Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS October 2013 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s Continued from Page 23.


upon the ground that the active presence of cutters on stations is essential to the public interests. These vessels are anything rather than effi cient revenue cutters; they are discreditable to the department and furnish subject for criticism. Of this class are the following: The WOODBURY, constructed in 1864; Original cost, $92,000; since for repairs $94,339, total cost to June 30, 1901, $186,339.


The MCLANE, purchased in 1865; Original cost, $36,000, for repairs, $117,876; total cost to June 30, 1901, $153,876. “The HAMILTON constructed in 1871; Original cost, $65,000, for repairs, $103,567; total cost to June 30, 1901, $168,567.


“The BOUTWELL, constructed in 1873; Original cost, $70,000, for repairs, $54,420; total cost to June 30, 1901, $124,490.


24 December 1902 With the Ships


Schooner HATHAWAY is Already Paying Good Dividends. To Build in Brewer


Four-master will be Constructed in the Stetson Yard – Work to Commence in April.


Work will begin in April on the four- masted schooner which is to be built in the Stetson yard, Brewer, and it is the intention to have her ready for launching by the last of July so that she may have the advantage of the high freights which prevail during the summer and early fall when business is at its height. The craft’s tonnage will be 1700 and she will cost in the vicinity of $60,000. Stockholders in the schooner SAMUEL


W. HATHAWAY, which was built in the Stetson yard during the past season and which is owned largely by Bangor and Brewer men, are receiving from the vessel’s agent, Crowell & Thurlow of Boston, the second statement of receipts. It is for the HATHAWAY’s second trip from Baltimore to Boston when she carried 1488 tons of coal at $1.50, a low rate. The receipts for the voyage were $2232, while the expenses, including commission, wages, etc. were $1,163.02.


The dividend for the trip, per 1/64, was $16, while there remains in the treasury to go over to the next trip, $125.88. Had there been a couple of more dollars, the dividends would have been $18 instead of $10. This is regarded as a highly satisfactory showing and even thus early the stockholders are of the opinion that their money is well invested. With the increase in freights it is expected that the next dividend will be considerably higher.


The HATHAWAY, after discharging in Boston, left for Newport News but owing to the unfavorable weather she encountered when off the cape, she went to New York where Capt. Kent expects to be able to get a charter.


Another record in Boston has been established by the new four-masted Bath schooner MILES M. MERRY, Capt. Fickett, when she towed up to the pier of the American Sugar Refi ning company in South Boston Monday. She has a cargo of 2495 tons of coal to be discharged at the pier for the use of the sugar trust, which found no diffi culty in receiving it from the coal trust at Newport News. This is the largest cargo of coal every discharged at this pier from a schooner, although there have been larger ones landed from steamer and barges. The MERRY came within six inches of being unable to pass through the draw of the Mt. Washington bridge. The schooner


has a beam of 43 feet two inches, while the draw is only six inches wider. It was a tight squeeze, and many of the foreign steamers with sugar from the island of Java and other portions of the world consigned to the same company have been unable to pass through the bridge for the same reason. News of the Shipping. The new six-masted schooner ADDIE


M. LAWRENCE, recently launched by Percy & Small, was towed to sea Tuesday by the new tug PORTLAND and will proceed to Hampton Roads where she will await orders. The LAWRENCE is commanded by Capt. Kreger and is the fi rst six-master to go into commission in the J. S. Winslow & Co. fl eet. It was the report on the street, Bath,


Tuesday morning that A. Sewall & Co. are about to commence work on a 3000 ton steel schooner, WM. D. SEWALL when seen in relation to the story said, “We have not decided upon anything yet.” The steel fi ve-masted schooner is nearly completed and will go overboard during the early part of 1903.


Fishing schooner APPOMATTOX, which arrived at Provincetown Tuesday from the fishing grounds, reports that 60 miles south of Highland light a lot of wreckage was passed, including a mast, boom and gaff, sails booby hatches and the like.


