Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS November 2013 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


10 August 1903 George A. McFadden Sailed With Ice for Baltimore – Other Vessel News of Interest.


There were quite a number of arrivals in the harbor Sunday including the schooners NOROMBEGA, J. CHESTER WOOD, MAUD S., GOOD INTENT, ANNIE F. KIMBALL, CHARLESTON and IZETTA. The KIMBALL and CHARLESTON will load lumber for F. H. Strickland for Northeast Harbor and Gloucester. Sunday’s clearances were the schooners GEORGE A. MCFADDEN and the MIRANDA. The MCFADDEN has a cargo of ice from the American Ice Co. for Baltimore and the MIRANDA lumber from Lowell & Engel. The FLORA GRINDLE and the G. H. WHITMORE cleared Monday, the GRINDLE going to Friendship with lumber from Charles Woodman and company, and the WHITMORE to Stonington, her home port. The schooner JEANIE LIPPETT was expected to clear Monday for the Kennebec where she will load ice.


The schooners FLORECE M. PENLEY and the JOSEPH B. THOMAS commenced discharging their cargoes Monday morning.


RAY Badly Damaged. The four-masted schooner JOSEPH


G. RAY which was towed to Portland last Monday from Sargentville where she had run on Morgan’s reach is now in the cradle at the marine railway where the repairs to her bottom are being made. These have been found to be quite severe, and it has been necessary to keep the pumps going all the time since she struck the shore, while a steady stream of water has poured out of her sides. The RAY will probably be on the railway a week.


The fourmasted schooner WILLIAM


B. PALMER is now lying at the railway wharf where she is waiting an opportunity to be drawn up on the cradle.


Shipping Notes.


The American Ice Co. has now assumed the management of the Knickerbocker Steam Towage Co. At the stockholders’ meeting of the Towage Co. held in New York last Thursday, the following offi cers of the American Ice Co. were elected to serve in the same capacity in the towage company as in the ice company: J. D. Schoonermaker, President; E. D. Haley, treasurer; and Robert A. Scott, secretary, all of New York, A. C. Sprague having tendered his resignation as treasurer and general manager in June. It is understood that Mr. Sprague has had another situation offered him and under consideration and will take a short much needed rest before assuming duties in his new situation. Mr. Sprague has been in the employ of the Morses for 20 years. A letter was received in Bath Friday from Capt. Kimball of the schooner FRED A. DAVENPORT which is now loading lumber at Brunswick, Georgia, and he states that the weather is so hot that the cook has only to place potatoes on a pile of pine and let them remain for 15 minutes when they are thoroughly baked.


9 October 1903 At Bar Harbor


Tuesday’s Storm was a Furious One on Mt. Desert.


Two Schooners went Ashore on Rocks near Mt. Desert Ferry and will be Total Losses.


Bar Harbor, October 9.


The storm which began Monday evening and raged throughout the night and all day Tuesday was the worst that had been known on Mount Desert Island for a good


many years at this season of the year and considerable damage is reported as the result of the furious gale. Two schooner which were at anchor in Sullivan Harbor dragged their anchors and went ashore on the rocks near the wharf at Mount Desert Ferry and they will be a total loss. One of the schooners was a fi sherman and the other a coal vessel and both were loaded. The vessels rode out the gale through the night and went ashore, one soon after daylight Tuesday morning and the other about 8 o’clock. The crews got ashore safely. A small fi shing sloop owned by H. D. Wakefi eld of Bar Harbor was anchored close to the schooners through the night and rode out the storm in safety. Tuesday during a slight lull in the storm the sloop beat her way into the harbor and the two men who composed the crew told of the harrowing night aboard the little boat.


