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Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS November 2014 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 8 November 1906 Gale on Moosehead


Northeast Hurricane Has Raised Mountainous Seas There Steamers on Rocks


COMET and SOLANO of Coburn Steamboat Co. High and Dry – Tons of Supplies Held at Greenville. Moosehead Lake, Maine’s greatest inland sea, is a pretty turbulent body of water when the wind is right and blowing a gale as it has been up there for the last three days and during this time the shipping on the lake has been at the mercy of the elements. Two of the steamers of the Coburn Steamboat Co. have been torn from their moorings and dashed high and dry on the rocks, the freight houses at Greenville are packed full of freight, mostly supplies going across the lake to the lumber camps in the region north of Moosehead, and the steamer KATAHDIN, the largest of the Coburn Steamboat Co. fl eet is at present the only boat doing business on the lake.


The snow storm which struck Bangor a week ago was much heavier here than it was in the lake region. Some snow fell around Moosehead but the weather came off cold immediately after the storm had


ceased and a howling gale sprang up from the northeast. Bangor has had a little touch of wind in the last few days but it was nothing to that gale that blew on Moosehead. It does not take much of a wind to kick up a nasty sea on the big lake and this northeast gale came from just the right quarter to raise mountainous seas. During the time the gale was at its height Moosehead was as rough as Penobscot Bay ever was and ordinary craft had no business on the lake. The steamers COMET and SOLANO of the Coburn Steamboat Co. were moored at the company’s wharf in West Cove. The gale tore them from their moorings and carried them away from the wharf and across the cove, leaving them on the rocks. At last accounts the steamers were still on the rocks and all attempts at pulling them off have been abandoned until the gale abates. It is thought that the steamers will not be badly damaged though probably severely chafed by being rubbed on the rocks by the big waves. The steamers on the Lily bay route had to be hauled off during the time the gale was at its height. The steamer KATAHDIN came down the lake from Kineo Wednesday afternoon and even at that time the seas were so large that the KATAHDIN was tossed


Port Safety Forum Minutes Continued from Page 6.


Possible safety zones & restrictions; Mari- ners advised to exercise caution; and Move- ments requiring pilots may still be restricted


Marine Transportation Recovery


– LTJG Ellie Gunn, USCG discussed the recovery phase of a heavy weather event. Typically, if a port is damaged to the point where transportation is impacted, a Ma- rine Transportation System Recovery Unit (MTSRU) may be established within the Incident command System. The MTSRU may also be employed for non-weather events that impact marine transportation, such as a marine accident or act of terror- ism that affects port access. The MTSRU is comprised of various agencies and industry stakeholders to collect and analyze data as well as coordinate efforts to ease marine transport impacts. The MTSRU is often charged with ensuring Aids to Navigation are restored and functional and that channels and fairways are clear of obstruction and debris. The Unit also tracks, monitors and shares vessel traffi c data. Preparedness - Arn Heggers, USCG


delivered a Weather Emergency presenta- tion, in which he emphasized pre-planning and consideration of business continuity before an emergency occurs.


Suggested Pre-Season Preparations – Send out notices to employees and contrac- tors with equipment at your facility asking them to begin thinking about actions they need to take in the event of a storm. Notify all employees/contractors of potential storms. Back up all electronic data fi les. Identify safe havens, refuge moorings for boats. Meet with employees and discuss desired outcomes, how to accomplish (Strategies); and work assignments –who, what, where, when (Tactics). Pre-Storm Preparations - Determine


criteria for closing, evacuating, etc. Fuel up your vehicles and vessels. Test genera- tor under load to be sure it is operational, check fuel tanks, check oil, and safely store additional supply of gas and oil. Ensure an adequate supply of lumber, marine grade plywood, fasteners to protect or secure fa- cilities. Purchase equipment: gloves, chain saws, flashlights, 2-way / VHF radios, NOAA Weather Radio, etc. Issue 2-way or


VHF-FM radios to key employees. Monitor storm related Marine Forecasts and Marine Safety Information Broadcasts. Take a walk around your facility to identify previously undetected flying hazards, etc. Check ves- sel stability letters for any specifi c wind criteria. Consider ballasting down to reduce freeboard and wind heal. Evaluate the need to fi ll land based storage tanks to prevent from fl oating off or blowing over. Consider the impact of potential storm surge, take action to minimize impact. What will you do with debris that ends up on your facility or obstructs your docks?


5. Old Business/New Business: NOAA Issues - Meghan McGovern


(NOAA Corps) announced that NOAA is seeking to fi ll vacancies on the Hydro- graphic Services Review Panel (HSRP). The Hydrographic Services Review Panel is a federal advisory committee that advises the NOAA administrator on the agency’s hydrographic programs, products, and tech- nology. The panel also engages on operations


and research issues related to hydrograph- ic surveying, nautical charts, tides and currents, geodetic and geospatial measure- ments, and coastal resilience. Applicants should have expertise in marine navigation; port administration; marine shipping or other intermodal transportation industries; cartography and geographic information systems; geodesy; physical oceanography; coastal resource management, including coastal resilience and emergency response; or other science-related fi elds. Applica- tions must be received by October 10. For additional information, please see: nautical- charts.noaa.gov/ocs/hsrp/hsrp.htm. New Coast Guard Offi ces - Port Safe-


ty Forum members are reminded that the Prevention, Logistics and Administration functions of Sector Northern New England were re-located to 2 Monument Square, in Portland in June.


as well as contingency planners remain in South Portland.