Captain Olof Anderson of Boston arrived Monday afternoon at Bath, to go in command of the new barge for the Baltimore & Boston Barge Co. building at Kelley, Spear Co.’s yard. He was formerly in command of Barge No. 4, of Norfolk & Western fl eet. The four-masted schooner ROBERT H. STEVENSON was towed to sea from Bath Tuesday morning at 11 o’clock by the tug ADELIA amid the salutes of the whistles along the shore and on craft in the river. She will go to Hampton Roads for orders. The STEVENSON was recently launched by the New England company and is commanded by Capt. J. E. Higbee who has been in this city since the builders began work on the craft. During his stay he has won a large circle of friends who will follow his career in the new schooner with interest. The schooner EDWARD E. BRIRY, one of the best paying of the Bath fl eet, has just made her owners a handsome Christmas present in the shape of $90 per 64th


. The


BRIRY was under charter at 85 cents to bring coal to the Maine Central at Portland, but detention at Philadelphia cost the railroad $5161 for demurrage. The schooner was six weeks making the round trip. The THOMAS W. LAWSON. It has developed that the seven-masted


steel schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON will hereafter load coal at Newport News as she is too big to load a full cargo at either Baltimore or Philadelphia. As she was built for the coal trade, it will be seen that she can load at but one of the three ports. The vessel is now on her way from Boston to Newport News in a third attempt to get a full cargo. The cargoes she loaded at Philadelphia were 1500 tons short.


She grounded twice in the Delaware


River channel. Then Capt. Crowley decided to try Baltimore. There is 30 feet of water in the Baltimore channel and 30 feet of water alongside the Consolidation Coal Co.’s pier at Locust Point; but as the Baltimore & Ohio is shipping all its coal from the pier at Curtis bay, and as the channel in Curtis bay is but 27 feet deep, the LAWSON had to stop loading when she was drawing 27 feet, 7 inches. She then had one whole deck’s length unoccupied. The LAWSON touched bottom going out, but did not stop, as three tugs all “rung


29 December 1902 With the Ships


Three-masted Barge GWENNIE is Best of Her Class.


Maine Ports of Entry News of the Shipping – What the 14 Tugs, Once Owned by the Knickerbocker Towage Co. are Doing Work was commenced Monday morning loading the schooner MELISSA TRASK, at Bucksport, with lumber by the Ashland Mfg. Co. for New York. The crew which is loading the Italian bark CHIARINA


up,” were shoving her over the muddy bottom. The ship is 404 feet long, the largest sailer afl oat, and can carry 9,000 tons. But One Dock at Boston.


It is well undersood in Boston that the dock, when fully loaded at but one pier the Metropolitan Coal Co.’s at Congress Street. Her last trip to Boston she came with less than her full cargo, because there was not water enough to fl oat her at Baltimore. When she reached Boston she was drawing 27 feet, and docked on fl ood tide at Congress Street. There she was relieved of enough coal to permit her being transferred to the Metropolitan Coal Co.’s pier at South Boston, where the remainder of her cargo was discharged.


Swans Island Man Wrecked. The following account of the wreck of the schooner DIXIE, Capt. Samuel Kent, who is one of Swan’s Island’s young and successful captains, is taken from the Galveston, (Texas) Daily News and will be read with interest by the captain’s friends in Maine: “A rough sea and squally weather accompanied by foggy, hazy atmosphere; a cry of breakers ahead, then a grinding, crashing sound with high seas over all and six days and sights on a barren, sandy reef before rescue are features of Capt. Samuel Kent’s story of the disaster which overtook the schooner DIXIE and her crew on November 1.