During the night Monday the BOBOLEENA, a 40-foot gasoline launched owned by D. T. Timayenis, Greek consul at Boston, a summer resident of Sullivan got adrift and went ashore, turning over in the surf on the beach and becoming a complete wreck. A knockabout owned by the same gentleman fi lled at her moorings in the harbor and sank. Over of Conners Brothers’ boat houses and of Corners Brothers’ boat houses and considerable damage was done to a launch, owned by Hon. Joseph Pulitzer of New York which had recently been stored in the boat house. Another launch of Mr. Pulitzer’s, which was in another boat house, was uninjured. Here in Bar Harbor there was no great damage to property except to the trees about the streets, and on private land, but this was quite serious as great limbs were torn off and the beauty of many trees marred for years to come. A big willow a foot and a half through in front of Milton Stratton’s house on Cottage street was blown down by the force of the gale. The Maine Central Ferry boat was about an hour late in arriving on her morning trip and when she came into the harbor she was plunging into the waves and the spray was going all over her. The trip to Northeast, Southwest Harbor, Seal Harbor and Manset was abandoned on account of the storm. The surf was magnifi cent during Tuesday afternoon and many people braved the elements and went down to the Shore Path to watch the rollers along the beach and on the islands about the bay. At low water Tuesday afternoon there was a very heavy sea which did considerable damage to the wharves, carrying away piling and breaking up fl oating stages. Men who had boats moored out in the harbor put in one of the busiest days of their lives getting out extra anchors and making everything snug in the endeavor to save their property from going to destruction.


1 January 1904 With the Ships


Cargo of C. R. FLINT Owned by Stetson, Cutler & Co. Lost Near Eastport


Steamer ELDORADO Bought by Popham Beach Co. – Schooner JAMES B. DRAKE Nearly Finished. Bangor shipping men are interest in the wreck of the schooner C. R. FLINT, St. John to New Bedford with lumber. The cargo which was probably valued at some $5,000 to $6,000, was shipped by Stetson, Cutler & Co. of St. John, New York and Bangor. The vessel, it is understood, carried no insurance nor was there any on the freight but the cargo was fully covered by the Lloyds of England. The schooner was a three-master of


New York, Capt. Maxwell, and was wrecked on Raccoon Beach, situated on the easterly side of Campobello Island. The fi rst news


of the wreck was brought to Eastport by a steamer Thursday, which reported passing large quantities of laths, shingles, and wreckage. Later the vessel was identifi ed and it was ascertained that no lives had been lost. The C. R. FLINT was built in Bath, in 1871, was 266 gross tons, 130.3 feet long, 30.7 feet wide and 8.9 feet deep. Bought Steamer ELDORADO. The fi rst of this week Pres. George


E. Thompson, Manager Perkins and A. A. Percy of Bath, director of the Popham Beach Steamboat Co. went to Portland to look over the steamer ELDORADO of the Casco Bay Steamboat Co. with the intention of making a trade for the steamer and using her on the Popham-Bath route next summer. Their visit was satisfactory and the craft was found to be in excellent condition and she was straightway purchased and will be brought to Bath in the near future and made ready for the spring service. The steamer is capable of easily carrying 250 persons and will be a great addition to the river fl eet. She was built in Buffalo in 1893 and measures 73 feet long, 17 feet width, 6.4 feet depth, gross tonnage 96 tons. She is a propeller and was built expressly for the inland passenger service, and is equipped with an electric lighting plant. Has a commodious cabin and she has been recognized as one of the fastest boats of the Casco Bay fl eet. The Popham Beach Steamboat Co. is pleased in securing the ELDORADO and is confi dent that she will be appreciated by the patrons of the line. The manner in which the offi cials of the company are preparing for the business of their fi rst season is very gratifying to the people in Bath.


5 January 1904 For Bangor Man


Stetson’s New Schooner will be Named AUGUSTUS H. BABCOCK To Lay Keel in March


Vessel will be Finished in September – Percy & Small’s Shipyard Shut Down – Notes.


The new schooners to be built the coming summer by E. & I. K. Stetson, in the Brewer shipyard, for Capt. E. G. Hutchinson, formerly commander of the Bangor schooner ESTELLE, is to be named the AUGUSTUS H. BABCOCK, for Bangor’s well known coal dealer of that name.


