Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS June 2014 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 23 July 1906 Maine Fishing Schooner Sunk


The JOHN A. ALLAN of So. Harpswell Run Down By the Str. VADERLAND. New York, July 23. – The sinking of


the fi shing schooner JOHN A. ALLAN of South Harpswell, Maine, by the Red Star line steamer VADERLAND Sunday morning off Georges banks was reported by the VADERLAND which arrived here Monday from Antwerp. The crew of seven on the schooner were picked up by the VADERLAND and brought to this city. The accident occurred at 7:20 a. m. during a dense fog. The JOHN A. ALLAN was of 43 tons and her home port was South Harpswell, Maine. Capt. Toothacker, Albert H. Douglas, Thomas H. Boyd, E. N. Hamilton, W. H. Doughtry, Silph Pinkham and W. W. Latham.


The JOHN A. ALLAN sailed from


Boston Thursday last on a fi shing cruise. The schooner sank within fi ve minutes after being struck but the crew escaped in a dory and were picked up by the VADERLAND.


25 July 1906 Derelict Schooner a Menace in Atlantic Bath Vessel JOHN S. DEERING Lying with Hull Awash in Path of Ocean Liners – Has Drifted 8000 Miles. New York, July 25. – With her hull just awash, the wandering derelict, JOHN S. DEERING, of Bath, Maine, was sighted on July 18, about 1,000 miles west of Queenstown, by the White Star liner CEVIC, from Liverpool, which arrived Wednesday.


Capt. Clark of the CEVIC said the derelict was low in the water with only the strumps of her fore and main masts showing. He considers the derelict a serious menace to navigation because it is directly in the path of all west bound steamships on the North Atlantic passenger route. Capt. Clarke gave the exact position of the derelict as latitude 47 13 N., and longitude 31 48 W. He sighted the wreck about 6 o’clock last Wednesday evening. It was slowly drifting eastward. The JOHN S. DEERING was formerly a three masted schooner. Late in February last she left Wilmington, North Carolina with a cargo of lumber for New York. Heavy storms were encountered and the DEERING became dismasted and waterlogged. In this condition she was abandoned on March 1, by her master and crew who were rescued and landed at Philadelphia. It was off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, that the derelict started on her wandering and she has had a remarkably long life as a menace to navigation.


Since she was left by her crew, she has floated with the Gulf stream is a northeasterly direction. If is estimated that over 3,000 miles have been covered in the 140 days since she was abandoned. During this time, she has been sighted by a number of ships.


26 July 1906


Sch. DIADEM Lost Off Ash Island. A stiff easterly wind and a strong ebb tide drove the little Rockport schooner DIADEM on the rocks of Ash Island, just inside Whitehead in the Musselridge channel below Rockland Wednesday


Captains Abbott and Hall Continued from Page 5.


Bay and River Pilot. After receiving his Pi- lots and Docking Master License, he ended his brokerage career and purchased a 38-foot sightseeing boat the CYNTHIA J. With the help of Captain Rusty Robinson, he ran the business for several years until becoming a partner in Penobscot Bay Pilot with Captain Bill Abbot providing pilotage service in Penobscot Bay 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Captain Hall boarded the vessels at offshore pilot stations guiding them safely to their destination then reversing the process navigating the vessels until they were clear of Penobscot Bay. Upon Captain Abbot’s retirement, Gil became sole owner until his retirement in 1994. In 1970, Captain Abbot and Captain Richard Moody started Camden Marine Operator which connected marine radios to the mainland telephone system for the fi rst time. Upon Gil’s retirement, he and Shirley traveled all over the world. They took many family trips to Florida with the family and cherished the time they got to spend with their grandchild. He and Shirley loved to travel all over New England to watch grand- son Kyle wrestle and spent many happy days at the cottage on Norton’s Pond with family and friends. Some of his happiest times were with his son Douglas on the yacht DELIV- ERANCE doing passages north and south to Florida and was proud when his grandson David became a third generation captain. Gil was the salt of the earth, always seeing the good in people and never the bad. He would do anything for anyone if he could. Gilbert was a member of the First Congregational Church of Camden where he had served as a Deacon. He was a member of the Amity #6 Masonic lodge and was a member of the Propeller Club in Belfast and the Maine Maritime Alumni Association. He was a long-time and faithful member of the


Camden Lion’s club and was the recipient of the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. The Hall family would like to express their gratitude to the many devoted caregiv- ers at Anderson Inn and the Schooner Bay Taxi for providing transportation for Gil for several years.


