May 2016 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 21. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s 15 June 1903
The Morning’s News by Wire. 5-Master Lost
The WASHINGTON B. THOMAS Wrecked Near Old Orchard. Captain’s Wife Killed
Several Other Marine Disasters in the Big Storm – Situation in Servia. One life was lost by the wrecking
of the magnificent now five-masted schooner WASHINGTON B. THOMAS of Thomaston, Maine, on Stratton Island, four miles off Old Orchard, in the gale of Friday night while bound with 4000 tons of soft coal from Norfolk, Virginia, for Portland. The wife of Capt. Wm. J. Lermond, to whom he was married a year ago, was killed by the immense waves breaking in the cabin. Her body was washed away in the darkness and not recovered. Capt. Lermond and the crew of 13 men were rescued Sunday by a volunteer life saving crew. One seaman had a leg broken and the captain, engineer and four seamen were badly bruised. The THOMAS was broken up and practically a total loss. Tons of wreckage were washed ashore at Old Orchard.
The dead: Mrs. Wm. J. Lermond, wife of Capt.
Lermond.
The injured: Wm. J. Lermond, captain, Thomaston,
Maine, internal and external injuries; Frank Eklund, seaman, Finlander, leg broken; Chas. Brown, engineer, Norgwegian, bruised; Herman Melow, seaman, German, bruised; Fred Watke, seaman, Australian, bruised; Karl Warner, seaman, German, bruised. The THOMAS was anchored Friday
night off Stratton Island and at midnight drifted from her anchorage onto the island. Without a second’s warning there came a crash as the schooner tore her way over one rock to strike another a few moments later and then drive hard and fast on the reef on the southerly end of the outer side of Stratton Island.
When the first shock came Mrs.
Lermond, her son and the fi rst mate’s son were in the cabin. They felt the shock and heard above the din of the storm the shout
of the captain. Instinctively they struggled towards the stern companionway and up to the deck, where at fi rst they took refuge on the roof of the house. Mrs. Lermond was forward on the
starboard side and clinging to the rail and iron work on a corner of the coach house. Her husband stood in front of her to protect her as much as possible. Great waves which swept the decks covered Mrs. Lermond and nearly tore her from her hold. The little group fought their way to the wheel house further aft. From this they were soon driven, after one of them young Bowdoin Lermond, had narrowly escaped being washed overboard. He was standing in the ice of the house where he supposed he was safe when another sea, rushing toward the stern, picked him up and swept him along until he caught in the main street where he was held until the water ran from the decks. Mrs. Lermond, the two boys and the offi cers sought the cabin, hoping it would prove stout enough to aff ord safety. It was a vain hope for they had been there but a few minutes when with a sickening crash a wave tore away the forward companionway, down which rushed a torrent of water. At this moment, Mrs. Lermond was with her husband in their stateroom, aft of the main cabin on the starboard side of the ship. As the tons of water struck the bulkhead, separating stateroom from saloon, it knocked it down. The partition fell into the stateroom and struck Mrs. Lermond on the head, rendering her unconscious. Capt. Lermond grasped her in the arms and tried to drag her to the companionway. The water was rushing through the forward door and the skylight hatch and the narrow space where he stood was full of fl oating debris. As he slowly dragged her to the stairs, he was struck across the face with such force that he was thrown backward and the unconscious woman was torn from his grasp. The water surged toward the bow
again, carrying her body with it. The captain could not follow her; he could see nothing in the darkness and as the cabin fi lling in a twinkling he reached the decks just in time to escape the fate of his wife. Driven from one place to another, the offi cers and two boys climbed to the spanker
M S H
B R J Continued from Page 7.
produced over 3,300 JY 15s. Mystic Seaport uses JY 15s in its sail training program. Rod still helps design new J/ Boats and continues to race actively. He has won championships in the J/24, J/22, J/30, J/35, J/120, J/70 and J/88 classes and at various Race Weeks. Rod and his wife, Lucia, live in Stonington. He is a member and Past Commodore of the Wadawanuck Yacht Club, Past Chairman of the Stonington Board of Education, and member of the Stonington Harbor Manage- ment Commission. Past recipients of the America and
the Sea Award include oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle, historian David Mc- Cullough, legendary yacht designer Olin Stephens, President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley, philanthropist William Koch, former Secre- tary of the Navy John Lehman, WoodenBoat founder Jon Wilson, yachtsman and author Gary Jobson, maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson, and author and historian Na- thaniel Philbrick. The 2016 gala is co-chaired by J. Bar-
clay Collins, II, Maarten de Jong and Kendra Matthew, Michael and Joanne Masin, and
Cayre and Alexis Michas. S. Carter Gowrie is corporate co-chair. To purchase tickets or a table, or to inquire about corporate sponsorship or dockage for the event, please contact
advancement@mysticseaport.org or call 860.572.5365. Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading
maritime museum. Founded in 1929, the Museum is home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Museum’s collection of more than two million artifacts includes more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the country. The state-of-the-art Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport provides scholars and researchers from around the world access to the Museum’s renowned archives. Mystic Seaport is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. Ad- mission is $26 for adults and $17 for children ages 6-17. Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. For more in- formation, please visit
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boom which hung a few feet above the roof of the house, where they remained fi ve hours.