Mr. Babcock has taken 1/16 interest in the new schooner and ¾ of her has already been sold, much of which has been purchased by local parties. The keel for the new schooner which will be a four-master of about 1,300 to 1,400 tons, will be laid in March. It is expected to fi nish the vessel in September.


The new schooner HORACE A.


STONE, Capt. Trask, which was recently launched at the Stetson yard in Brewer, left Penobscot bay January 1, for Fernandina. She will load ties there for New York and is expected to make a quick trip down. Shipping Notes. Percy & Small’s shipyard at Bath has been shut down on account of lack of timber for the frame of the six-masted schooner now under construction there. Two-thirds of the frame has arrived from Ontario but the prospects for getting the other third at once are so slim that it was decided Monday to close the yard until it arrived. The workmen have been kept at work for the past two weeks until there is now practically nothing for them to do. Hackmatack is used and this timber cannot be obtained from the south. The timber should have arrived three months ago. It is expected that the shutdown will last but a short time. The lighter building for the


M. G. Shaw Lumber Co. is nearly fi nished and the frame for the six-masted schooner to be built for J. M. Winslow of Portland has been ordered and work will begin in the spring.


Some uneasiness is felt for the safety of the three-masted schooner JOSEPH W. HAWTHORN, Capt. Poland, which sailed from Jacksonville about December 2, bound for Portland with a cargo of southern lumber consigned to that port. Her consignees have by no means given her up as lost, believing that she has been driven off her course and will in due time be heard from. In any event, whatever may have happened to the vessel, there is a strong probability that the crew may have been saved and will be landed at some foreign port. The HAWTHORN is a good vessel of 516 tons, was built by Morse Bros. of Bath, in 1891, and is owned by New York parties.


Capt. Mark Gilbert, formerly commander of the four-masted schooner HOPE SHERWOOD is passing the winter in Bath. He arrived in New York last week from Savannah after a quick passage. Lewis Stanton, well known in this city, who has been going mate with Capt. Gilbert, will have command in the future. Capt. Gilbert is having a 1400-ton schooner built in Mystic, Connecticut, and will make frequent trips there during the winter to superintend her construction.


6 January 1904 With the Ships


Bath Schooner S. P. HITCHCOCK Wrecked in Nova Scotia News of the Shipping


Miss Helen Piper Tells a Thrilling Tale of the Wreck of the Ship BENJAMIN SEWALL


The harbors from Maine to New York and even farther south have been frozen up during the past few days and the vessels have had a hard time in making a safe port. The Bath schooner S. P. WINDSOR, N. S., to Philadelphia, got frozen in the Bay of Fundy and was wrecked at Culloden Cove, N. S. Capt. Alcorn and the crew escaped. The schooner FRED B. BALANO, Bangor for New York via Bridgeport, has arrived at City Island. Schooner SAMUEL W. HATHAWAY is reported having left Cape Henry for Ponce from Norfolk. The tug SEGUIN was in Boothbay harbor, Tuesday, with the schooner ANNIE F. KIMBALL bound for an eastern port. Hyannis harbor is reported solid ice. A Girl’s Tale of Shipwreck. Miss Helen Piper, the 18 year old niece of Capt. Hoelstad of the wrecked Bath schooner BENJAMIN SEWALL, lost on the Pacifi c over a month ago, is now in Boston enjoying a rest after her experience. Her tale of the thrilling adventure makes a fascinating chapter:


“When the typhoon struck us,” says


Miss Piper, “it blew so hard that we seemed to be sailing over an endless waterfall. The ship leaped out of the water and then buried her nose under it. The masts and rigging bent and strained, and creaked and shrieked as if they were all trying to fl y off.


“Uncle Jack (Capt. Hoelstad) had ordered the ship hove to, but at 7 o’clock the sea and wind were so terrifi c that he got her about and ran before the wind under bare poles.


“The men were all on the house with


Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary and could only sit shivering in the cabin and wait for what was to come. The roar of the wind was deafening. No human being who has not experienced a typhoon can imagine how fearful it was. “Round and round roared the typhoon, gradually moving its center toward us and


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