“Capt. Kent and his crew are still


at Vera Cruz and the story of the loss of the schooner came to the Gulf Fisheries company by letter. The DIXIE sailed from Gloucester, Massachusetts, on October 21, and made the voyage to the (?) reef, off the coast of Yucatan, in eight days. Here they remained one day fi shing when sail was set for Arcas Key, which lies west of the reef. While the weather was extremely bad, all went well until about 4 o’clock in the morning of the 1st


, when the sea became


very high and heavy squalls, accompanied by a mist closed in around them. Off in the distance a faint gleam from the light on one of the keys could be seen and the course of the DIXIE was set accordingly, but the mist was so thick that, according to the captain’s story, it was hard to determine the position or distance of the light and before any of the crew were aware the roar of the surf was (?) and the next minute the schooner was pounding on the reef with seas going all over her. With some diffi culty one of the small boats was provisioned and launched and the crew landed safely on the shore of the small and barren reef. Here they remained six days before the steamer was sighted and they were rescued. They were taken to Vera Cruz and expect to leave by steamer for New York in a few days, from which for they will ship for Galveston.


“The Gulf Fisheries company believe that from the information at hand the DIXIE is a total loss as it would not take long for the waves to break her up. The place of the wreck will be visited some time in the near future to discover if possible, anything of the wreck that might be left.”


with box shooks for Palermo by the T. J. Stewart Co. is still hard at work. The three-masted barge GWENNIE which was launched Saturday from the Kelley, Spear Co. yard, was constructed especially for the coal carrying trade between Baltimore and eastern ports, Rhode Island principally. No pains or expense were spared in making her one of the strongest wooden barges possible. She has every convenience for receiving and discharging cargoes and is practically a self trimming barge. An important change from the usual deck plan is noticed on the GWENNIE. The cabin is fi tted entirely for the captain and the forward house contains the galley mess room and forecastle with the pilot house on top. The craft is heated by steam throughout. The cabin is fi nished in ash and conveniently arrange. She has a complete Hyde Windlass outfi t.


The masts are of Oregon pine 70 feet long and 18 inches in diameter. The rigging is wire, set up with turnbuckles, metallic life boat and a 16 foot wooden working boat. Olof Anderson of Boston, formerly in command of N. & W. barge No. 4, is going in command and he is more than pleased with the craft. The crew arrived this week from Boston.


The barge is ready for sea and will leave as soon as a boat arrives to go to New York for a cargo of coal for Providence. The New England Co. has two barges under construction for the owners of the GWENNIE. One of them named the (?) will go overboard the last of this week. She is duplicate of the GWENNIE.


30 December 1902 With the Ships


Wardwell Will Design Stetson Four- Master in Brewer. News of the Coasters.


What the Schooners are Doing on the Coast – Bath Six-master is Now in Portland Harbor.


John J. Wardwell of Rockland, the yacht and boat designer whose fame had spread far beyond Maine, has received the order from E. & I. K. Stetson to design the four-masted schooner which they are to build for Capt. Charles Trask, in Brewer in the spring. She will be of 1000 tons burden. The keel will be 185 feet, 39 foot beam and 20 feet deep. The masts of Oregon pine will be 103 feet long with 54 foot topmasts and spankers 68 feet. The forward house will be 26x24 and the house 24x24.


News of the Shipping. Norfolk & Western tug No. 2, Capt.


Haley, arrived at Bath Sunday afternoon from Boston and left Monday for New York with the new barge GWENNIE launched Saturday forenoon from Kelley, Spear Co.’s yard. The barge will load coal in New York for Providence. The barge FL(?), a sister craft of the GWENNIE, building at the New England Co.’s yard, is booked to go overboard next Saturday afternoon, weather permitting, work on her during the week. Rockland Star Schooner C. B. CLARK


has fi nished uploading her cargo of coal for the Eastern Steamship Co. and is now in the stream.


Schooner ISIAH K. STETSON, Capt.


Trask, loaded with stone from Frankfort for Newport News was in Rockland harbor Saturday.


Schooner MYRONUS has been chartered to load stone at Blue Hill for New York.


The tugs SEGUIN and STELLA are hauled up at Morse’s, Bath, to undergo repairs.


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