Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2016 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


course advisable. Other arrivals Sunday were the


schooner OTREATA, WEYMOUTH, with fertilizer for Henry McLaughlin & Co. Catawamteak, Barres Island, with fertilizer.


3 December 1904 Badly Damaged


Injuries to Hull of Schooner I. K. STERSON are Serious Repaired at Brewer


Will Make Lots of Work at the Stetson Yard Next Spring – News of the Shipping


The owners of the schooner I. K.


STETSON have decided to leave the vessel at the Stetson yards in Brewer during the winter instead of taking her to Belfast for repairs as was originally intended if the schooner was found to be in such condition that she could be towed down river. After being fi lled with barrels the schooner was fl oated Thursday and was beached Friday and an examination of her bottom made. It was found that the schooner suff ered


more damage than was thought while she was on the rocks at Mosquito Island. Most of her keel is gone, there are several big holes in her bottom, and the planking is badly chafed in other places where it is not quite worn through. The vessel evidently settled on the rocks so that they were forced up through her bottom and the eff orts of the tugs to pull the vessel off only made the holes larger. It is expected that repairs on the vessel will cost $4000 or $5000 and as it is thought to be impracticable to tow her to Belfast for repairs in time to have her in condition for service this winter she will be left at the Brewer yard and the repairs made on her there in the spring. The repairs to be made on the STETSON if such as are expected together with the work of the new schooner AUGUSTA W. SNOW building at the Stetson yard will make that a busy place next spring.


6 December 1904 New Launches


Cobb Bros. of Brewer Busy on Some Fine Ones at Present An Expensive Boat


Finished in Mahogany and Brass is Among the Lot – Penobscot Fleet Augmented – Brewer Locals.


The handsomest and most expensive sailboat of her size ever built in this vicinity


is now nearly completed at the shop of Cobb Bros., in Brewer. It is owned by Mr. Barron, who for several years has spent his summers at Pushaw Lake and will be used on the lake next summer. The boat is of the knockabout variety with a car rig, is 18 ½ feet long, six feet wide and 18 inches deep. Only the best of material has been used in her construction. The planking is of clear southern cedar. The top streak, stern piece, decks, washboards and all top fi ttings, are of selected solid mahogany. The frame is oak. The fi nish will be bright in varnish, what is called a piano fi nish. The boat is provided with air chambers


forward and aft so that it will not sink no matter what happens. She is of shoal draft and admirably fi tted for cruising in the shadow portions of Pushaw. She is fi tted with a centerboard. One of the most attractive features of


the craft is the brass, of which her cleats, blocks, chafi ng streaks, rigging, mast rings, deck and boom travelers and other fi ttings are composed. The boat was designed especially for the owner by Cobb Bros., and is a marvel of beauty and graceful lines. She was built for comfort but many yachting experts who have seen her say that she will be one of the fastest craft of her size ever launched in the county. Her owner believes that he has a handsome and speedy as well as a swift and able seaboat. Another sailboat for Pushaw will be


built later in the winter by Cobb Bros. for Clerk of Courts Charles F. Sweet of Bangor, who already owns a powerful gasoline launch. Mr. Sweet’s boat will be 16 feet long and fi ve feet wide and is intended for shoal water cruising and fi shing purposes. It will be cat rigged and will be used as an auxiliary craft to the power launch. Among the new additions to the


Penobscot River pleasure fl eet this winter will be a 30-foot power launch for Charles Wilcox of Bangor. This launch will be 30 feet long and seven feet wide, and will be of the hunting cabin type, which for the past two or three years has become very popular throughout the eastern part of the country. The stern will be of the improved torpedo style such as was generally admired in the two fast boats built last summer by E. H. and C. L. Cobb. This launch will be equipped with a seven horse power gasoline engine. Another power launch for river cruising will be built for a Bangor business man some


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time this winter. It will be 20 feet long and four feet and ten inches wide. This launch will also have an improved torpedo stern and will be modeled on fast and graceful lines. As it will be equipped with a fi ve horse power gasoline engine the boat will undoubtedly be fast. Even at this time of the year when the


weather is cold and the river and lakes ice bound, there is much interest in boating in Bangor and Brewer, and it is likely that by spring the Penobscot pleasure fl eet will be considerably augmented.


