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Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS September 2014 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 22 August 1906 Excursionists Shipwrecked


Sloop GEE WHIZ Twice Ran on Rocks in Sheepscot Bay Passengers Out All Night Fourteen Bedraggled and Seasick Persons Finally Landed at West Southport Wednesday.


West Southport, August 22. – With a weary party of fourteen excursionists on board, the little auxiliary sloop GEE WHIZ crept into this harbor Wednesday after having been lost in the fog and hung up on two ledges on Sheepscot bay while returning from a dance on the east side of the island Tuesday night. The party had left Hendrick’s Harbor as it is called, on the offi cial map of “Cosey Harbor” as it is better known to summer people here early last evening. The fog was just then beginning to set in but with the fog bell from the lighthouse on Hendricks Head to guide them Capt. E. B. Brewer of the sloop an experienced navigator of these waters met with great diffi culty in getting back. When the dance which they attended, broke up at midnight the fog was unusually thick even for this part of the coast. The GEE WHIZ however had little


diffi culty in coming down the river until she went out by Dog Fish Head as the wind in the channel thus far was well buoyed. But all this time the boat was picking up the sound of the fog horn on Hendricks Head, the engine being slowed down until there was barely steerage way for the little craft and the strong current sent the boat across the river towards the Five Islands shore. While all ears were strained for some sound of the horn or some glimmer of the light, the fog was heavy and the swell which runs at the point where the river meets the bay, made it almost impossible to keep a true course and the sloop struck.


From the peculiar formation of the rocks here, the captain got his bearings but all efforts to back off the boat from where she struck were unavailing until the rising tide fl oated her an hour later. With the tide came a heavy swell through which the GEE WHIZ must go two and a half miles broadside to pick up the lighthouse and harbor and many of the party became seasick.


After 15 minutes of sailing the sound of the fog horn could be heard but from Hendricks Point to Cosey Harbor at low


tide is very dangerous navigating in the fog on account of the numerous shoals which stretch far out from the Point. To add to the diffi culties there are two ledges sheltering the little harbor from the sea. The outer ledge is uncovered for several feet at low tide and in endeavoring to get out of the way of the shoals the GEE WHIZ made too wide a sweep to the southward and before the low lying rocks could be seen by the lookout at the bow the sloop had run up on the ledge. All efforts to back her off were fruitless and hold by her bow and swinging and tossing in the heavy surfs from the Sheepscot bay, the little boat spent an uncomfortable two hours. Nearly all of the party by this time had succumbed to seasickness and their plight was not rendered more cheerful by the knowledge that their harbor lay barely a hundred yards away. After a time the tide lifted the GEE WHIZ over the outer ledge and the anchor was let go for it was impossible for the helmsman to take even a small boat through the very narrow channel by the inside ledge in such a fog. Fortunately the stout hull of the sloop had been but little damaged by her experiences on the rocks and the excursionists were subjected to no more harrowing adventures. During the forenoon the fog had lifted suffi ciently for Capt. Brewer to make out the bar that marked the inside harbor ledge and without further mishap the GEE WHIZ landed her bedraggled party of the wharf.


4 September 1906 $30,000 Fire on the Waterfront


Fire Started in Coal Shed of Bacon & Robinson Co. – Schooner ANNIE L. HENDERSON Burned.


Fire which broke out about 8:30 Saturday morning in the coal shed of the Bacon & Robinson Co. on Front Street caused a loss estimated at $30,000 and at one time threatened the whole waterfront of the city. The fi re started in the roof of the offi ce at the Bacon & Robinson yard, the cause not being known but thought to have been either a live cinder from a locomotive or an electric wire. There were men working in the coal yard at the time the fi re started and also men sitting in the offi ce, but the blaze was fanned by a strong northwest breeze and soon gained great headway. A pair of horses were attached to a coal cart being loaded in the yard and the horses had to be whipped