Then the party discovered that the house beneath them was beginning to break up. The sea stayed its fury during the short
time it took them to gain the bow. As they crept forward they supposed they would fi nd the forward part of the vessel without tenants as they thought all on board had perished with the exception of themselves, but when they made their way to the forecastle they discovered the seamen had reached it soon after the schooner struck and were safely sheltered there. In his bunk was Seaman Frank Eklund,
who had managed to reach the place after his leg was broken. Finding the limb useless, he had crept on his hands and knees to the forecastle and improvised a splint which he secured with straps. When the schooner ran on to the reef,
her bow was forced high in the air so the waves did not break over it. The seas boarded her about midships and made terrifi c onslaughts on the after portions of the vessel. Much of the vessel was under water. The jigger master, that one of the fi ve which stood nearest the stern, was broken off but was held by the rigging. The afterhouse and wheelhouse had disappeared. The men were all removed after
midnight Sunday morning. In two trips by a crew of two men from the Cape Elizabeth life saving station and a number of resident volunteers. After a line had drifted from the life boat to the wreck a “trip line” was passed and used in drawing the men, one by one, through the seas after they had been lowered into the water. On the THOMAS, one of the mates held an end of the “trip line” which was tied about the waist of the man whose turn it was to be taken to the life boat. Under the man’s arms another rope was passed, both ends of this being held by the other mate on the wreck. By means of this loop the man was lowered to the water, the rope drawn back on board, and the man with only the “trip line” about him was dragged to the life boat.
The injured seaman and engineer were
given the fi rst chance. Capt. Lermond, the mates and two seamen were left on the wreck until daylight, when all were taken to the mainland. The crew were then brought to the offi ce
of the United States shipping commissioner and the injured taken to the marine hospital. Capt. Lermond arrived in Portland with his son and was placed under the care of
a physician. He was suff ering with severe bruises and excruciating pains developed. He had had no sleep for four nights. Capt. Lermond said that when he found
himself on the lee shore he put out his port anchor with about 75 fathoms of chain. This did not hold. It was supposed that the shackling by which the anchor was attached to the chain gave way. The captain detected the vessel was swinging instead of holding as she should, and put out the other anchor, which seemed to have fouled and did not hold. Capt. Lermond found his only hope lay in putting on sail and trying to claw off the lee shore. He got sail on all the masts but the mizzenmast. He thinks that if he had time to get sail on that mast also he might have succeeded in clearing the island. On board the THOMAS with Capt.
Lermond were his wife, daughter and son. The son, Bowdoin Lermond, 16 years of age, was entered on the ship’s records as cabin boy. The other members of the crew, shipped from Portland two weeks ago, are: First mate, E. H. Tabbut of Addison,
Maine, age 54. Second mate, F. C. Clark of Thomaston,
27.
Engineer, Charles Brown, aged 33, a native of Norway. Cook, W. A. Tabbut of Addison, age 22. Apprentice, Rollin S. Tabbut of Addison, age 17, son of the fi rst mate. Seaman, William Jess, age 47, of
Finland; Andrew Anderson, Finland, 40; Fred Watke, Australia, 26; Karl Warner, Germany, 21; Frank Eklund, Finland, 34; H. Melow, Germany, 30; Carl Anderson, Finland, 27. Capt. Lermond’s home is in Thomaston,
where his vessel was launched last month. He has followed the sea continuously 44 years and never before lost a vessel. The WASHINGTON B. THOMAS
was the largest craft over launched from the Thomaston yards. Her value was about $130,000. Her frame was of best Virginia oak, fastened with 1 ¼ inch iron and locust tree nails. She had fi ve tiers of keelson, each 15x15 inches, and three tiers of sister keelsons of similar dimensions. She had two full decks, with poop deck taking the mainmast. Her masts were whole sticks of Oregon pipe, each 115 feet long; topmasts 57 feet. Her planking was of yellow pine, fi ve inches thick, and ceiling of the same material, 12x14 inches. All of her standing rigging was of Roebling make. She carried
Continued on Page 22. Derecktor-Robinhood Continued from Page 5.
family were long distance voyagers. She had grown up in Cape Elizabeth, but the family had made long distance voyages, one time circumnavigating South America, including rounding Cape Horn. Neil was trained as a diesel mechanic
and began a career fi xing old German, Swed- ish and British cars and motorcycles. He added, “That was getting hard on my body so I took a night job doing woodworking and that turned into a full production woodshop. When I closed that business, that is when I went sailing. Once I started working on the boat I knew that was what I was meant to do.”
Neil’s wife was a friend of Brian Harris’
wife and Brain was the general manager of Maine Yacht Center. Neil was also fi xing Brian’s motorcycle so naturally when he returned to Maine he went to work at Maine Yacht Center in their systems department.
“When I started there it was a much smaller aff air than what it is now. They were building the business and they had a much smaller crew and not as many boats. Over the 10 years it has grown into what it is. It was great to be able to work with Brian and see how he dealt with the logistical problems.” This spring and summer they are going
to be “sprucing things up.” “We just want people to know we are welcoming the boat- ing community and I would like them to know that we value the cruising sailor and we really want to support that community,” said Neil. For those that have never been to
Derecktor-Robinhood, especially by water, this is one of the nicest marinas on the coast of Maine. Even by land and not a boat owner, there is nothing like dinner in their restaurant or a night out on one of their houseboat. This is also a place to consider if you are looking for a slip for the summer, or a place to store in the winter.
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