Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2013


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Miscellaneous News from the Bangor Commercial Maritime History


24 March 1900 Frederick W. Hill of Bangor Will Own a Speedy Schooner Yacht.


Frederick W. Hill of Bangor, has purchased from her owners in New York the speedy and handsome schooner yacht, SPERANZA and will bring her into eastern waters early in the coming season as the latest and one of the best additions to the pleasure fl eet of the Penobscot. The SPERANZA is a fi ne schooner measuring about 110 feet over all and with lines which have made her regarded as a beauty in the eyes of professional yachtsmen and amateurs alike. The sale to Mr. Hill was made through J. W. Haviland of New York. Last season Mr. Hill was the navigator


of the fi ne schooner TEMPEST, owned by Frank P. Wood of Bangor, who spent the summer ashore. He was at that. Mr. Hill was last season the navigator time vastly interested in eastern yachting and early last fall resolved to own a craft as soon as he could fi nd one suited to the waters in which he proposed to sail her, and to his special wants. The SPERANZA is said to do both of these. She is handsomely fi tted and furnished and is now nearly ready to be brought east.


The SPERANZA is now lying at Fair Haven, Connecticut where she will be fi tted for her voyage to the Penobscot.


29 March 1900 A Launching at Camden. The Big Schooner MALCOLM BAXTER, JR., Successfully Put Overboard From the Yards of H. M. Bean.


Camden, March 29.


The 1700 tons schooner MALCOM BAXTER, JR., was launched from the yards of H. M. Bean at 10 o’clock Thursday afternoon. A large crowd of spectators was present and all conditions were most favorable for the event. There was no interruption, the vessel going into the water in a most satisfactory manner. The christening was performed, by ten young ladies who strewed fl owed about the vessel and who added to the picturesque feature of the scene by waving fl ags and evergreens. The BAXTER is the 64th


vessel built by Mr. Bean.


The MALCOM BAXTER, JR., has been named in honor of one of the owners. She is 216 feet long on the keel, 226 overall, has 80 frames, all of oak, is 45 feet wide and 20.8 feet deep.


Her gross tonnage is 1732 and her net 1530. Her lower masts are 108 feet long and her topmasts, 53 feet. Her rigging is of wire and turn buckles have been used throughout instead of dead eyes. Every particle of iron which appears above her deck has been galvanized. For ship machinery she has steam windlass, hoister pumps, and wrecking pumps, with a capacity of 600 gallons per minute. She will carry four anchors weighing 5,000, 4,800, 800 and 500. She has four batches and three decks. She has been built for the general coasting trade and will carry besides her commander, about ten men. Her cabins are elegantly fi nished in oak and sycamore. The commander will be Capt. George Bailey of Manasquan, New Jersey.


The launching of the BAXTER was hardly contemplated before the keel for the six-master will be stretched, and she will be built for Capt. J. G. Crowley of Taunton, Massachusetts, the fi rst six-master contracted for and the fi rst to launch from any yard in the world. Her builders feel that she will be a success, and it is understood that she will be a trifl e large than the one to be built for Percy & Small at bath.


The principal owners of the MALCOLM BAXTER, JR. are H. S. Little, president of the New Central Coal Co., of Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Capt. F. O. Bailey, Capt. Asher Curtis of Manasquan, New Jersey; O. H. Brown of Spring Lake, New Jersey; Capt. C. H. Valentine of Long Branch, New Jersey; C. G. Endicott, Albert Syrington, T. J. Roberts of New York City, and E. P. Boggs, of Boston.


2 April 1900 Schooner RICHARDSON Sunk.


Well Known Bangor Craft Was Sent to the Bottom in Collision Off Vineyard Sound.


