October 2014 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


watch to his manifold tasks, he anchored his LITTLE ELVA, set his riding lights, and turned in.


Nothing happened to mar the voyaging until he made Libby Island light off Machiasport. There he was unable to reach shelter before he was overtaken by a heavy southwest gale, and throwing out an anchor and making all snug onboard. Commander Aristide went below out of the wet. Until early evening the LITTLE ELVA bravely held her own against the gale, but after sundown the wind increased kicking up a tremendous sea. Slowly the tiny craft dragged her anchors. It was impossible for the single-handed crew to go on deck to look after his craft on account of the violent pitching of his boat and a fl ood of water constantly poured over the schooner as she plunged her nose into the waves. On one of the downward plunges,


Commander Aristide felt an ominous jar. The vessel had drifted so far in shore that she was over an old fi sh weir and one of the piles had punctured a plank.


The water poured in so rapidly that the captain was forced to abandon his ship. After gathering a few articles from the cabin he clambered up on deck only to be caught by a huge sea and washed overboard. Fortunately he had left his dory tied up astern and this had escaped destruction. He managed to grasp it as he was carried by and after an almost superhuman struggle guided his boat safely through the breakers and landed in an exhausted condition on the beach where he spent the remainder of the night exposed to the storm.


The next day the gale abated and


Commander Aristide found his little vessel still afl oat just beyond the outer line of breakers. Launching his dory he went out to the schooner and after several hours work in clearing her of water brought the craft safely into port.


Aristide is a Frenchman who left his native land 50 years ago and since that time had drifted around the world, as cabin boy, seaman, mate and captain. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the navy on the Union side and served on the guardship NORTH CAROLINA. Later he served on the frigate VANDERBILT and at Fort Fisher received many weeks attendance for the scars he still bears.


He left the navy at the conclusion of the war and this soldier of fortune enlisted in the Argentine Republic serving from 1875 to 1877 on the monitor RIO DE PLATA. In 1888 he left the sea for a while and tried his luck in South Africa. But the love for the sea brought Aristide back on ship board once more and again he beat around the world before the mast, in the gallery, or occasionally standing watch as a mate. Two years ago he purchased the


LITTLE ELVA in Portland and has made several trips to New York and other sound ports. In the winter he ties up his little vessel and spends most of his time at the National Home for disabled veterans at Togus. * * * * *


Boat Building at Belfast


Duplex Co. to Put in Marine Railway – Steamers TREMONT and M. and M. on Gilchrist’s Railway.


Belfast, October 27.


The Duplex Roller Bushing company is to extend its boat building department and will soon put in a marine railway which will be placed in operation, so that repair work in the launch and yacht line can be done during the winter. The wooden building in the rear of its plant is now being fi tted as a repair shop and the railway will run through the building, so that work may go on without interruption during cold or stormy weather.


The company is doing a large amount of repair work and has a large fl eet of boats in winter quarters.


The steamer ROCKLAND of the Bucksport and Camden line was more than an hour late on her trip up river Thursday afternoon. The wind blew very strong going down and the bay was very rough, so that the craft was late in arriving in Camden. There was a good passenger list both ways. Dr. Oramel Haney of Boothbay and


Mrs. Alvin T. Condon of Boston have been in the city recently, the guests of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Haney and family. They are returning home from a visit with relatives in Penobscot. Mr. Nellie M. Kneeland of Boston, who has been the guest of her brothers in this city, has returned home for the winter months. Ralph Cooper has been in Bangor on business connected with the Cooper & company lumber yard in this city. Austin McKeen is driving one of the American Express Co. teams this week while the regular driver, Raymond Rogers, is at home because of illness in his family. The schooner PERFECT, Snow, has arrived from Rockland light and will load a cargo of lumber for Charles E. Bicknell at the Maine Central pier. Mrs. J. W. McGilvery of Searsport was


in the city Thursday on her way to Boston for the winter months.


Charles O. Cousins of Bangor, U. S. inspector of steamboat hulls, was in Belfast Thursday and inspected the hull of the steamers TREMONT and M. and M., recently named STOCKTON, which are on the Gilchrist marine railway, receiving repairs. The main deck of the TREMONT has been sawed off all around, and the deck and top raised and when the boat is completed she will be more seaworthy and in excellent shape for the service of another year. It is probable that the TREMONT will get a good share of the excursion business in connection with the RUTH, dividing up as much as possible, the wreck on the Bangor and Brooksville line.


