July 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25.


and a lighter is obtained promptly, she may be fl oated. Captain Sewell and crew of two men reached shore with diffi culty by the aid of lines thrown to them. The steamer’s tanks were nearly full of gasoline and she had a cargo of kerosene in barrels. She is 70 feet long and used in delivery of oil along the coast.


17 January 1914 Search Sea for Two Schooners


Cutter GRESHAM Asked to Hunt for the FULLER PALMER and PRESCOTT PALMER


Considerable anxiety was felt among shipping men in Boston Friday for the safety of the five-masted schooners FULLER PALMER and PRESCOTT PALMER of which no word has been received since they were caught off the coast by the northwest gale Monday night. All were coal-laden from Norfolk. The FULLER PALMER was bound for Boston, the PRESCOTT PALMER for Portsmouth, N. H. They passed Highland Light on Monday just before the gale swept the coast. Captain Herbert H. Wallace of the schooner GRACE A. MARTIN, which was abandoned off Matinicus Rock on Wednesday saw the three vessels at 10 o’clock Monday. They encountered the same weather conditions that caused the loss of the MARTIN and shipping men fear that disaster may have overtaken them.


The three schooners carried a total of 37 men.


It was thought for a time Friday night that the PRESCOTT PALMER was safely accounted for, marine reports from Portsmouth, N. H. having announced her arrival there. Subsequent investigation however, showed the schooner at Portsmouth to be the GEORGE P. HUDSON. The revenue cutter GRESHAM was ordered to sea Friday night to search for the missing vessels.


Portland Not Alarmed


E. W. Clark of the J. S. Winslow company at Portland, said there was no excuse for alarm on account of the failure to be reported of the schooner FULLER PALMER, which was last heard from as having passed Highland Light on Monday. The REBECCA PALMER was reported 35 miles off Cape Elizabeth by Captain Lewis of the NORTH STAR on arrival Friday night and she should be in before morning. Late Friday afternoon Mr. Clark sent a request to the revenue cutter GRESHAM that she go out to look for the schooner. The Northland Disabled


Information was received in Portland Friday night from Lieut. Ridgeley of the cutter WOODBURY stating that the WOODBURY had picked up the four- masted schooner NORTHLAND three miles south of Matinicus Light, which is west of Penobscot Bay. Mr. Ridgeley stated that her fore and mizzen sails were blown away and that she was leaking badly.


Her rigging was considerably damaged and her crew badly frost bitten. The WOODBURY is towing her to Rockland. The captain of the NORTHLAND reported to Lieut. Ridgeley that he was in company with a five-masted schooner Tuesday morning, but did not know her name. He says that he suddenly lost sight of her and believes she must have foundered. The WOODBURY was returning from the Bay of Fundy where she had gone to the assistance of the steamer COBEQUID. Shipping men in Portland say that the schooner seen by the NORTHLAND was without doubt the GRACE MARTIN and not either of the PALMERS.


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 19 January 1914


Calais Seamen Near to Death


Capt. Forrest Huntley and His Father, Capt. Josiah, on Fo’castle for 19 Hours Calais, January 19.


Capt. Forrest Huntley, who was with his


father, Capt. Josiah Huntley, on the schooner G. M. FOSTER, which was wrecked at Bass River during the gale of January 12, has arrived home. The two men barely escaped with their lives and their experience was one of the worst which has befallen Washington County seafaring folk for some time. Capt. Huntley said that the crew of the


PORTER suffered greatly after the schooner was wrecked. All hands were driven to seek refuge on the top of the fo’castle while the waves were breaking over the vessel. They were kept there for 19 hours, drenched with spray and with the Arctic gale which came sweeping down from the pole, cutting them like a knife. All hands suffered excruciatingly from the cold and several times their plight seemed hopeless. The schooner seemed in momentary danger of going to pieces and the strain on their nerves was frightful. The members of the crew lost all of their belongings, but this fact is dwarfed by their thankfulness at getting off of the wreck alive.


* * * * *


A succession of snow storms during the week, kept the street department employees on the job ten hours each day. The snow plows which were taken out on Monday, January 12, were kept busy up to Saturday evening.


Mrs. Josiah Huntley, who has been visiting friends in Cutler, returned home Friday.


The Bates College Glee Club gave a very pleasing entertainment in (?) Men’s hall on Saturday evening, under the auspices of the senior class of the Calais High School. * * * * *


Palmer’s Crew Safe in Port


Taken From Ice Coated Wreck to Baltimore by the Steamer MARINA. Rescued from their ice-coated, sinking ship after they had given up all hope, the 18 members of the crew of the fi ve-masted schooner FULLER PALMER arrived in Baltimore Sunday aboard the Donaldson line steamer MARINA.


The rescue was made by the MARINA


early Thursday morning about 154 miles southeast of Cape Cod.


The men rescued were Captain O. W. Clarke, Boston; First Mate James Rabe, Norway; Second Mater Albert Gould, Nova Scotia; Engineer William Buchaman, Cape Breton, and the negro crew.


Since Monday morning, when the gale which swept the Atlantic coast had so battered the schooner that she began to leak, the crew had fought to keep her afl oat. With sails whipped into shreds by the wind, and rigging broken and so coated with ice that it could not be handled the FULLER PALMER had practically drifted at the mercy of the raging seas.


Day and night, the men labored at the pumps as the pounding of the waves opened the seams and the leaks grew larger. Tons of water fl ooded the decks, and turning to ice, added to the unwieldiness of the vessel. Wednesday night, fearful that their vessel would sink at any minute distress rockets were sent up, only to be swept quickly away by the gale. On the masts red lights were placed.


