December 2013 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 21.


21 January 1904 With the Ships


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s * * * * *


No Credence Given Report Concerning JOSEPH W. HAWTHORN ESTELLE at Scranton


Bath Shipbuilders Have Constructed Many Unique and Out-of-the-Ordinary Craft – Marine Notes.


The Bangor schooner ESTELLE, Capt. Hutchinson arrived Tuesday at Scranton, Mississippi, from Curacoa which port she left January 8, light. She will load hard pine at Scranton. Capt. Hutchinson reports “all well.”


Bangor shipping men do not put much faith in the report that the schooner JOSEPH W. HAWTHORN, Jacksonville for Portland, December 2, was passed a sea dismasted and the crew refused to leave the vessel. A report from Parrsboro, N. S., says: Grave fears are entertained for the safety of two-masted schooner LEONARD B. The vessel was loaded with coal for Stonington, Maine, and left here the latter part of December. She was commanded by Capt. Stephen Wagstaff, of Victoria Harbor, N. S., and carried a crew of six men.


The LEONARD B. was built in 1891 at Port Greville, was 121 tons register and owned by R. G. Lavers of Pansboro. It is feared the vessel was lost in the big storm of January 3.


Unique Bath-Built Craft.


Following is a list of vessels constructed by Bath shipbuilder in the past which are unique or out of the ordinary: Ships: BERLIN, the fi rst double top gallant yard ship in the world. DIRIGO, the fi rst four-masted iron ship built in this country. ROANOKE, the largest four-masted wooden ship in the world. RAPPAHANNOCK, the fi rst wooden ship built with a steel bowsprit. ARTHUR SEWALL, the fi rst ship ever


built with standing upper topsail yards. Yachts: ELEANOR, st the time of her launching she was the fi nest equipped yacht in the world.


The FLEUR DE LIS was the first wooden yacht ever built in Bath and the SAGAMORE the last.


Schooners: ELIZABETH PALMER,


the largest fi ve-masted wooden schooner in the world.


KINEO, the fi rst steel schooner built in America.


ELEANOR A. PERCY, the largest fore and aft wooden schooner afl oat. ADDIE M. LAWRENCE, the fastest six-master in the world.


In addition to these Bath has turned out the WINNEFRED, the fi rst tramp steamer ever built in America. NAVARRAH, the fi rst steam whaler


built in America. barge ever built.


KNICKERBOCKER, the first coal WESTERN BELLE, the fi rst bark with


skysail yards. PACTOLUS, the last wooden bark built


in America. J. W. ELWELL, the only four-masted barkentine in the world.


22 January 1904 With the Ships


The Schooner SARAH C. ROPES Aground Near Brunswick, Georgia An Ice-Bound Coast


A Scow Lumber Sloop Launched at Bath – New HENRY F. KREGER Makes Trip in Eight Days. The Portland schooner SARAH C. ROPES is ashore and is in a dangerous position near Brunswick, Georgia. She was bound for Brunswick from Boston and grounded two miles off Doboy early Tuesday morning. It is reported she is in bad shape and that tugs from Brunswick and Savannah went to her assistance Thursday. The SARAH C. ROPES was built in Bath by E. S. Crosby in 1891 and is owned


MISC. COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS Continued from Page 20.


viously scheduled state advisory meetings. Following are the currently scheduled meet- ings. Contact your respective state agency or check the Commission’s website calendar at http://www.asmfc.org/calendar/ for more information on additional state meetings as they are scheduled.


Maine Marine Resources Advisory Council January 2014 (date to be determined) Contact: Patrick Keliher at 207.624.6553


New Hampshire Advisory Committee on Marine Fisheries


December 3, 2013 at 7 PM Urban Forestry Center 45 Elwyn Road


Portsmouth, New Hampshire Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095


Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council December 2, 2013 at 6 PM


URI Narragansett Bay Campus – Corless Auditorium


South Ferry Road Narragansett, Rhode Island Contact: Robert Ballou at 401.222.4700


The Draft Strategic Plan is available on the Commission website at www.asmfc. org/fi les/StrategicPlan/DraftStrategicPlan_ PublicComment.pdf. Public comment must be received by January 10, 2014, 5:00 PM EST and should be forwarded to Deke


by J. S. Winslow & Co. of Portland. She is a fi ne schooner of 1021 net tons. Rarely, if every before, has the Atlantic coast been in such a condition from the ice. All Cape Cod ports are reported frozen up and from Baltimore comes the report that the ice condition in the bay are very bad. Ice extends up the Potomac river and in places the bay is frozen from shore to shore. The ice is from six to 18 inches thick and jammed in places from two to four feet thick. The steamer PENOBSCOT lay in


Rockland Thursday night on account of the bad weather it having showed hard in Boston and rained in New York. She was there Friday morning and will wait for better weather conditions. A Launching at Bath.


Thursday afternoon the new scow sloop AMBEJEJUS for the M. G. Shaw Lumber Co. was successfully launched from Percy & Small’s yard Bath in the presence of a small party of spectators. The craft was built expressly for the lumber carrying trade on the river and along the Maine coast. She will have the carrying capacity of 80M. Her offi cial measurements are length, 70.5; breadth, 22.2; depth, 5.6; gross tonnage, 68 tons. Her mast is 70 ft. state of Maine pine stick and will spend 400 yards of canvas. J. M. Pottle formerly of the EMMA C. is going in command and he is more than pleased with his new craft. She is named after one of the lakes in northern Maine near Millinocket and will be ready for commission the last of this month. The AMBEJEJUS ranks easily as the queen of the scow sloops in this state. She cost upwards of $3500.


