November 2016 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


but so far as is known there is but one along the Maine coast with the exception of the new one on the Penobscot. About 25 miles northeast of Portland, at the southern entrance to Boothbay Harbor, a one mile course has been laid off on the east Southport shore for both a land and a nautical mile. The water is clear and of a depth varying from 15 to 32 fathoms, and there is no tide the course being practically open sea. The course has an approximate direction of southwest, one- half west and is used by the United States government in proving vessels built at the Bath Iron Works. One of the most expensive launches


on the Penobscot was that built by Cobb Bros. last year for George F. Dillingham. She is 30 feet long and is equipped with a ten horse power engine. She is fi tted with all the electric devices and conveniences which could be devised by so skillful an electrician as her owner. Mr. Dillingham died last winter but the launch will be used this summer by this son, Charles A. Dillingham. Another 30 foot launch which attracted


much favorable attention was that built by Cobb Bros. for F. C. Plaisted. Mr. Plaisted’s boat was equipped with a nine horse power engine and was very fast. Of the smaller launches a 20 foot launch owned by E. H. Cobb and equipped with a three and three- quarters horse power Simplicity engine was the fastest proving to be a veritable fl yer. This boat will probably be in Connecticut waters this summer but will be replaced by a larger one driven with the same kind of engine.


Capt. Cushing’s Dory. Of the new craft to be launched for


the fi rst time this year, the most interesting is a 20 foot Swampscott power dory by Cobb Bros. for Capt. Charles Cushing of Bucksport. The boat has attracted a great deal of attention and it is predicted that she will be very fast and remarkably able boat in a heavy sea. It is fi ve feet wide and 22 inches deep; planked with pine, every plank running the entire length. Her lines are of the perfect Swampscott dory type with lap seams. A little later Cobb Bros. will build another 20 foot power dory for A. D. Olmstead of Brewer, but this boat will have smooth seams. This type of power boat is desirable in many ways. It is fast, an excellent seaboat and comparatively inexpensive to build. Clerk of Courts Charles F. Sweet has


ordered of Cobb Bros. a new launch to be 21 feet long and fi ve feet wide. It will be of the torpedo stern model and will have a double cylinder fi ve horse Toquette engine. This boat will be put on Lake Pushaw and will undoubtedly be the fastest launch on any lake or pod in this part of the state. Charles L. Cobb of Brewer, who


already owns a 20 feet launch, is building for his own use a 24 foot boat of somewhat lighter construction than the others on the river and yet strongly put together having the ribs less than eight inches apart. Her lines indicate extreme speed and as she is to have a Toquette double cylinder engine of fi ve horse power it is believed that she will make nine miles an hour or better. At Barbour Bros. yard in Brewer is the


only sailing boat of size and she is almost ready for launching. It is owned by Frank L. Tuck of Bangor, is 45 feet long, yawl rigged and an able sailboat. One or two other additions will be made to the sailing fl eet late in the season but so far as is known none will be built in this vicinity. In Cobb Bros. yard a queer craft is now


in process of construction. It is a 16 foot sailboat of the LARK type. It is shallow like a skimming dish and so wide it will be impossible to tip over. With such a craft


a centerboard is an absolute necessity else she would go off to the side so rapidly that it would be impossible to get anywhere except with a fair wind. The LARK’s centerboard will be of iron. Her appearance is all against her but expert sailormen say that she will go like the wind and the other types of sailboats will be readily distanced. The name of her owner is a secret as yet but it is understood that she will be used on Green Lake. In addition to the LARK and Mr.


Porter’s boat Cob Bros. are repainting C. A. Washburn’s launch and are rebuilding a 20 foot boat for Fred H. Dickey of Bangor. All the small launches which were on the river last year will with the exception of E. H. Cobb’s 20-footer, be put into commission again this spring. Down river in the bay the pleasure


fl eets will be bigger than ever. The Belfast fl eet will be augmented by several new power launches built at Belfast yards. There and at Northport the power boats are in the ascendant. At Dark Harbor and Camden knockabout sailboats continue in high favor and at those two places along the little white-winged fl yers continue in high favor. It is proposed to have a series of races this summer between boats owned by Dark Harbor and Camden summer residents. Dark Harbor has for years been famous as a center for fast sailboats but some of the Camden men are confi dent that they can win a majority of the races.


5 May 1904


How a Daring Rebel Plot Failed in Portland Harbor


Capture of the Revenue Cutter CALEB CUSHING and Her Destruction by Her Crew When Pursued by Loyal Citizens June 27, 1863.


