Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS October 2014 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


Northern has not been able to use Stockton Springs as a shipping point for its product for the reason that there have not been suitable vessels to take the paper away from the wharves. This diffi culty is now overcome by the building of the four-masted schooner NORTHLAND which will be launched at the Cobb-Butler yard in Rockland next Thursday, October 18, if the plans for her launching do not miscarry. The NORTHLAND will be one of the fi nest schooners in the American merchant marine. Her construction is of the very best throughout and she is all that expert knowledge of shipbuilding can make her. In the building of the NORTHLAND also an experiment has been tried which is expected to place her ahead of all other schooners in her class. She is not to be dependent on the whim and caprice of the wind and tide as her sister ships are, but, in addition to her immense spread of canvas, will have a 500 horse power gasoline motor which will turn a propeller and give the big schooner headway even if there is not a breath of wind. With this motor alone the schooner is expected to be able to make six or eight knots and she will also be independent of tugs and be able to dock herself.


The Great Northern Paper Co. is now preparing plans for the construction at Cape Jellison of a warehouse capable of storing 1500 tons of paper. The company is now shipping from its Millinocket mill about 275 tons of paper daily. The B. & A. takes anywhere from 10 to 20 carloads of paper away from Millinocket every day. The NORTHLAND has three decks. She has the capacity of 3000 tons of coal but of course cannot take so much paper, as paper is more bulk than weight. No paper will be put into the hold but about 1000 tons of it can be stored between decks.


The schooner will take other freight besides paper and in her the potato shippers of Aroostook will have a fi ne means of shipping their tubers to New York and Boston. The vessel, in addition to her 1,000 tons of paper, will take about 50,000 bushels of potatoes. At Stockton now potatoes are being shipped in all sorts of vessels, but the NORTHLAND will take in one cargo more potatoes than half a dozen of the ordinary schooners which are loading there now can take.


The NORTHLAND will be ready to go into commission almost as soon as she is off the ways and will proceed to Stockton to take her fi rst cargo which will be made up of paper and potatoes. The NORTHLAND will run regularly between Stockton and New York and Boston. She is the fi rst vessel built to take the products of Northern Maine which the Seaport road offers to the merchant marine at tide water all the year round and carry them to the great markets of the country and bring back the coal, fertilizer and other things which are the mediums of exchange.


12 October 1906


Sch. HELEN B. CROSBY WILL BE TOTAL LOSS


Wrecked on Bay Ledges Thursday Night – Capt. Wallace’s Wife Braves Seas in 20 Foot Gasoline Launch. Rockland, October 2.


The tug SOMERS N. SMITH at dawn Friday went to the four masted Bath schooner HELEN B. CROSBY, which was wrecked Thursday night on Bay Ledges, two miles southwest of Brown’s Headlight, Vinalhaven. It was found that the schooner’s port rail was under water and that the heavy northwest breeze blowing will break her up. Capt. C. T. Wallace of Bath, Mate Lang of


Brooklyn, New York, and four of the crew decided to remain aboard for a short time. The other members of the crew and


Mrs. Wallace came ashore at midnight after a trying and dangerous four hours’ battle in the heavy seas in a 20 foot gasoline launch. The intention was for the launch to proceed to the nearest land, leave its passengers and return to the schooner. It was considered unwise to attempt a landing on any of the islands and the boat came into port. Capt. Wallace became greatly alarmed when the launch failed to return, believing it had been swamped and was frantic with fear until the tug arrived Friday morning and he was advised of her safe arrival here. Capt. Wallace mistook the lights in the cottage of Lewis Hereog at North Haven for Negro island light at the entrance to Camden Harbor and the schooner struck on Bay Ledges, beginning to fi ll immediately. The cargo of 3,000 tons of coal, shipped at Norfolk for the Northern Maine railroad was valued at $10,000 and insured. The vessel, owned principally by the Crosby Navigation company of Bath, was valued at $90,000 and insured.


13 October 1906 Wreckage of Schooner EARL D. Found Near Jonesport


Portland, October 13.


Information was received here Saturday that during the storm Thursday wreckage of the British schooner EARL D. of Annapolis, N. S., 61 tons, S. A. Greaves, master, was washed ashore on Moose island, near Jonesport. The wreckage consisted of hardwood, rails, part of a mast, etc., and a trunk containing wearing apparel and the schooner’s paper.


In addition to furnishing an identity to the vessel and master the papers gave the names of Archibald Minniste as mate and Insury Ogela and Spurgeon Graves as seamen, and the fact that the schooner cleared from French Cross, N. S., September 27, bound for Boston with 50 cords of hard wood consigned to Splane Brothers. The schooner was built at Port George in 1900 and was owned by Elias and John H. Woodworth. No information concerning the crew was received.


It is believed that the wreckage is that of the schooner reported at Calais Thursday as having been passed bottom up on October 8, at 6:15 p.m. off Petit Manan light. Sons of Capt. Greaves living at Charlestown, Massachusetts, received a message Friday night from their mother at Margaretsville, N. S. saying it was feared the EARL D. had been wrecked off Jonesport and that there were no tidings of the crew.


15 October 1906


The M. H. READ, Lumber Laden From Stockton, Leaking Badly.


Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts,


October 15. – Two Maine schooners, lumber laden encountered diffi culties while trying to make this port Sunday. One of them, the M. H. READ, sprang a leak and is being kept afl oat Monday only by the buoyancy of her cargo. The other vessel, the EDITH MCINTYRE ran ashore on Hedge Fence shoals, in Vineyard Sound, during a fresh southeast wind, Sunday night. She was fl oated Monday by the tug MERCURY, and proceeded on her journey, apparently uninjured.