8 December 1904 Big Vessel Launched at Camden Thursday


Camden, December 8. The schooner SAMUEL J. COUCHER,


named for a resident of Philadelphia and the largest of the fi ve-masted schooners ever built to Camden was launched Thursday from the yard of H. M. and R. L. Bean. She was built for the Coastwise Transportation Co. and will be commanded by Capt. Elmer E. Crowley of Taunton, Massachusetts. Her dimensions are:


Length of keel, 271 feet beam, 48 feet,


depth, 27 feet. Her tonnage is 2,547 gross and 2,249 net. The frame is of Virginia oak, the masts of Oregon pine and she cost about $120,000. Boston will be the home port. As she went overboard a half hour before the time arranged the launching was seen by only a few people. A Launching at Bath


Bath, December 8. The fi ve-masted schooner DOROTHY


B. BARRETT in honor of the granddaughter of Henry O. Barrett, of Boston was launched Thursday from the yard of G. G. Deering. She was christened by Miss Barrett. This schooner is the largest of the


several craft bearing the Barrett name and the largest fi ve-master ever built at the Deering yards. She will be commanded by Capt. W. M. Ervin, and the home port will be Bath. The BARRETT is about 2,088 gross tonnage, 259.5 feet long, 45.4 feet beam and 25.1 feet deep.


12 December 1904 Cut Down at Sea


Bangor Schooner JOHN T. WILLIAMS Sunk by Fishermen. One Seaman Lost.


Schooner Abandoned Immediately After the Collision – Was the Last Vessel to Leave Bangor


The schooner JOHN T. WILLIAMS


of the F. W. Ayer & Co. fl eet was wrecked Friday night, 35 miles off Thatcher’s island, in a collision with the fishing schooner METAMORA of Boston, bound to the Grand Banks. One member of the WILLIAMS’ crew, a seaman called “Harry,” was lost. The identity of the man is unknown, but he was a native of Maine. The other members of the WILLIAMS’ crew were taken off in dories by the crew of the fi shing schooner and landed at Gloucester Saturday afternoon. The WILLIAMS was so badly damaged that she was abandoned. The JOHN T. WILLIAMS left Bangor


December 4 for New York with 237,000 feet of lumber from the Eastern Mfg. Co. for Stetson, Cutler & Redman of New York, being the last vessel to clear from Bangor for the season. The WILLIAMS was built in Brooklyn in 1857 and was purchased by F. W. Ayer & Co. from the Pendletons of Islesboro, a little over a month ago. She was of 230 tons net 127 feet long, 31 feet wide, and nine feet deep.


Capt. Getchell’s Story.


Capt. F. H. Getchell and the survivors of the wrecked schooner arrived in Boston


Saturday afternoon. While the captain makes no specifi c charges against the men on the fi shing vessel, he intimated that all was not right on board that vessel, and that at the time of the collision there was only one man on deck, the remainder of the crew of 23 men being below. The captain, however, made no


charges and said that those on board the METAMORA did everything in their power to make his own crew comfortable after they had been rescued. Capt. Getchell said that on Friday


at 6:30 p.m., Boone island bearing north 18 miles, the lookout sighted a fi sherman steering northeast half east. The attention of Capt. Getchell, who was at the wheel, was immediately called to the vessel and she was in view fully fi ve minutes before the collision occurred. Capt. Getchell said he did his utmost to


avert the collision, which seemed inevitable, as the fi shing vessel, which proved to be the METAMORA, outward bound from Boston for Boothbay, was heading directly for him. The wheelsman was the only man on the fi sherman’s deck, and he apparently did not see the lumber schooner until it was too late to avert collision. On came the METAMORA, speeding


to the eastward, while those on the WILLIAMS, powerless to avert the collision, watched her every movement. The fi shing vessel crashed into the


starboard side of the WILLIAMS, striking her with terrifi c force, taking the entire starboard side, tearing off the chain plates and all the rigging on that side. The impact broke both masts off about four feet above the deck, and these, with the rigging attached, went over the side in a tangled mass.


One of the sailors, known as Harry, who


was shipped just before her vessel sailed from Bangor, was caught in the wreckage and carried overboard. He was never seen again.


Mate Olsen, who was forward on the


lookout, was knocked senseless by being struck on the head by fl ying wreckage and narrowly escaped the fate of the sailor. He received severe cuts and contusions. Within a few minutes after the collision the lashings to the deck load broke, and the lumber began to wash away. The seas carried the lumber back and forth, smashing in the afterhouse and endangering the lives of those on board. The captain attempted to go into the


cabin to save some of his personal eff ects and the ship’s papers, but the lumber had worked in from the deck, and he was forced to return to the deck. He saved only his overcoat. The vessel began to fill and she


fl oundered about as though her stern had been knocked off . The fisherman was carried some


distance away from the wreck before she could be brought about. She was handicapped because of the loss of her mainsail, jib and all of her headgear which were carried away at the time of the collision. She returned to within a short distance of the WILLIAMS and two of her dories were put overboard, one containing two men and the other three men. The fi rst dory to reach the wreck took off Mate Olsen and two seamen who had been injured. Capt. Getchell and the cook being the last to leave the waterlogged craft. The men of the fishing vessel did


everything they could to make the crew of the WILLIAMS comfortable, and she bore up for Gloucester, where the shipwrecked men were landed at noon Saturday. Olsen and the sailor who were struck by the wreckage were so badly injured that they were taken to the hospital for treatment.


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