He was predeceased by his wife Shirley Hall who died in 2007. Surviving are his three children, Michael Hall and his wife, Dot of Camden; Captain Douglas Hall and his wife, Janet of Rockport; Cynthia Sylvester and her husband, John of Rock- port, six grandchildren, Kyle Sylvester and his wife, Courtney; Heather Sylvester, Stephanie Raddish, Captain David Hall, Jessica Payson and Jeremy Payson; two great-grandchildren, Aubrey Sylvester and Ava Schaller; and Jaxson Payson: three sisters Ruth Barter and her husband, Donald of Jefferson; Fay Leland of West Rockport; Mary Freeman of China and one brother, Jer- ry Hall of Bath and several nieces, nephews and cousins. Gil also leaves three live-long devoted friends, Johnson Talbot; Jack Wil- liams and Arden Young and special friend Estelle Megquier. A Memorial Service will be held on June 6th at 1pm followed by a reception at the First Congregational Church UCC, 55 Elm Street, Camden with the Rev. Kevin Pleas offi ciating. Private interment will be in the East Searsmont Cemetery. If desired, memorial gifts may be made to the Cam- den Lion’s Club, PO Box 235, Rockport, ME 04856 or to Maine Maritime Acade- my, Development Offi ce, Pleasant Street, Castine, ME 04420. Condolences, photos and memories may be shared with the Hall family by visiting their book of memories at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com. Ar- rangements are with the Long Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.


evening and as the vessel fi lled within a few minutes, the crew of four men had only time to jump into their boat and rolled into deep water. The crew rowed ashore at Seal Harbor without being able to save any of their personal belongings. The DIADEM was bound from Boston to Rockport with a cargo of cement. She was commanded by Capt. Maddox and passed in by Whitehead just after dark and before Capt. Maddox realized it, the DIADEM was inside the bell buoy off the eastern end of Ash Island. The vessel struck on the rocks of the island about 8:30 and a large hole was broken open on the port side. Feeling their vessel gradually fi lling the crew launched their boat and had scarcely jumped into it before the schooner rolled over to starboard and sank in several fathoms of water. The DIADEM was built at Essex, Massachusetts in 1855. She was 63 tons net burden.


28 July 1906 Bar Harbor Drowned Off Otter Creek


Steamer SAPPHO and Fishing Smack in Collision With One Fatality. Bar Harbor, July 28. A sad accident occurred about half a mile from Otter Creek at 9:30 Saturday morning whereby in a collision between the Maine Central steamer SAPPHO, Capt. Joseph Norton in command, and a fi shing smack, George Liscomb, son of Horace Liscomb of Otter Creek, a young man of 16 years of age lost his life, and his two companions, William H. Davis and William Henry Bunker, both of Otter Creek, miraculously escaped death. The three men had been out fi shing and were returning from their catch. They had gone out in two boats and in returning the three had gotten into the sloop and were towing the other boat. According to the story of Mr. Bunker, they saw the SAPPHO when she was at some distance but supposed that she would avoid them and kept on their course. The wind had nearly died out and they were rowing the sloop. Soon, however,


the men in the boat became aware that a collision was imminent and seeing that it could not be avoided. Mr. Bunker pulled the head of the sloop around so that the steamer struck it a glancing blow instead of meeting it fairly. The men were thrown into the water and it is supposed that Liscomb was hit by the steamer as he was not seen again. It was said on the steamer that the


fi shing boat had been seen at some little distance although the weather was thick but it was thought to be progressing rapidly enough to get out of the path of the steamer. It was only almost upon the boat that it was realized that a collision was imminent and then every effort was made to avoid such signals for backing being given and everything possible done.


