February 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25.


Searching parties sent out to look for two persons supposed to have been last in Casco Bay waters Sunday, were relieved Sunday night when word was received that both were safe. Hercules Gramanoff, director of the Roslindale, Massachusetts, YMCA, fell overboard from a motor boat while returning here with a young woman companion from a visit to Cundy’s Bay. His companion, unused to motorboats, was unable to stop the engine when Gramanoff went down and neither could she steer. Gramanoff was left fl oundering in the sea and shouting ineffective directions to the young woman while the boat chugged away, fi nally bringing up on the shore of Orr’s Island where it was wrecked. The young woman got ashore safely and sent a searching party after Gramanoff, who in the meantime, had swum to Yarmouth Island, where he started a party to hunt for his companion. It was hours before the safety of both became known to the searchers.


3 September 1913 Mate Bram Paroled After 17 Years Federal Prisoner Still Protest Innocence of Triple Murder at Sea.


Faultless behavior for 17 years in the federal prison of Atlanta, during which he has been a great force for good according to Warden Moyer, has convinced the government authorities that Thomas M. C. Bram, convicted of a triple murder on the high seas is an innocent man, and as a result he was set free on the parole system. The government acted under the new law which extends the terms of parole to life men. He was tried in the United States district court in Boston twice and both times was found guilty and was sent to the Massachusetts state prison, where he was kept for eight years and fi ve months in 1906 he was sent to Atlanta.


Bram was a mate of the American barkentine HERBERT FULLER, which in 1896 left Boston laden with lumber for South America. One night the captain, his wife and the fi rst mate were killed. A sailor, Charles Brown, and Bram were both under suspicion and were taken from Nova Scotia to Boston for trial. Brown declared that Bram was the guilty man. Friends enlisted in Bram’s behalf and a few days ago his application for parole was favorably acted upon. Everybody like him and the warden was glad to aid in getting him his freedom.


“Brown accused me falsely,” said Bram


solemnly. “I do not know who committed the crime. But I hope to know some day I know only that I did not do it. The aim of my life is to fi nd the guilty man. I would be willing to suffer his own punishment for him in order to clear my name. “The fi rst thing I am going to buy is a


bunch of fl owers; and I’m going to send them to Warden Moyer. He has been kind to me. Then I am going to get me a room and go into it by myself and have a good cry. I’ve got to have that cry before I can realize it’s true. Then I’ll want to pray a little. And after that I want work.”


* * * * *


Rescue Seven When Schooner is Struck Portland, September 3. The Gloucester sloop AZORIAN was run down in the fog by the steamer GOV. DINGLEY at the entrance to Portland harbor. Tuesday, and the crew of seven fi shermen had a narrow escape from death. The sloop was going out to the fi shing grounds when suddenly the big white hull of the coastwise passing steamer loomed through the mist on the way to Boston. The stern of the little craft was struck a glancing


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s Hatteras.


blow and four planks were torn off to the water’s edge. Temporary repairs were made by covering the opening with canvas and the sloop safely reached the harbor. * * * * *


Stockton Skipper’s Vessel Wrecked Sch. RICHARD F. CHARTLEY Ashore at Norfolk – Captain and Crew Rescued by Life Savers


Norfolk, Virginia, September 3. A severe northeast storm swept the Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland coasts Wednesday with the wind at Cape Henry, reaching a maximum of 48 miles an hour. The schooner RICHARD F. CHARTLEY, which went ashore Tuesday with the loss of two of her crew, broke up Wednesday Capt. Sprague of Stockton Springs, Maine and four surviving members of the crew were cared for by life savers. The ships of the Atlantic fl eet rode the storm in safety.


5 September 1913


500 May Be Dead on Ocracoke Island Coast South of Virginia Capes Swept by Terrifi c Storm Thursday


Waves Made Clean Sweep on Carolina Island


Six-Master GEORGE W. WELLS, Ashore Total Wreck – Wires Down Everywhere on Shore


Raleigh, North Carolina, September 5


– With reported damage from Wednesday’s hurricane over Eastern North Carolina already running into the millions and heavy loss of life Friday’s meager dispatches from the stricken district told additional stories of the storm’s havoc. Many small towns along the coast reported severe damage from wind and heavy rainfall. No confi rmation was obtainable early Friday of the reported loss of 500 lives at Ocracoke Island, off the Carolinian coast. Unsubstantiated rumors continued current Friday that all inhabitants of the island had perished when waves swept their homes away. Efforts to reach even the coast towns near Ocracoke failed, wires being down over the adjacent section and wireless stations presumably wrecked by the storm, irresponsive to their calls. Delayed messages from Washington, Newburn and other towns near the coast told of fl oods that surpassed all previous records. Every stream in the storm-swept section was swollen by the torrential rains and incalculable damage to crops is expected to result. Many bridges have been swept away. The GEORGE W. WELLS LOST Norfolk, Virginia, September 5 –


With the telegraph wires still down it was impossible Friday to get detailed information of the havoc wrought by Wednesday’s storm on the North Carolina coast between Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke on the lower coast. The six-masted schooner GEO. W. WELLS which went ashore south of Hatteras, has gone to pieces.


The 20 men, two women and two infants rescued from the schooner are being temporarily cared for in the vicinity of the Ocracoke inlet and Durant Life Saving stations.


The schooner reported ashore three miles north of Oracoke turns out to have been a four-master sighted in distress 12 miles off shore with her main topmast and downsprit gone. This vessel is believed to have been the schooner ANNIE R. HURDRETTER, heretofore reported drifting helplessly eight miles southwest of Diamond shoals. The revenue cutter SEMINOLE is proceeding to the schooner’s assistance.