23 January 1904 With the Ships


AUGUSTUS HUNT Wrecked Saturday Off West Hampton, L. I. The First Four-Master


A Derelict Sighted Off Cape Hatteras May Be Missing Schooner JOSEPH W. HAWTHORN


The four-masted schooner AUGUSTUS


Tompkins, Legislative Assistant, at 1050 N. Highland, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or comments@ asmfc.org (Subject line: Strategic Plan). The Commission is scheduled to take action on the fi nal Plan in February at its Winter Meeting in Alexandria, VA.


ASMFC Schedules Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Data Workshop for January 13-16, 2014 in St. Petersburg, FL


The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries


Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Data Workshop will be con- ducted on January 13-16, 2014 at the Flor- ida Marine Research Institute (Conference Rooms 3A & 3B), 100 8th Ave SE, St. Petersburg, Florida. The workshop will re- view all available data sources for Atlantic menhaden and identify data sets that will be incorporated in the stock assessment. The workshop will be open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confi dential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.


The Stock Assessment Workshop will be conducted in the summer (date and loca- tion to be determined), with the peer review scheduled for December 2014 through the SouthEast Data, Assessment and Review process. For more information, please con- tact Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.


HUNT, Capt. Blair, from Norfolk, January 18 for Boston with coal, was wrecked Saturday morning off West Hampton, L. I. The AUGUSTUS HUNT is a Bath schooner having been built in the Shipping City by the Morses in 1882. She was the fi rst four- masted schooner ever built and at the time of her launching was considered rather an experiment on account of her size. She is 1200 gross tons, 208 feet long, 40.7 feet wide, 20.6 deep and carried a crew of ten men.


The HUNT is a well-known fi gure in the port of Bangor having been here many times and was in port last summer with a cargo of coal. On account of her age she had been refused by some insurance companies and it is not known whether she is insured now or not.


Is This the HAWTHORN? The pretty steam QUITO which reached


Boston Thursday from Chili with a cargo of nitrate of silver reports having passed near Cape Hatteras a dangerous derelict which was fl oating just awash and which was apparently the wreck of an American schooner about 200 feet in length. The derelict was drifting in the track of shipping and Capt. Shotton of the QUITO believes it a grave menace to navigation. The schooner JOSEPH W.


HAWTHORN has not been heard from since a few days after leaving Jacksonville, Florida, December 2, for Portland and while the HAWTHORN is not quite 200 feet long it is not impossible that the derelect and she are one. The HAWTHORN was loaded with hard pine and would naturally fl oat a long time.


15 Lives Lost in Wreck at Sea


The 4-Master, AUGUST HUNT, Driven Ashore on the Long Island Coast New York, January 23. – Fifteen lives were lost in the wreck of the four-masted schooner AUGUSTUS HUNT off West Hampton, L. I., Saturday. Two others who were on board were saved. Through dense fog the cries of the doomed crew appealed for help and the life savers tried repeatedly to reach the wreck but without success, the heavy seas fl inging back the life boat while the thick fog veiled he schooner from sight and prevented the use of any lines to reach the wreck.


The schooner went ashore one and a half miles east of Quogue life-saving station soon after midnight and during the early morning hours the cries of the crew attracted attention. Soon after daylight the wreck began to go to pieces. Fragments that reached shore bore the name of the vessel. Within a few hours the schooner had broken up completely and of her crew of 17, only two survived. These were the second mate and one sailor who reached the shore on a piece of wreckage.


Capt. Blair was not on board the schooner being in Boston, his mate, Capt. Conary, having the command. New York, January 23. – The four- masted schooner AUGUSTUS HUNT, Capt. Blair, from Norfolk, January 18, for Boston with coal, was wrecked Saturday morning off West Hampton, L. I. The AUGUSTUS HUNT is a Bath schooner having been built in the Shipping City by the Morses in 1892. She was the fi rst four-masted schooner ever built and at the time of her launching was considered rather an experiment on account of her size. She is 1,200 gross tons, 208 feet long, 40.7 feet wide, 20.6 deep and carries a crew of ten men.


The place where the AUGUSTUS


HUNT went ashore is west of the Quogue life-saving station. She will be a total wreck. The body of a sailor has been washed ashore a mile from the scene of the wreck and quantities of wreckage have also been swept up on the shore. The name of the vessel was ascertained from the ship’s papers that fl oated to land with the wreckage. The vessel lay about 600 feet from the shore but the fog was so dense that she could not be seen. The cries of the men on board calling for help were distinctly heard.


The life-saving crew under the command of Capt. Charles Herman made repeated attempts to launch the life boat to go to the assistance of the shipwrecked sailors, but owing to the tremendous sea, were unsuccessful. It was impossible to shoot a line over the vessel as she could not be seen owing to the thick weather. It was thought that ten or 12 men were still on the wreck. It is possible that more of the crew have been drowned. As soon as the fog lifts the life savers will make another attempt to reach the wreck.


Judging from the various parts of the vessel that have fl oated ashore it is thought that nothing is left but the bow to which the crew is supposed to be clinging. From the shore the cries of the wrecked seamen are becoming fainter and fainter as if they were rapidly becoming exhausted.


Among the debris on the shore were found some toys which gave rise to the belief that there may have been children on the vessel. Two of the crew were saved but 15 others were lost, bodies being washed from the wreck.


The HUNT is a well-known fi gure in the Continued on Page 22.


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