After the collision boats were hastily lowered and Mr. Bunker and Mr. Davis who were in the water were picked up and hurried to the steamer on board of which fortunately was Dr. C. C. Morrison of Bar Harbor who had been attending a patient at Northeast Harbor. Dr. Morrison, on beholding the accident, had immediately ordered hot coffee from the gallery and made preparations so that the men received prompt and efficient treatment. It was thought that Mr. Davis was dead when taken on board the steamer as he had no pulse. He gradually recovered, however, and at noon time was feeling fairly well at the Bar Harbor hospital to which he and Mr. Bunker were immediately taken upon arrival at this port. Bunker’s injuries were from the shock and the chill of being in the water. Both Mr. Bunker and Mr. Davis are men over 70 years of age. Their escapes were quite miraculous. Mr. Davis was wearing at the time a fi sherman’s oilskin shirt which was closely tied about his chest beneath his arms. The air in this could not escape and acted as a life preserver, buoying him up in the water. After the collision, Mr. Bunker found himself sitting upon a small portion of the bottom of the sloop and succeeded in retaining his equilibrium there until picked up by the boat from the SAPPHO.


'70S MEMORIES: TOM MORRIS Continued from Page 21.


“splash mould” from Chuck’s hull which they soon completed and shipped to South- west where Tom began moulding the fi rst double ender “Frances 26”. Chuck was then to complete his boat for use by Morris Yachts for use at the Newport Boat Show in the fall. Disaster struck when Chuck’s shop with his virtually completed Frances burned to the ground. However, resilience prevailed. Chuck and Tom agreed on a new course of action. Chuck would hire his brother Art to help him and Tom would sell Chuck a hull and rent a space at a dis- count. They would build a new Frances, which they did, completing it ahead of one scheduled for the following year show and showed theirs. They sold boats. For every two years after that, Tom would order an- other model. Chuck would go on to design The “Annie 29”, “Leigh 30”, all named for Chuck’s ex-girlfriends, and then the “Jus- tin 36” for Tina which was “the last of the girls.”


By 1994, Morris Yachts was outgrow- ing the boatyard in Southwest and Tom, re- alizing the need for more storage facility, purchased a piece of property and house near the Bass Harbor Elementary School. It was an astute move. Tom sold the house and a lot for the price he’d paid for the en- tire property. By this time, 1995, Cuyler, who had been doing a great deal of com- petitive sailing came to work for the com-


pany and in 1999 Morris Yachts bought Bass Harbor Marine and by the fall of 2000 were hauling boats there for storage and repair. Soon thereafter, Abel Marine had to give up its lease at Trenton Airport and was assumed by Morris Yachts. Total yard lo- cations were then brought to a total of fi ve with the acquisition of Mount Desert Yacht Yards Northeast Harbor facility. Throughout these thirty some years of growth to become the largest boat com- pany on MDI, Tom Morris, a man of great integrity, never changed, never let success change his outward personality. With the help of talented personnel, his family, and son Cuyler, Tom kept his eye on building more and better product. If you saw a vin- tage black Volkswagon “beetle” pass by on the island, you’d expect it was Tom Morris. How he ever inserted his tall lanky frame with any comfort into that car was ever a topic of wonder. In 2007, after successful- ly doing the original “Girl Series”, and the “Ocean Series” with Chuck, amounting to some ten different models and over 197 boats, Tom became sick with cancer. To the sadness of us all, he passed away the next year.


Morris Yachts still remains in the Mor- ris Family with Cuyler at the helm and have successfully embarked on a totally new series designed by Sparkman and Stevens named the “M Series,” an elegant, classic series of luxury day sailers in 29,36,42,and 52 foot lengths.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32