Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS November 2013


men for the victims of the wreck, they were still in a terrible condition, unable to be moved from the vessel. After an examination had been made, doctors said that all had chances for recovery. Not only had they suffered from exposure, both to frigid temperature and stormy seas, but for 36 hours they had been compelled to go without food or water, and when the men from the Hodgdon reached the hull of the AYER, they found the crew practically frozen to the hull from which the masts and sails had been carried away. Capt. Hodgdon said that the plight of the men at the time of the rescue and even at the time of their arrival here, was the worst he had ever seen in his 30 years’ experience on the sea. The AYER left St. John for New York


with lumber, December 26. Last Friday they encountered the gale which swept the New England coast and headed for Portland. The storm was too fi erce and she was forced to keep off shore. On Saturday she encountered the full force of the blizzard which followed the gale and she was driven to a point east of Cape Cod where sails and rigging were blown away. At the mercy of the storm, with waves driving over her, ice accumulated rapidly and she was soon unmanageable. Then a leak was discovered. The pumps could not be worked. As she rolled in the trough of the sea, to prevent her from capsizing the captain ordered the masts cut away. The cabin was full of (?), so that there was no shelter. The men could get no food for the same reason. There was no seat for them in their exposed condition. Thus did they pass Saturday night and


Sunday night. At 8 o’clock Monday morning Capt. Hodgdon sighted the rolling hull through the mist and saw what he took to be a signal of distress fl apping from the stump of the mast. Capt. Hodgdon called for a volunteer crew to clear away the ice-covered boats and go to the disabled craft. Every man on the HODGDON promptly responded. With great diffi culty the captain and two men reached the wreck and boarding her, discovered the situation. For a time it was a question whether the men on the dismasted hull were dead or alive. The HODGDON’s men assisted them into the dory and took them back to the fi shing schooner. Such remedies as that boat afforded were promptly applied. Under the infl uences the men partly recovered. The HODGSDON was promptly headed for this port, where she arrived Wednesday. The AYER was about ten miles east of Cape Cod when she was abandoned. She was a vessel of 121 gross tons, about seven years old and was owned by W. C. Scott of St. John.


16 January 1904 The Ancient Ferryman on the Kennebec For 38 Years Joseph G. Densmore Did Long Service Between Richmond and Dresden – Never Lost a Life. Thirty-eight years on a ferry across a Maine river is the record of Joseph G. Densmore who a few years ago retired to enjoy the declining years of his life on shore leave. During that time he sailed, pulled and rowed his ferry boat across the Kennebec river at what is known as the old Parks ferry running between Dresden on the east side of the river and Richmond on the west, covering in that time many thousand miles. Over half a lifetime he took people from one side of the river to the other in sunshine and storm and never met, with any serious accidents. Six years ago he retired from the service and is now living at his homestead near the ferry where he worked for so many years, working his fertile farm along by the bank of the river and enjoying his well-


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s earned rest.


In 1859 Mr. Densmore began as ferryman between the two towns and until the closing of the river in the fall of 1897 hardly missed a day from his duties. There was only one boat between the two shores at that time and that was a sort of dug-out scow which had to be sculled across the river by main strength.


For a dozen years Mr. Densmore did this work but the increasing travel made it necessary for some other means of power being supplied so that the trips of the boat could be made with more regularity. He enlisted the services of nature in this undertaking and thought up the idea of laying a cable of heavy iron wire from one shore to the other and having it run in pulleys on the boat so that he could get across the river at the strength of the tide without having to work against it and without being blown from his course. This was done in the spring of 1871 and since that time more improved scows with decks have been in use there.


When starting from the shore he would pick up the cable and put it through the pulley at the bow of the boat and at the stern have a like pulley on a rope about fi ve feet long which would be allowed to stand out and away from the scow. In this way the tide coming against the scow would sheer it across the river at a rate much faster than he was able to scull it across. By pulling on the cable at the same time he was able to give it additional speed.


As the business began to grow it was soon found that one boat could not handle the traffic and another ferryman was appointed by the county commissioners. That necessitated the laying of another cable so that both boats could work at the same time. Like a single railroad track, passing on it is a diffi cult matter.


The ferry used is much like an ordinary


scow, being made large enough to hold three single teams or a double and a single team without crowding. On one side in the middle of the boat is a small sail which is used to quite an extent in going across on the wire. With a good wind the work of the ferryman is light and he is almost as independent as a millionaire in an automobile. His only work is to pick up the cable with his hook, set his sail and the matter of getting to the other side is a very simple one.


Duties Not Pleasant.


The duties of a ferryman are not the most pleasant at times. The boats are launched as soon as the river opens, which will average from the fi rst to the tenth of April and until the closing of the river around the fi rst of December he is on duty at all times of night and day. He is obliged to keep his ferry going in all kinds of weather, the only thing which he can stop for is the closing of the river or when the ice begins to run so heavy that the cannot cross without danger to his passenger and himself.


After 9 o’clock at night he is allowed


to charge double fare for his passengers and teams but aside from that he has no other way of getting any extra money. The rates for ferriage are fi xed by the county commissioners of Lincoln and Sagadahoc on either side of the river. Hardly a night passes in the summer time but what he is called out of his bed by somebody who wants to get from one side of the river to the other. Has Traveled Many Miles. In his trips across the river, Mr. Densmore has traveled a great number of miles. The round trip is nearly a mile, the river being practically half a mile in width at that point. The average number of trips per day during the season is 25, allowing 250 days in the year when the ferry is running his


annual mileage would be 6,250 and during his 38 year of service at that rate would amount to 237,500 or fi ve and a half times around the world. Never Had an Accident.