All the small boats and life rafts had been crushed by the waves, while most of the woodwork on the upper decks had been smashed. With all chance apparently gone, the men huddled together in the forecastle,


while up on the bridge Capt. Clarke still maintained watch for some vessel. Shortly before 5 o’clock Thursday morning, a rocket shot up some miles away, showing that at last their signals had been noticed.


Until daylight the MARINA stood by then as the seas had somewhat moderated, several boats were lowered and the crew taken aboard. By that time the FULLER PALMER lay so low in the water that the men had no time to collect any of their belongings. The transfer was made without accident.


The Gale a Costly One


It is many years since such havoc has been caused among the coastwise fl eet as that which followed the blizzard along the New England coast last week. The gale wrecked one steamer, six schooners and a barge, according to the record of disasters disclosed up to Sunday. Numerous other vessels sustained severe damage and were left little short of wrecks.


The property loss is estimated at nearly a million dollars. Only one life was sacrifi ced, while 161 persons were brought safely to shore. Of these 108 were on the steamer COBEQUID, when she struck a rock in the Bay of Fundy only a short distance from the Maine coast. Other vessels known to have been wrecked are:


Schooner GRACE A. MARTIN,


foundered off Matinicus Rock, 14 saved. Schooner FULLER PALMER,


abandoned off Cape Cod, 13 saved. Schooner JOHN PAUL, sunk in Nantucket Sound, 5 saved. One lost. Schooner GRETA, sunk in Nantucket Sound, six saved.


Schooner LADYSMITH, abandoned


off Nantucket lightship, six saved. Schooner G. M. PORTER, abandoned


off Bass River, six saved. Barge 788, ashore on Nantucket, three


saved.


In nearly every instance escape from what seemed certain death was narrow enough to be a matter of seconds. This was especially true in the case of the JOHN PAUL, whose crew grasped a life line from the Cross Rip lightship as they were being swept past.


The crews of the GRACE A. MARTIN and FULLER PALMER, both of whom suffered intensely during the freezing hours, were also saved when hope was slight. Both were picked up by passing steamers. The storm broke over the coast Monday afternoon just as an unusually large fl eet of northbound coal-laden vessel, which had been windbound south of Cape Cod, were endeavoring to weather that famous and bar. More than 30 vessels succeeded in getting beck under the ice of the Cape off Chatham, but others were too far to the northward to return.


Fortunately those “sea ambulances,” the revenue cutter, were on hand in many instances with helping two lines. The ACUSHNET was especially active and helpful in Nantucket Sound, while the WOODBURY made a remarkable run from Portland to Yarmouth to help the COBEQUID. The GRESHAM was coaling when the storm broke, but arrived off Cape Cod in time to assist two vessels, while the ITASCA towed two more into Vineyard Haven.


The GRESHAM and ANDRO- SCOGGIN went sent off-shore Saturday in search of the PRESCOTT PALMER, the only one of the coastwise fl eet now unaccounted for.


12 February 1914 Schooner CRESSEY is Still in Peril


Highland Light, Massachusetts,


February 12. – The lumber-laden schooner DUSTIN G. CRESSEY, Jacksonville, for Portland, which narrowly escaped being wreck off here Wednesday, was still in a precarious position at dawn Thursday at anchor within 100 yards of the outer bar off the Pamet River life saving station, and leaking. The revenue cutter GRESHAM was not far off and it was believed an effort would be made to tow the schooner into Provincetown, although it was realized that the cutter would take many risks in going so near the beach to get a line on board. A 50-mile-an-hour gale with temperature of three below zero was blowing parallel with the beach and it was felt that unless that wind hauled to the east of north there was a chance for the little schooner, although the surf on the outer bar, only a couple of boat lengths off the portside, thundered and roared menacingly.


The crew of the CRESSEY were joined


Wednesday by eight men from the Pamet River station, headed by Capt. Paine, and all remained on board during the night. The topmasts of the CRESSEY could be seen now and then through the mists and at one time during the forenoon the fog blew away suffi ciently to show that the schooner was badly iced up and was fl ying signals for assistance.


The gale became more violent during the day and the wind began hauling to the northward which increased the anxiety of those on shore for the safety of the schooner, her crew and the life savers. Every rift in the vapor showed the vessel to be gathering ice fast.


The revenue cutter GRESHAM anchored about noon underneath Long Point in Provincetown, 25 miles from Pamet River.


14 February 1914 Fears for Safety of Bath Built Schooner Portland, February 14. The Bath-built schooner, BENJAMIN


F. POOLE, four masts, is several days overdue on her trip from Brunswick, Georgia, bound for Baltimore, and it is feared she has gone down with all on board. Her delayed arrival is due, shipping (?) to a rough experience with the gale that has raged at sea the past week. She was built in 1886 and is a 1,099 tons register. She is owned by the Atlantic Shipping Co. of Stonington, Connecticut.


The POOLE went ashore here 20 years


ago at Virginia Beach in Maryland and was high and dry from spring until early fall. It was felt that she would rot on that spot but an attempt to fl oat her was successful and she has been a busy coaster ever since. * * * * *


Five of PAUL’s Crew Saved Picked Up by Nantucket Lightship


From Schooner Boat – Cook Died of Exposure


Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, January 14. – Five members of the crew of the schooner JOHN PAUL, which sank in Nantucket Sound early Tuesday were rescued as they were being swept to sea by the crew of the Cross Rip lightship. The cook, John Thorr, of New York, died from exposure just before the rescue of his companions. The rescue of the men was due to the alertness of the lightship’s deck watch, who heard the ban of the men from the PAUL and summoned the lightship’s crew on deck so that half a dozen lines were thrown as the long boat of the PAUL swept by Captain E. B. Philips of Dennisport, directed the transfer of the frostbitten crew from the long boat to the deck of the lightship.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31