The M. H. Read, Capt. Brant in command was bound from Stockton Springs, Maine, to this port to await orders. She was carrying a heavy cargo of spruce lumber with a good sized deck load. When off the Pollock Rips the schooner sprang a leak which however could not be located.


The pumps were worked constantly but the crew could make no headway against the infl owing water. The vessel reached port early Monday with her crew thoroughly exhausted and her decks almost awash. She was towed up to the head of the harbor where her deck load was lightened and arrangements made to make the repairs necessary to permit the schooner to continue on to her destination.


16 October 1906 Lively Scenes at Stockton


Some 13 Three-masters and Other Smaller Vessels Loading Lumber Stockton Springs, October 16.


Although the pier at Cape Jellison has been cleared recently of a large amount of lumber, there is still a large quantity here for the shipment and the fl eet of vessels loading Monday numbered 13 three- masted schooners as well as a number of small craft. In the fl eet now loading are the three-masted schooners, GEN. ADELBERT AMES, CHARLES H. SPRAGUE, ANNIE F. CONLON, FLORA A. KIMBALL, M. K. RAWLEY, JOHN W. HANSON, WILLIAM T. DONNELL, GEORGIA GILKEY and CELIA F. while the schooner CAROLINE GRAY, and MARY ANN MCCANN are among the two masted fl eet. Several of these and others will load or are loading lumber direct from the fl at cars on which it is brought down from the Aroostook mills. Two new slips are being built on the lumber pier at Cape Jellison, near the outer end of the western landing. These slips will be used for steamers desiring to land with cargos of a general nature. W. P. Gray, who was so seriously stabbed in the back three times by A. Williamson in a recent quarrel at the cape is improving and will recover completely now being able to get out around and he will soon be able to resume his employment. Messrs. Dutch and Berry of Belfast are building a new store on a lot directly opposite the Cape Jellison house at the cape, and have the sills and framing well along. The store will be 40 by 50 feet with an extension in the rear and will have apartments for two families on the second fl oor. When the building is completed some time this month, Dutch and Berry will carry a line of groceries and run a lunch counter. The old schooner POLLY, now over 100 years old is engaged in carrying brick between Orland and the landings at Cape Jellison. The schooner LYDIA M. WEBSTER is also handling a large amount of brick and the receipts at the pier during the month of September included 499,500 bricks which these schooners have discharged here. While a large percentage of the bricks is being used here, a good lot is shipped up over the line to various points and handled further up the line in the building operations which the Northern Maine has been the means of promoting.


The Providence schooner CHARLES H. SPRAGUE, which is loaded with laths, is one of the three-masted fl eet which is taking a big cargo away. During the month of September the shipments in seven cargos of laths amounted to 10,595,800 feet, but the estimated shipment this month is expected to be far in excess of that amount. One cargo of potatoes has already been shipped on the steamer MOHAWK of the Maine Coast Transportation company and while the big potato shed is far from being completed, Carter & Corey, the owners, are pushing the work along as fast as possible and in a few weeks more it will be entirely closed in. Many of the bins have several hundred bushels and each train which


comes down over the line is leaving scores of cars which will be unloaded into the big storehouse. The storehouse has a capacity of 240,000 barrels, there being 200 bins each with a capacity of 1200 barrels. Harry Applin of Somerville, Massachusetts, is building a fi ne department store with two tenements upstairs, at the cape, on the road to the village. The work is well along. The store when completed and opened will be under the management of Bert Condon of Belfast and will be modern in every way.


19 October 1906


Sch. HORACE H. MORSE in Bad Way Machias, October 19.


The deckload of the three-masted schooner HORACE H. MORSE which struck on a reef off the southern end of Hog island Thursday night, while attempting in a light breeze to beat out of the harbor, was discharged Friday in an effort to fl oat her. The attempt was not expected to result successfully as the keel is gone and she fi lled with water. The schooner was bound from Savannah to Amherst, N. S., with a cargo of hard pine. Capt. J. A. Kearney and crew retained by the schooner and were in no particular danger. The craft was built at Bath in 1890 and is of 437 tonnage.


20 October 1906 Maine Vessel Believed Lost in Hurricane Portland, October 20. The four-masted schooner MEROM is a total wreck according to a cablegram received by W. S. Jordan & Co., part owners from Curacoa, Dutch West Indies. While details are lacking it is believed here that she was lost in the hurricane and that Capt. J. P. Williams of South Portland and the crew of eight had a chance to escape safely. She was taking on a cargo of salt for this port. The MEROM was 925 tons gross burden, 186 feet long, 86.3 feet beam and 18 feet deep and was built at Phippsburg in 1891. Her value was $30,000for the Canary Island, where she discharged a general cargo and sailed for Buenos Ayres.


25 October 1906


Unknown Schooner Ashore Near Machias.


Machias, October 25.


An unknown schooner of about 125 tons, bound east without a cargo, was reported ashore on Ram island in Machias bay Thursday. A heavy southeast wind made her position a perilous one. The tug A. J. JONES and the Cross Island life saving crew went to her assistance. The schooner is painted black.


27 October 1906 Most Perilous Coasting Trip


The Varied Adventures of Capt. Aristide in the Craft LITTLE ELVA.


Machias, October 27.


Manned by only one man the two- masted schooner LITTLE ELVA lies in this harbor after a perilous coasting trip in which nearly all the Maine ports have been visited, and in which the small vessel was almost lost. The captain, cook and crew of the LITTLE ELVA was Louis Joseph Aristide, a weather-beaten mariner, with an interesting history. In his seven ton schooner, he sailed from Portland early in September for Machiasport and coming up the coast he touched at nearly all the principal seaports of Maine.


Storms or fog had no effect upon the


lone navigator. A reef or two was suffi cient for him if the wind was quite fresh or some harbor was handy if it blew up a gale. At night, not being able to add the duties of a


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