Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2015 Continued from Page 23.


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


PACKARD on that vessel’s last voyage to this port, writes to the Herald his opinion on such meetings and other matters. “That the poor sailors are being abused and deprived of their lawful rights,” he says, “is all bosh. The sailors simply want $30 a month wages and ship owners will pay only $18, and were it not for the boarding house keepers we would have to take $18 or less. “The sailors believe the societies are being made catspaws of by the ship- captains and owners. If the societies are sincere in their desire to help the sailors let them see that the British captains and mates are brought to book for assaulting and maltreating sailors on high seas.”


27 May 1899 Contract for the Big Six Master Has Been Signed.


January 12, 1899, there was launched from the yard of H. M. Bean, Camden, the five-masted vessel the JOHN B. PRESCOTT, the largest in the world, but Capt. J. G. Crowley, managing owner of the Crowley fl eet, was not content with the size of this immense vessel and has now taken steps to have a six-masted one built, and she will be launched in June, 1900. The shares have all been subscribed and were in quick time.


The vessel will be 300 feet on the keel, 340 feet over all and 420 feet from end of spanker boom to end of jibboom, and the cost is estimated at about $100,000. She will carry 550 tons of coal and will doubtless pay large dividends. The Crowley fl eet now comprises the JOHN B. PRESCOTT, the great 3000 tons four-master HENRY W. CRAMP, and the four-masters SAGAMORE and MT. HOPE, all of which have been very successful. The vessel now building in Bean’s yard for Capt. Clarence Birdsall of Tom’s River, New Jersey, is nearly planked and the stern is made, also the stern post, the rudder hung and 60 feet of the keel laid for the vessel also under construction for Capt. J. R. Polter of New York, and the schooner CORNELIUS SOULE, Capt. C. H. Saunders is expected June 10 from Virginia with timber for the frame. As soon as Capt. Birdsall’s vessel is launched, which will be some time next month, work will commence on one for Capt. George Bailey of Manaquam, New Jersey. Mr. Bean will build one later for Capt. P. H. Nye of New Bedford to be used in the South American trade. * * * * *


CATHERINE Disappeared in Penobscot Bay.


Bangor Excursion Managers Kept Wires Hot in Vain.


Board of Trade Torpedoes Suggested, But Fears are Subsiding.


Wanted: Information that will lead to the recovery of the hidden steamer CATHERINE.


That was the cry in Bangor on Monday.


The CATHERINE had been engaged by Messrs. Reed & Mountaine for an excursion down the bay last Sunday and over 350 people were disasppointed that morning to fi nd when they went to the wharf that she was not in this port. She left East Surry Saturday night bound for Bangor. After that her whereabouts was a mystery. The excursion tickets can be redeemed at Mountaine’s drug day’s excursion to Rockland. On Monday morning F. W. K. Reed, one of the excursion managers, called up Bucksport on the telephone, thinking that the CATHERINE might be in that port with broken machinery or thick weather as an excuse for not showing up. Bucksport had


not seen or head of the missing craft. Mr. Reed then proceeded to call up Rockland and other places with no better result. No wire that could be pulled revealed the hiding place of the craft.


The captain of the steamer CASTINE which came to this city on Monday with an excursion from down the bay, was seen by reporters, to whom he said that it was announced down river that the CATHERINE had met with some small accident but that absolutely nothing was known of her whereabouts. In brief the steamer left East Surry Saturday night for this port to take the excursion out on Sunday, and has not been seen since. The most urgent inquiries from interested parties in Bangor failed to discover her whereabouts. Torpedoes Did It.


Late Monday afternoon an excited individual dashed into the Commercial offi ce with the information that if the city editor would kindly call up number umpet- ump four he could fi nd out all about the CATHERINE.


“Gimme umpety-ump four,” therefore called the boss scribbler over the wire. “Hello,” ye yelled a minute later, “can you tell us anything about the whereabouts of the excursion steamer CATHERINE?” “Sure thing!” was the confi dent reply. “Down here they say she struck a board- of-trade torpedo that got away from the government last summer and that she hasn’t come down yet. Always good to do favors, you know, - oh, yes, good day!” However, it has been defi nitely settled that this report is wholly without foundation. To Meet Dewey.


Another theory is, that the CATHERINE has started across the Atlantic to escort Admiral Dewey to New York. It is thought by many, however, that this theory is also improbable and it is pointed out that the boat, coming from a prohibition coast, had no proper outfi t for a celebration of that joyous character.


But She’s Safe.


Nothwithstanding these conjectures, Messrs. Reed & Mountaine do not appear to worry much and confi dently state that the CATHERINE will be on hand next Sunday morning to carry the excursionists to Rockland strictly as advertised. She is a fi ne boat and will take down several hundreds of people without discomfort next Sunday.


30 May 1899 A Bangor Steamer Burned The MINNIE, on Moosehead Lake, Destroyed by Fire Last Week and the Cause Cannot Be Found.


The steamer MINNIE, owned by John Ross & Son, of Bangor, was burned and totally destroyed at her moorings on Moosehead Lake several days ago; at present there is no clue to the manner in which the blaze was set.


The MINNIE was built for the Ross


company, of Bangor, and has been used in lumbering operations around Moosehead. One afternoon last week she was brought down to Greenville Junction and tied up to a pier. During that evening and as late as 10 o’clock she was boarded and was in good condition. At 3 o’clock next morning she was discovered adrift in the lake and on fi re. The alarm was at once given and boats tried to put out and save the craft. She was too badly injured, however, to give any opportunity for their assistance and was soon, it is understood, a total loss.