(Portland Sunday Times). It may seem to many of the younger


readers of this paper a little like ancient history now to tell incidents that happened during the Civil War, but how many are there, that know, or have heard, anything about the revenue cutter CALEB CUSHING, and the exciting times that occurred in and about Portland when the Rebels entered the harbor, June 27, 1863, and captured the cutter from her moorings? It was early in the morning of that


eventful day that Capt. Austin R. Skinner of South Portland, who at that time was in charge of the ferry boat, H. H. DAY, was making his fi rst trip to the Portland side between 5 and 6 o’clock and disappeared the cutter moving out the harbor in tow of three large row boats. Hastening to the landing he gave the alarm to a policeman and a citizen who was on the wharf at the time. The story as Capt. Skinner tells it as follows: “The fi rst I saw of the strange movements


of the CUSHING was when I was making my fi rst trip to the Portland side between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning. I was in charge of the ferry boat H. H. DAY at the time and there was only one or two passengers on board. It had been very thick during the night


but about 5 o’clock that morning the fog scaled a little and I saw the cutter gong out by Hog Island ledge towed by three large boats filled with men.


“The commander of


the CALEB CUSHING had died a day or two before and the funeral was to be held in Portland. The cutter was in charge of the second Lieutenant, who was a southerner, and I think the fi rst offi cer


and part of the crew were ashore. My fi rst thoughts were that the lieutenant had stolen the cutter and was making off with it and I crowded on steam to reach ashore and give the alarm. When we reached the wharf I saw a policeman standing there talking with a citizen. I hailed him as soon as we got near enough to the shore and told him that I saw that cutter CALEB CUSHING going out of the harbor in tow of three boats, passing Hog Island ledge and out through Hussey’s sound.


“The offi cers immediately gave the


alarm, and I tell you there were lively times in Portland for a short time. Capt. Jacob McClellan was then mayor of the city and he in conjunction of the port, roused the citizens and manned and armed the steamers FOREST CITY and CHESAPEAKE of the New York line and went in pursuit of the cutter and her rebel crew. A detachment of soldiers and several citizens with small arms and muskets, were put on board each steamer, which had also been supplied with two or three small cannon from the forts, and the chase begun.


In Pursuit. “When the rebels saw the New York


steamer bearing down on them they thought it was a gunboat in pursuit and got the crew on the cutter, whom they had made prisoners and ironed, into the small boats, and after throwing the keys of the irons into the boats, set the men adrift and then tried to get away. But the steamer kept gaining on them and as there was not a breath of wind and the cutter towed very hard, the rebels feared capture. Those on board the cutter fi red several shots at the steamers but no serious damage was done as the rebels could not fi nd the shot on board and all they had is load the cannon with was powder, pieces of grindstone, old iron, etc., and their supply of this soon gave out.


“After the shots were exchanged


between the cutter and the steamer one of the pursuing craft bore down head on for


the CUSHING, and the rebels, fearing capture and perhaps death if the steamer struck them, took to their boats after setting fire to the CUSHING and blowing her up. She sank off White Head grounds. The rebels were shortly afterwards picked up by one of the pursuing steamers and brought back to the city.


“The


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fi shing schooner ARCHER, in which they came when they made their attempt to steal the cutter, was also captured and brought in. The ARCHER had on board all kinds of nautical instruments, muskets, etc. taken from vessels robbed along, the coast. The captured rebels were taken to Fort Preble where they were tried and confi ned. They were in command of Lieut. Reed. “The was the greatest excitement that


day in Portland, and the telegraph wires all over the country were hot with the news of the big battle in Casco Bay.” During the war Capt. Skinner, who was


a Union man to the backbone, served as mate of the bark CHARLES EDWIN built and owned at South Portland, and which was used as a transport most of the time during the war for coaling the Union fl eet. There is another interesting account of


the capture of the CALEB CUSHING given by Henry Clay Wood of Portland, who was one of the volunteers to go on the New York steamer in pursuit of the rebels. Henry Clay Wood’s Story.


Mr. Wood, a soldier in the Union army,


was at home in Portland on a furlough at the time of the capture of the CUSHING and relates very vividly the scenes enacted in connection with what passed into history as a remarkable event. He says: “As I recall, it was the 27th


of June, 1863,


that the revenue cutter CALEB CUSHING was captured in Portland harbor, by the rebel offi cers under Lieut. Read. Lieut. Read and the crew of the bark TACONY had been committing depredations along the coast of Maine, when learning that federal cruisers were after him, and fearing recognition, be captured on June 24, the fi shing schooner ARCHER of Southport, 90 tons, and after transferring everything to her, burned the TACONY. Lieut. Read headed the ARCHER for Portland, intending to cut out the U. S. revenue cutter CALEB, then in


Continued Page 26.


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