An unknown oil ship reported ashore below Oracoke was today still unidentifi ed. The United States Coast telegraph lines from Cape Henry are working only as far south as


The rivers, which fl ooded the country for many miles have for the most part subsided.


The Norfolk Southern is only able to operate trains between Norfolk and Pine Town, North Carolina, 12 miles north of Washington, DC.


Unless the Ocracoke disaster is


confi rmed the loss of life appears to have been very small.


6 September 1913 How the Steamer CAMBRIDGE Nearly Went Down in Gale


Tyler R. Wasgatt, Ship’s Clerk, Gives Details Never Before Printed of Narrow Escape of Bangor-Boston Liner in the Great Gale of 1869


Tyler R. Wasgatt of Jersey City, an old- time Maine steamboat man, who for years ran between this city and Boston, give a graphic account of the great gale of 1869 in which the old steamer CAMBRIDGE was so nearly lost while on route from Bangor to Boston. The CAMBRIDGE which is still remembered by many in Bangor and along the Penobscot River, was then but two years old.


Mr. Wasgatt’s story is to appear in his forthcoming History of Steamboating in the Gulf of Maine. It contains details of the wreck which have never before been published and is herewith printed for the fi rst time.


On September 8, 1869, there passed up


the Atlantic coast the severest gale that had been recorded within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.


At Bangor in the forenoon of that


day, there was a light haze and not a breath of air. The atmosphere was close and uncomfortable, but the barometer did not indicate any probable immediate disturbance and people merely waited for the afternoon sunshine which did not come. The day was Wednesday and the steamer CAMBRIDGE was due to leave Bangor at 11 o’clock a.m., and the KATAHDIN to leave Boston at 5:30 p.m.


The real heavy summer travel was just over and the number of passengers was quite small. At Hampden a colony of the late stayers came on board, there being 47 in all from that little town. Freights were light and the fog but not enough to impede the steamer’s progress. She reached Rockland at 4:30 p.m.


As the steamer was advertised in the local papers to leave Rockland at 5 p.m., it was decided to lay there until that hour. At Rockland we had habitually received a telegram from Boston and also from New York, giving the state of the weather at those places. This afternoon we heard from neither place, and as it was still calm the pilots counseled going along so as to get outside of White Head before dark. We went along easily and without incident, and at about 8:30 p.m., having performed all the duties of my position of clerk of the boat. I took my little German silver ticket lantern, already lighted, and went to my stateroom. Like an Avalanche


I had hardly laid down in my berth when, like the roar of an avalanche, the wind came rushing upon the steamer. I at once arose and as quickly as I could, dressed, and taking my lantern I stepped outside of my door. As I did so I met Capt. Johnson passing out the gangway on the starboard side about midships. He merely said, “Have everyone be careful of fi re,” and rushed through the door pulling it to behind him.


There I had a chance to see what was going on. It seemed as if the wind picked up great volumes of water and threw it against


the ship. She was still on her course and the sea was making from the southeast on the port side. In a moment or two the sea seemed more directly ahead and then to strike on the other bow. The ship was going about and was entering the trough of the sea. Now, the excitement began and I stepped back into the saloon to go aft to see how everybody was getting along.


I had not reached the main passageway leading from the cross passage I was in, when an explosion like that of a bursting boiler occurred, and a door close to me, leading from the saloon into the upper engine room was blown open with a crash. The whole vicinity was immediately fi lled with scalding steam. The 22-inch steam pipe from the boilers to the engine had been pulled apart from the steam chest. The steady roar of that steam was terrifying. Knowing the danger of inhaling scalding steam, I at once conceived that it was necessary to get the passengers from the immediate vicinity of the danger zone. I did not have to knock on state room doors or burst them in. Everyone had gotten out of their berths in the tumult and things were rapidly approaching a stage of panic. Instantly, we were plunged in darkness. The gas pipes supplying all the chandeliers and burners were torn from the rubber bags in tank rooms on the hurricane deck. Fortunately the gas all escaped in the open air and was blown immediately away. Had the break occurred in the saloon we should all have been asphyxiated.


I had my lantern and that was, for the time being, the only light in that immense room, over 200 feet long. It looked like the afterglow of a match, just blown out. I took hold of the arm of one of the ladies standing in the door of No. 15 – for talking and being heard was an impossibility – and led her forward to the extreme end of the saloon. Her companion followed as well as two ladies in No. 16. In this way I emptied Nos. 11, 13 and 14, and gathering up all the clothes in each room, I carried them to the ladies and advised them to dress. His Shoulder Dislocated


In the meantime Engineer Hathorn


and his effi cient assistants had gone up to the hurricane deck and shut the steam off from the pipe and were through with that annoyance. This act cost the chief a dislocated shoulder and much suffering. It was impossible to stand on the slippery deck with the steamer rolling and pitching in that angry sea.


In the meantime Capt. Johnson and


Offi cers Ingraham and Sears were making superhuman efforts to set the jib so as to throw her head round and the pilots, Stanley and Rogers, were ready to handle the steering wheel and get her before the wind. The jib blew away as soon as a portion of it was exposed and the foresail the same. Then the steering gear was found to have gone on a racket and we were a helpless wreck with 168 passengers and 83 attaches of the steamer.


It was now decided best to bring the head of the steamer up to the gale and ride it head on. Of course the question came up, how best to do this. As it happened, Chief Mate Ingraham had that very morning before leaving Bangor, taken a huge coil of 105 fathoms of the largest hawser from the storeroom, cut it into three hawsers, spliced bights in each end, and coiled it up on the main deck forward. He at once had these bent together and payed them out the hawser pipe, throwing the inboard splice over the bit.


There was nothing available on board to attach to the out board end to act as a drag. But the bights proved of some help and the


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