The two-masted schooner ABRAHAM RICHARDSON of 146 tons net, owned by F. W. Ayer & Co., of this city, was sunk off East Chop, Vineyard Sound, on Sunday; she was built in Tremont in 1874 and hailed from Bangor. The account of the disaster sent out by the Associated Press is as follows: The schooner ABRAHAM RICHARDSON of Bangor, Capt. Pomeroy, from South Amboy for Rockland, Maine, was sunk by a collision with barge ALASKA, off East Chop, Vineyard Sound, at 9 o’clock this morning. All hands were saved, but the schooner is a total loss. The RICHARDSON sailed from Vineyard Haven shortly before 8 o’clock this morning in a fresh westerly wind and clear weather. When off East Chop and sailing with a free wind and at a good rate of speed she met tug SWATARA, towing barges PHOENIX, ALASKA and BROOKSIDE, which left Boston yesterday morning for Philadelphia. The schooner and the tow were passing at a safe distance from each other and, in fact, the tug and fi rst barge had got past, when the RICHARDSON’s patent steering gear broke and unshipped, rendering it useless, and Captain Pomeroy lost control of his vessel. The schooner paid off and went across the bow of the barge ALASKA, the middle one of the tow, which struck the RICHARDSON just aft the fore rigging off the starboard side cutting into her so that she sank in two minutes.


Fortunately the schooner went down


head fi rst, which gave the crew just time to cut their boat from the davits, get into it and shove clear before the stern settled. Had the schooner gone down stern fi rst some of her crew would undoubtedly have been drowned. They were all saved in their boat except one seaman, who leaped aboard the ALASKA.


The tug SWATARA picked them up and landed them here, where they are being cared for at the Seaman’s Bethel. The crew lost all their personal effects and consider themselves fortunate to have escape with their lives.


The towing hawser of the ALASKA was parted, but she sustained no injury, and the SWATARA proceeded with the barges for her destination this afternoon. The RICHARDSON was owned by


F. W. Ayer & Co., of Bangor, and was uninsured. She had a cargo of 218 tons of coal, consigned to the Rockland & Rockport Lime Co., which was probably insured. The schooner lies in mid-channel, directly in the track of vessels, in about nine fathoms of water, with the upper portion of her lower masts projecting above water, and is very dangerous to navigation.


7 April 1900 Old Maine Schooner Wrecked.


The LAURA ROBINSON of Rockland a Total Loss off Monomoy, Cape Cod – The Crew Saved.


Chatham, Massachusetts, April 7. – The old schooner LAURA ROBINSON of


Rockland, Maine, bound from that port for New York, with a cargo of lime, was totally wrecked off Monomoy Saturday morning. The crew were saved after some diffi culty, by the men of the life saving station. A northeast gale prevailed at the time and the steering gear giving way, the vessel became unmanageable. She was driven rapidly by the gale until she struck bottom. She sprung a leak and the water, coming in contact with the cargo, caused it to ignite. Within a short time the entire vessel had become enveloped in fl ames, driving the crew into their boats.


After a hard struggle in the rough sea the men were able to reach Monomoy Point, but it was next to impossible to make a landing unassisted, owing to the great breakers which threatened to overwhelm the boat. The plight of the ROBINSON and her crew was noticed by the life savers and they fi nally succeeded in getting the men through the breakers.


The schooner, which after striking bottom and taking fi re worked afl oat, drifted southward and sunk on Pollock Rip shoals. The schooner LAURA ROBINSON was built at Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, in 1869. She registered 142 tons gross and was owned by Perry Bros. of Rockland. * * * * *


A Life Boat Picked Up. Seattle, Washington, April 7. – The


fi shing steamer EDITH arriving from the halibut fi shing banks at Wrangel Narrows, Alaska, reports having picked up a life boat marked “Dominion, Sydney,” on March 30. The British bark DOMINION sailed from Tacoma, March 4, for Sidney, with a cargo of lumber. She has been twice condemned and sold, but has each time re-entered the merchant marine.


14 April 1900 Bangor Port News


First Four-master Comes into Port. Lumber Schooners Sailed for New York Saturday.