Continued from Page 15. TWIST Restored by South Shore Boatworks


form; a desalination unit that produces 40 gph of freshwater; original 1973 compass, rebuilt & rechromed; and a large graywater tank since discharge is not allowed in the Mediteranean. Jeff Kent of Composite Solu- tions, Inc., provided custom carbon-fi ber components, including a folding mast which accommodates bridges in Europe’s canal system and allows the mast electronics to be serviced from the cockpit. Accommodations include a V-berth, double berth down to port, dining table that converts to berth, 2 day beds on deck with overhead bimini, galley up with a Techempex Italian-made electric galley stove and 13-cubic-ft. capacity ice- box, and head with shower. All materials and equipment are incorporated to be easily serviceable in Europe. When TWIST was completed, Al and


Ernie Wilcox piloted her from Massachu- setts back to Wickford Harbor, RI, where she had fi shed for so many years. She attracted a lot of attention, especially when she start- ed fl ying the Swiss fl ag after receiving her registration. She was freighted out of New- port, RI, to Geneo, Italy. Fuller and Tynan


travelled to Italy to commission the boat and cruised with Dr. Megevand part of the way to his family’s vacation home in Croatia. Dimensions: LOA: 45’; Beam: 14’- 7”; Draft: 4’-6”; Displacement: 27,000 lb; Hailing port: Basilea, Switzerland; Engine: Caterpillar C-9 500 hp; Gear: Twin Disk 506; Reduction : 2.05/ 1; Shaft: Aquamet 22 1 ¾” dia.; Prop: Michigan 26x26 4 blade; Cruise speed: 10.5 kts; Top speed: 15.5 kts; Fuel consumption: 9.3 gph; Fuel tanks: Aluminum- 236 gal capacity in 2 tanks; Gen- erator: Northern Lights 5 kw. 230v 50 cycle; Steering: Hydroslave hydraulic with custom teak steering wheel; Rudder: Manganese Bronze; Hull: mahogany edge nailed over oak frames. Sheathed with West System and Awlgrip; Trunk cabin/pilot house/ top: Composite construction and Awlgrip; Bow Thruster: Side power 24 volt; Windlass: Lofrans 24 volt; and Windows: Bomon Aluminum framed.


Bob Fuller is a third-generation boat- builder in Halifax, MA. He is well known for his high-quality boat building and fi nishing in wood and glass, as well as his exquisite traditional wooden shipswheels.


to their top speed to get them out of the yard in safety. Two alarms were pulled in for the fi re, each from a different box 26 at the western station and another somebody pulled in box 24 at the foot of Union Street. In the mixup which followed the drivers of the teams were led astray but were soon put on the right track by the volumes of dense black smoke rising from the burning buildings. Half a dozen streams were throwing water on the blaze ten minutes after it started but with no perceptible effect on the fast spreading fi re. The extremely dry condition of the old sheds made them a veritable tinder box and the fl ames fl ew through them like a whirlwind. Tied up at the wharf of the Bacon & Robinson Co. was the three-masted schooner ANNIE L. HENDERSON which was being discharged of a cargo of hard coal. Five stevedores were in the hold of the schooner and the cargo had all been taken out with the exception of about ten tons when the fi re started.


Burning brands from the blazing sheds dropped down the open hatches into the hold of the schooner and other blazing shingles set fi re to her rigging and the sails furled at the mastheads. The men in the hold made a scramble for the decks and all got to the wharf in safety. They were obliged to leave most of their clothing on the burning schooner and one man escaped with only the drawers and shoes and stockings in which he was working. One of the other men lent him a shirt and this was all the apparel he had to get home in. The barge BARRY was tide up at the


wharf of J. F. Woodman & Co., just up stream from the ANNIE L. HENDERSON. The tug BISMARCK got a line to the barge and towed her out of harms way before she got afi re.