31 May 1899 Monster Craft.


Maine Has Built Some Giant Vessels. Some of the Big Schooners Built Within


The New Six-Master Compared With the Present Maritime Wonders. Maine is about to produce another wonder in the shipbuilding line, a sixmasted schooner. There seems to be no limit to the size of schooners. Thirty years ago the average schooner built in this part of the world was from 100 to 250 tons register. Then, along in the early seventies they began to build three-masters slightly larger, and the size was increased in 1880. In the eighties there was a demand for larger vessels for the coasting trade, and the size of the three- masters went up from 600 to 900 tons, with a coal-carrying capacity of from 1000 to 1400 tons.


Late in the eighties, say the New York Sun, a few fourmasters were built, and then, in 1888, at Waldoboro, was launched the fi rst fi vemaster, the GOV. AMES, of 1689 tons net. The vessel was the wonder of her time, and it was predicted that she would prove a lamentable failure. She has been a great success, however, and not alone in coasting, for she has been around the Horn to the Pacifi c and back again, carrying 1,650,000 feet of Oregon pine to Liverpool, besides making several voyages from Puget Sound to Port Pirie, Australia.


In recent years several fourmasters have been built that are larger than the GOV. AMES, among htem are FRANK A. PALMER of Bath, of 1832 tons, now on the way to Tampa, Florida, with a cargo of stone for the fortifi cations there. The latest wonders in the big schooner line are the JOHN B. PRESCOTT, built at Camden, and the NATHANIEL T. PALMER, built at Bath, both launched last winter. These vessels are of the fi vemaster type, each registering about 2245 tons and carrying from 4000 to 4400 tons of coal, according to weather, voyage and draught. A number of fi vemasters of less tonnage have since been launched.


The two big fellows, the JOHN B.


PRESCOTT and the NATHANIEL T. PALMER, had scarcely been sent overboard when shipping people began to talk of the possibility of a six-master being built. At fi rst, as is the case of the pioneer fi ve- master, the idea was laughed at, and a number of builders solemnly announced that they would not take a contract to build such a vessel. They said that a vessel of the necessary length to carry six masts would be tender, that she would strain like a basket in a cross sea, and that the slightest grounding would break her in two. But there were one ship master and owner, Capt. John G. Crowley of Taunton, Massachusetts, and one builder H. M. Bean, of Camden, Maine, who had faith in the sixmaster as a good sort of vessel to built, and between them she is to be constructed in the same yard that turned out the biggest of the fi vemasters, the JOHN B. PRESCOTT, at Camden. The vessel has been taken up, that is, her shares have all been subscribed for. She is to cost $100,000 and will be ready for launching in June 1900. This monster will be 310 feet long on the keel, 345 feet on top and will register about 2750 tons net, with an estimated coal carrying capacity of from 5000 to 5500 tons. Work on her construction will begin as soon as the frame can be cut and brought to Maine, and a big crew of men will be employed for a full year in her building.


3 June 1899 The Old HARTFORD


Farragut’s Famous Flagship Coming East.


Has Been Remodelled and Modernized. Will Go Into Service as Training Ship for Recruits.


The Atlantic coast of the United States is once more to see the famous HARTFORD, with which the name of “Admiral Farragut is inseparably linked. The ship is to be placed in commission in September and to proceed from Mare Island, California, where she has been reconstructed, for the eastern coast via either the Suez Canal or Cape Horn. She will, in her new sphere, occupy the unique position of being the fi rst of Uncle Sam’s fi ghting craft to be used exclusively for the training of green landsmen into the ways of the typical man-of-war’s man. Already, in anticipation of her coming


to Atlantic waters, the mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, has requested that she be ordered to the Connecticut shores, where it is expected she will be presented with a service of silver by the city of Hartford. The home-coming of the HARTFORD is something more than a local affair. The middle and the far west are to be given a chance to infuse their vigorous blood into the veins of the enlisted branch of the Navy. Three hundred able-bodied Americans, resident of the sections named, are to be recruited for a term of four years’ duty, the training period of which is to be spent on board the reconstructed HARTFORD, once Farragut’s fl agship.


As a result of consideration given the matter by the offi cials, Lieut. Alexander Sharp, Jr., who commanded the converted yacht VIXEN in the celebrated naval battle of Santiago and who has been selected to perform the exacting duties of executive of the new training ship, will start next week on a tour of the western states, accompanied by a boatswain and a medical offi cer to select the men who are to form the greater part of the Hartford’s complement. Lieut. Sharp’s orders require him to visit all the large cities in the west. He will visit Chicago, and during his trip is expected to establish temporary recruiting rendezvous in that city and also at St. Louis, Topeka, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco, California, and other points at which he may be able to fi nd satisfactory material.


“The desirability of western men as jackies,” said Commander Hawley, “was fully demonstrated during the latter confl ict with Spain. We obtained a number of recruits from the west who performed splendid service during those trying months and I am proud of the record they made. While they lacked, perhaps, the original training of sailormen, their intelligence and zeal soon overcame this diffi culty and they quickly grew familiar with their duties in the strictest sense of the word.


“Unfortunately for the United States, it has no merchant marine like Great Britain and some other of our European neighbors from which to draw for additions to the navy in time of need. What few American sailors there are now in the Navy are somewhat similarly employed on yachts. In consequence, a deal of diffi culty is being experienced in getting the kind of men we want from the traditional sources of supply, i. e., our seaboard cities of the east and a few of the Pacifi c coast centers. The middle and the far west not in touch with the sea undoubtedly have a large number of young men whom we are desirous to reach. No one who is not an American citizen, either by birth or naturalization, will be accepted. We want a strictly American Navy, and all must be able to read and to write, to be fairly intelligent, and to be ready to obey the instructions of their superior offi cers. The record of the war with Spain has shown what the Navy can do, and there are certainly hundreds of young men in the land-locked west, to whom the sea now appears as it


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