Capt. Maresca is Promoted – Other Shipping News of Interest. The schooner ALVIRA J. FRENCH, the


fi rst four-master to come here this season, arrived in port on Friday afternoon in tow of the ICE KING, one of the American Ice Co.’s fl eet of tugs which will be stationed here this season. This also being the steamer’s fi rst trip up the Penobscot this season. The French had a cargo of 903 tons of coal for the Stickney & Babcock Coal Co. for shipment over the Maine Central railroad. She is at the High head wharves and will be discharged by Trefethen & Dugan’s stevedores, the crews having commenced work on Saturday morning, this being the fi rst coal schooner to unload there this season.


The French had a cargo of 903 tons of coal for the Stickney & Babcock Coal Co. for shipment over the Maine Central railroad. She is at the High head wharves and will be discharged by Trefethen & Dugan’s stevedores, the crews having commenced work on Saturday morning, this being the fi rst coal schooner to unload there this season.


It is expected that the French will take


back a cargo of ice from one of the houses controlled by the American Ice Co. The only vessel expected to arrive in port on Saturday is the J. H. WAINWRIGHT which will load ice, it is understood, for Henry Lord & Co. Schooners IZETTA and WILLIAM


JONES have fi nished loading lumber from the Ashland Mfg. Co. and were expected to sail on Saturday for New York. The schooner KIT CARSON, commenced taking on


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a cargo from the Ashland Mfg. Co. on Saturday morning.


The schooner LEADING BREEZE arrived in port on Friday afternoon with the fi rst cargo of corn of the season; she is consigned to the A. H. Thaxter Co. It is not often that schooners get dismasted in the East River, but the four- masted schooner MARY ADELAIDE RANDALL lost the trucks of her four-mast while passing under the Brooklyn bridge at high water March 29. The RANDALL was built at the New England Co.’s yard in 1891. Capt. Besse Well Known. Capt. William H. Besse, who died at his home in New Bedford this week was well known in Bangor, having had built a large fl eet of vessels and barges at Bath. His fi rst vessel was the bark JESSE MURDOCK, built by Goss & Sawyer in 1871. Since then at this yard he has had constructed the barks ALDEN, BESSE, ZENIA, WESTERN BELLE, BELLE OF OREGON, FOREST BELLE, JONATHAN BOURNE, GERARD C. TOBEY, GUY C. GOSS, WILLIAM W. CRAPO, steam bark GEORGE S. HOSMER, and OLYMPIC, ships WILLIAM J. ROTCH, HENRY FAILING, HOTSPUR, and FRANCIS and the barkentine HUSTLER.


In recent years Capt. Besse became interested in the barge traffi c and he had constructed in Bath at Kelley, Spear & Co.’s the barge OCEAN BELLE, at the Rogers yard the big barges VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, JERSEY BELLE, FOREST BELLE, KENTUCKY, and NEW YORK. He was a sturdy champion of American- built vessels and regretted the fact that the fi rst-class American sailing ships are nearly all swept from the ocean. Capt. Maresca Promoted. Bangor probably won’t have another visit for some time from Capt. Guy Maresca, the gallant Italian mariner who while he was in port with the bark CHIARINA last year, created such havoc with feminine heart and while here made himself famous as an entertainer. The captain was handsome and besides his god looks was an accomplished musician, so he immediately became a favorite hereabouts.


He is no longer in command of the


CHIARINA having been appointed master of a big iron ship which sails regularly on a route between San Francisco and England. Freights and Charters. Schooner MARY E. PALMER, Boston


to Tampico, coke, $3.50. Schooner DAVID BAIRD, Newport News to Havana, coal, $2.00. Schooner C. A. CAMPBELL, Philadelphia to Boston, 2400 tons of coal, 75 cents.


Schooner C. P. HARRIS, Philadelphia


to Gloucester, 625 tons of coal, 85 cents. Schooners E. C. ALLEN and R. S. LEARNING, Gardiner to Philadelphia, ice, private terms.


Schooner E. C. KNIGHT, New York to Philadelphia, cliffstone, $1. Schooner HATTIE DUNN, Crandell, to Port Spain, lumber, $8.75 and towage. Schooner CELIA F., Aplachicola to


New York.


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