The schooner J. M. BANKS, Rowe, of


Swan’s island, has been here several days on a trading trip and sailed Friday with a general cargo. This schooner was built as a fi shing smack a number of years ago for Capt. Henry Burgess of this city. She was a trim little craft and is still among the lead when it comes to sailing.


The steamer CASTINE made an excursion from Castine to Rockland Saturday with the football team of the Eastern State Normal school which played the Rockland high school team. Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Cook have returned home from several weeks’ visit with friends and relatives in Boston and vicinity. Daniel Kerst, engineer of the steamer ROCKLAND, has been in Belfast looking after the work on the engine which is being fi tted for the steamer M. and M., by the Duplex Roller Bushing company. Percy Stubbs of Bucksport is on the boat during Mr. Kerst’s absence. It is expected the engine will be ready as soon as the hull is launched from the railway.


* * * * * Norton Not Blamed


Local U. S. Steamboat Inspectors Exonerated Sappho Captain In Collision Case


Finding Announced Saturday in Matter of Running Down Sailboat Near Seal Harbor in July.


The local board of United States steamboat inspectors announced Saturday the fi nding in the investigation of the case of the collision of the steamer SAPPHO of the


Maine Central R. R. Co.’s fl eet and a sailboat containing three men off Otter Creek, Mt. Desert, July 28 last, in which one man was drowned and two others had narrow escapes. The fi nding exonerates Capt. Joseph L. Norton of the SAPPHO.


The hearing on the case was held at the custom house in this city on Wednesday, October 24.


The finding as given out by the inspectors follows: “Bangor, Maine, October 27, 1906. “Collision and loss of life the result of violation of Rule 21, ‘Rules of the Road,’ on the part of the sail boat.


“There would have been no collision if the sail boat had continued her ‘course and speed,’ as is required by the rule. “Capt. Joseph L. Norton is exonerated. (Signed) “Charles O. Cousins, “Walter L. Blaisdell, “U. S. Local Inspectors.”


6 November 1906 Terrible Gales Raged Sunday Along the Coast of Nova Scotia.


Almost incessantly throughout Monday despatches poured into Halifax, N. S., bringing news of vessels wrecked or distressed, of wires prostrated and of damage done by gale and sea, all along the coast of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, New Brunswick and Prince Edward island. Four vessels were driven ashore, another after having everything movable on deck washed away, was forced to put back to the port from which she had sailed and the steamer TURRETT BELL, which went aground 100 yards from the north side of Prince Edward island last week, was driven farther inshore. The storm was most violent in Northumberland which separates the southern shore of Prince Edward island from the northern Nova Scotia coast and from the northeastern coast of New Brunswick. Two schooners and one bark were swept ashore in this strait, and a third schooner was wrecked near the eastern entrance of the strait.


The Norwegian bark ADEONA, 615 tons net burden, tried to weather the gale off Rexton, N. B., opposite the western end of Prince Edward island, but dragged her anchor and grounded on North reef. She sprang aleak and according to the latest information, the 12 men constituting her crew were still on board, helpless in the severe cold and heavy gale, and imminent danger of being swept overboard or dying from exposure. The tremendous seas have made it impossible for any vessel to go to her assistance.


In the same vicinity the schooner ALEXANDER, laden with lumber and outward bound, also dragged her anchors and went ashore. It was thought, however, that after part of her cargo had been removed, she could be fl oated. The Windsor, N. S. schooner OMEGA, bound from St. Peters, C. B., for Charlottetown, P. E. I., lost her sails on Wednesday last, when off Charlottetown and the seas washing over her, carried away her cabin and deckload. Driven before the gale, she drifted swiftly for 30 miles across Northumberland strait, until she fi nally brought up on the rocks at Fox Point, near Pugwash, on the northern coast of Nova Scotia. Her crew of four men had been obliged to man the pumps with practically no rest since Wednesday and during all that time, they have had neither food nor drink, and their supplies have been swept overboard. They were rescued almost overcome from exhaustion and exposure, soon after the vessel grounded. The schooner probably will be a total loss. A Newfoundland schooner, the identity of which has not yet been learned, was wrecked at Campbell’s cove, at the eastern end of Prince Edward island. The crew succeeded in getting ashore safely. The 1376 ton steamer TURRET BELL, which is valued at $100,000, probably will prove a total wreck off Cable Head, P. E. I., on the north coast, where she went ashore last week. For several days she held in


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