6. Next Meeting: December 10, 2014 (Port- land, ME) 10:00 AM USCG Prevention Department, 2 Monument Square, Second


about so much that it was not comfortable for those on board and the smaller steamers, had they been out would undoubtedly have fared badly.


Several scows loaded with supplies ready to be towed up the lake were swamped by the big waves and a bateau laden with lumber belonging to the Great North Paper Co. was also swamped. Charlie Gilbert, who has an operation on Lobster lake, had two bateaux out on the lake one laden with supplies being towed by another with four men in it. The towed bateau was swamped and the boat and its load of supplies valued at $150 were lost. The men got ashore all right. It takes some pretty rough water to swamp one of the big driving bateaux so some idea may be had of the size of the seas encountered.


There is a large amount of supplies at Greenville bound up the lake for the lumber camps. These supplies can’t be moved until the wind goes down and the lake calms down considerably and if the supplies are delayed a great while some of the crews may run short of grub. It is not often that conditions are so bad as this on Moosehead lake but this time the gale was just from the right quarter and blew with terrible velocity. * * * * *


Two Winter Tracks


Speedway Will Probably Be Built on the Ice of the River Below Toll Bridge


New Track on Mt. Hope Avenue Would be Useless in Soft Weather – Above Dam Too Far Away


The signs of the times indicate that the interest in horse racing during the coming winter will be keen. There are more than 20 horses in this city that are threatened with speed and many more that have already shown what they can do. With such a long list to pick from and the enthusiasm, which has been manifest over fast ones in Bangor for the past season, there should be some very pretty exhibitions after the cold weather comes to stay. Carriage builders say that they are receiving more orders than ever for speed sleights and some of the spider web rigs which will turn out for the speed trials this winter will be high grade examples of the builders’ art. The fact that so many of these racing machines are owned or being built in the city shows that the horsemen are going into the sport for keeps.


It is believed that Bangor will have two tracks this winter. The new speedway on Mt. Hope avenue will be used as far as possible, but should soft weather come after the snow has fallen the new track will probably be of little use. The newly graded earth, in the opinion of many people, is likely to gully badly for the fi rst year, since it has not been settled into permanency by use. If the weather remains cold the track would probably be in good condition, but in each winter there are periods of milder temperature and rains, so that the speedway cannot really be counted on for uninterrupted work.


An Ice Track. All Command offi ces


On this account there will be in all likelihood be another track on the ice of the river below the toll bridge. The track above the dam last year was a success, so far as its physical features were concerned, but many horsemen complained at the distance they had to drive to reach it, especially, when the ground was bare in patches as it was a part of the time last winter.


The plan now on foot is to lay out a track just below the toll bridge for a half mile straightway. The entrance on the riverbank, it is proposed to make at the ferry way on the Bangor side and just below the bridge


on the Brewer shore. The driveways may be made safe by the use of interlaced boughs and shavings, which when frozen together withstand the wear and tear of the rise and fall of the tides. In former years when this arrangement was made the owners of the bridge were somewhat disgusted since loaded teams took the ice for travel across the river. To meet this, the bridge people made half rates for teams in the winter time. Now that the bridge is entirely free, travel over the ice would hardly be objected to. Sidney Robinson who is to keep the Mt. Hope avenue speedway in condition will probably take the contract for the ice track. Not many sales of fast horses have been reported during the last week. Amasa McKenney the blacksmith has lately purchased from Walter B. Crossman a fi ne three year old stallion by Constantine, dam by Don R. the Bar Harbor sire. The colt is to be trained as a trotter and is said to be a promising youngster. Straws show how the wind blows and it would not be surprising to see many of the pacers of last season stripped of their hopples and allowed to fall back into their natural gaits.


10 November 1906 A Relic of the Str. PORTLAND Brass Chandelier Brought into Gloucester by Fishing Schooner Gloucester, Massachusetts, November


10. – The wreck of the steamer PORTLAND which occurred eight years ago this month and the theory always held here that the steamer sank off Cape Ann with all on board, although the wreckage and bodies came ashore on Cape Cod were recalled Saturday when the fi shing schooner MANUEL F. SILVA brought in from the Middle Bank shoals a glass chandelier of the steamer which had been dragged from the bottom by a trawl. The relic was pulled up on the northern edge of the Middle bank which fi shing ground lies about 12 miles broad off Eastern Point.


The chandelier had been bent but was in good condition. The sockets were intact and the wires were in the tubes. The lamp bulbs were broken. There were no marks about it to show that it came from the ill-fated steamer as such fi xtures do not bear the name of the vessel to which they are attached. The fi nd is taken by sea-faring men here as additional evidence that the steamer sank in the vicinity of Eastern Point either after having been disabled by the frightful storm or after a collision with the coal schooner KING PHILLIP which also was lost at the same time. Some wreckage from both vessels afterward came ashore here.


16 November 1906 Former Bangor Schooner on Ledge in Bagaduce River Had Cargo of Staves


Was Property of Capt. Johnston of Rockland – Arrivals and Clearances in Bangor’s Port.


The two masted schooner J. M. MORALES, formerly owned in Bangor but now the property of Captain Johnston of Rockland went ashore on some ledges at the mouth of the Bagaduce river, near Castine Thursday and it is believed that she will be a total loss. The crow was taken to Belfast. The schooner was loaded with staves for 7,000 barrels and was being towed out of the river from Durgin’s mill in Brooksville by the steamer CASTINE. Getting out of the channel she ran on a ledge and at once began to fi ll rapidly. The staves were thrown overboard with the hope of lightening the vessel until she would fl oat but she settled rapidly and the captain and crew was


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