The lines holding the schooner to the wharf burned off and the vessel drifted across the river with the wind. The vessel made a thrilling sight as she drifted across the river and the hundreds of spectators who lined the banks above the Front street tracks, the cars in the railroad yard, and covered every staging and point of vantage along the wharves were given a treat, though a costly one for the owners of the burning property. The schooner drifted clear to the Brewer shore and stopped with her blazing bowsprit hanging over the corner of an old coal shed on the wharf at Rollins fl ats. The shed immediately took fi re and things began to look bad for Brewer. Already fl ying bots of burning sail and shingles had set fi res on the roofs of the sheds back of the Hathorn Manufacturing Co. factory and an alarm was sent in calling the Brewer department to the scene. By hard work Brewer was saved from a repetition of the fi re which caused such a big loss on her water front a month ago. The little ferry steamer BON TON got lines out to several motor boats moored off the Brewer shore right in the path of the fl ying embers and towed them to places of safety. The tug BISMARCK had her fi re house at work but it was little better than useless except in keeping the decks and upper works of the tug wet so that she could go into the midst of the smoke and fl ying embers. The burning schooner was drifting broadside to the Brewer wharf when the tug got a line to her stern and lover her down river to Bartlett’s cove just above the oil tanks and moored her there with a line from her stern to the shore. The vessel’s fore topmast had fallen, her decks were all ablaze, her rigging all gone, and her masts seemed ready to fall at any moment. A large amount of shipping lay at the High Head wharves and it was feared that the line holding the HENDERSON to the


shore would burn off and let her drift down among them on the ebb tide. Another line was taken to the schooner and made fast to her sternpost a foot or two above the water and also made fast on shore. The steam thrown from the tug’s hose was of no use in putting out the blaze on the schooner and she was left to burn. All along the Brewer shore the owners of property had hose out wetting down their buildings and watching for fl ying embers.


Nearly all of Bangor’s available fi re


fi ghting apparatus was at the fi re. Most of the lines of hose had to be laid across the tracks of the Maine Central on Front Street and at the time there were many locomotives and cars being shifted about in the yard. As quickly, as possible the section crews excavated under the tracks and the lines of hose were run under the tracks to let trains pass. The steamer VICTORY was hauled out onto the wharf and pumped for a stream which was carried to the river side of the burning coal sheds and did effective work. At the time the fi re started two donkey engines were on the stagings at the wharf working the falls by which coal is taken out of the vessels. These stagings burned quickly and the shears at one of them went into the river and was soon followed by the engine which plunged down through the wharf. The staging holding the other engine did not burn entirely, being supported by heavy timbers, and this engine was saved. The burned and water-soaked boards on the sides of the coal sheds gave way under the great weight of coal upon them many tons of coal ran out onto the wharf or into the river. In the storehouse of Morse & Co. adjoining the Bacon & Robinson yard there were stored about 10,000 bushels of Turks Island salt and some dairy salt in bags and boxes. This shed caught fi re early and the river end of it was badly burned. The shed was soaked with tons of water and the wind carried the fl ames by it. The water also soaked the salt and it is considered that it is almost a total loss. The salt was valued at about $3,500 and was partly covered by insurance.


The tons of water thrown on the coal piles in the Bacon & Robinson yard kept the fi re from getting into the coal piles very far. The fi re was a hard one to handle owing to the high wind and also the impossibility of getting to leeward of it, the river covering that side. The partially burned timbers and twisted iron stringers were also a menace to the safety of the fi remen and they were compelled to fi ght the fi re from a distance. Chief Moriarty and his men did excellent work in handling their part of the fi re. The loss to the Bacon & Robinson Co. is in the vicinity of $15,000 and is well covered by insurance.


The rear of the J. F. Woodman Co. coal shed was burned only slightly and their loss will be slight. The old Dole & Fogg building adjoining the Bacon & Robinson Co. on the down river side was not damaged.


15 September 1906 Gasoline Schooners


Engines Applied as Auxiliary Power to Large Freighters. To Garrett Schenck


Belongs the Credit of Having Equipped a Large Freight Schooner with a Gasoline Engine.


During the past season people who have had occasion to be on the river have been somewhat amazed to see schooners coming making rapid progress with all sails furled and with no visible aid; but when the schooner had approached the secret was out for the characteristic pop, pop, of the gasoline engine could always be heard


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