command so the brig could leave immediately for New York.


A week later, the AKBAR was drifting helplessly, wallowing in the great ocean


swells, with distress signals flying from her masthead. Fever had once again broken out on board the brig. Although the AKBAR had been able to maintain its position on the busy sailing route between Cuba and New York, and many vessels became within hailing dis- tance, their boats pulled away when they learned of the deadly fever aboard the brig. The AKBAR continued to drift help- lessly for days until it was sighted by the L. F. MUNSON of Machias, when the lines of the AKBAR and her helpless condition were recognized long before her distress signal could be seen. The AKBAR and the MUNSON had been built in the neighboring small towns of Machias and East Machias, and many of the men were known to each other, directly or indirectly, with friends or relatives in common, many crew members from the MUNSON volunteered to board the stricken vessel, where they found conditions pitiful; one man was dead, and Captain Moodie and three of his crew were desper- ately ill.


The MUNSON itself was short handed, but her men were well and strong having recently arrived in the tropics. They cared for the sick men and shared provisions. After a time, the captain and crew of the MUNSON loaned the AKBAR a navigator and one man, to enable the AKBAR to continue on to quarantine at New York, three men died enroute, Captain Moodie, Peter Moreau, and Henry Johnson.


At quarantine the AKBAR was carefully fumigated and every precaution taken to pre- vent a recurrence of yellow fever, and once more, in April of 1881, a new captain, John Edward Dow, became master of the vessel when the brig arrived in Machias. Two years later, when the brig loaded


shooks at Portland for Caribbean on the north side of Cuba, Ira Oren Holmes of Machiasport became captain of the AKBAR. On Novem- ber 15, 1884, the AKBAR sailed from Oporto for Turk’s Island for salt and from there was bound to Providence when a moderate east- erly gale began. The brig was running north- erly when the wind shifted to NNE and the gale increased in intensity. At noon the next day the captain wore ship, heading to the eastward and the gale increased in ferocity, which caused the cargo to break loose in the hold, and sent the brig onto her beam ends while the decks were continually being washed by high swells. Captain Holmes had to be lashed to the wheel to keep from being washed by high swells. Captain Holmes had to be lashed to the wheel to keep from being washed overboard. The cabin was full of water and the end of the foreyard was drag- ging in the shifting seas. Augustus Ingalls of Machias was checking in braces when a huge wave swept the deck and washed him over- board. There was no hope of rescue, the AKBAR’s small boat could not be launched under such conditions, it would have been swamped immediately. The brig and all on board could be lost at any moment, the AKBAR and her crew were fighting for their lives. All night the storm raged, and for 12 hours the captain remained tied to the wheel. The storm began to abate during the first glimmer of morning light, and by noon all hands were able to get into the hold to secure the shifted cargo. The vessel righted then, and captain and crew were able to bring her into the wind.


The loss of Ingalls, the first mate, was deeply felt by the captain and the crew;


Continued on Page 22.


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