There has never been a life lost on the ferry in all the people that have been ferried across. There have been interesting incidents and at one time what might have been a serious case was avoided by a son Mr. Densmore. In the days of the old circuses traveling by team from town to town there came a circus one morning early from Wiscasset to Richmond. There were 35 teams in all to be ferried across the river and but two of them could be taken on at once. All had one well until the greater part of them had been taken across safely when on nearing the further shore one of the horses became frightened and broke away from the halters that held him, taking the wagon and driver along with him.


The water at this point was eight or nine feet deep and things looked serious for a time. The driver was taken off the team to the ferry and Mr. Densmore’s son succeeded in getting the horse clear from the wagon, so lie was able to take care of himself by swimming shore. The wagon was afterward hauled out.


Always Lived Near River. During all these years Mr. Densmore has always lived near the river, his house being not more than 20 yards from the water. The land at the landing is low and a few years ago his house only escaped destruction by a modern miracle. When the freshet of 1896 on the Kennebec was at its worst the ice broke up and started down stream. Much of it was a foot in thickness and did much damage. The water was high and for a time his house was completely surrounded by water, the ice passing on either side into his fi eld.


A line of elm trees a few yards in front of his house made a dam and protected it from the fl ood. A house some ways further up on the shore was totally destroyed by the ice, being taken from its foundations and carried for some ways.


The ferry was established many years ago, being called Parks’ ferry in honor of its fi rst ferryman who tended it for a number of years during the early part of the state’s history. After him came Capt. David Stearns in 1835, who was followed by Capt Charles Goodwin and Edwin Perkins, who was the predecessor of Mr. Densmore. The ferry is a source of much amusement and wonder to the summer visitors to that vicinity. As there is not enough traffi c for a steam ferry and a bridge impracticable it is likely that the present method will continue for a number of years to come.


18 January 1904 Schooner Sank in 5 Minutes Pilot Boat and Fishing Smack Collided Off Portland


The LETTIE MAY Went Down


Her Crew Had a Narrow Escape from Drowning – Loss Over $4,000; No Insurance


Portland, January 18. The 26 ton Portland fi shing schooner


LETTIE MAY, Capt. Augustus Dyer, was sunk Monday in collision with the pilot boat, FANNIE HAYDEN, two miles south of Green Island. The crew of eight men escaped to the pilot boat. The weather was clear but very rough with the wind blowing a heavy choppy sea. Because of the weather the LETTIE MAY was laying to, while the HAYDEN was laying a course for Half Way rock. The HAYDEN struck bow-on abaft the fore rigging of the starboard side, crashing through the sides and smashing the dories.


The crew, part of whom were sleeping in the forecastle, scrambled over the bowsprit to the HAYDEN. Some of them were dressed only in underclothing and suffered intensely from the cold, the mercury registering about ten degrees below zero.


Five minutes after the collision the


LETTIE MAY sank, no time being given for the recovery of the personal effects of the crew. The HAYDEN brought the men to Portland. Her injuries were confi ned to a broken broadstay.


The LETTIE MAY was valued at $4,000 and was uninsured. She was entering port with 2,000 pounds of cod and had docked. Her owners are Sargent and K. J. Fowler. She was built at Harpswell, Maine, in 1895, was 50 feet long, 16 feet wide and 8.1 feet deep.


As the HAYDEN left the harbor immediately after bringing in the crew the cause of the collision is not known.


19 January 1904 With the Ships


McKay & Dix Verona Island Shipbuilding Co. Incorporated Vessels at Bucksport?


Shipping Men are Wondering What Became of the Crew of the G. M. BRAINARD – Marine News Although nothing defi nite could be learned at Bucksport regarding the building there this coming summer, articles of incorporation for the McKay & Dix Verona Island Shipbuilding Co. have been fi led in Albany, New York. The capitalization of the company is $100,000.


It is thought that this means shipbuilding for Bucksport in the near future for as it well known the fi rm of McKay & Dix of New York owns a well-equipped shipyard on Verona Island opposite Bucksport, one of the best located and most convenient plants on the coast.


Here in 1900 were built the three


four-masters THALLIUM, since lost, EDWARD STOTESBURY and GEORGE G. THOMAS and in 1901, the fi ve-master JAMES W. PAUL, JR., one of the largest vessels of her class afl oat.


idle.


For the last two years the yard has been Crew Left Ship, Evidently.


A tug belonging to the T. A. Scott Co. of New London, Connecticut, went Monday to the scene of the wreck of the Rockland, Maine, schooner G. M. BRAINARD off Welsh Point, Milford, to endeavor to recover the bodies of the captain and crew of the sunken vessel. Capt. Sprague of Rockland, a representative of the owners of the schooner, COBB, WRIGHT & CO. of Rockland, was on board the tug.


Capt. Sprague wired to the owners at Rockland Monday afternoon stating that he had made a brief examination of the sunken vessel and there appeared many indications that the crew had left her, before she sank. The falls were out, the compass gone and it looked as if the schooner had been crushed by ice.


The rigging and sails, which were standing when the BRAINARD was found last week are in bad shape.


Capt. Frank C. Farrar was master of the G. M. BRAINARD, Sidney J. Beal of Buck’s Harbor was mate, and the members of the crew were Thomas R. Gray, John Nichols and Fred Barkster, all shipped at Rockland. The G. M. BRAINARD was bound for New York with a cargo of paving stone, and it is supposed her hull was injured by contact with fl oating ice causing her to sink. Although the schooner went down nearly a week ago, none of the bodies have come ashore.


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