Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS January 2017 Continued from Page 23.


HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s The CITY OF BANGOR, now running


Gloucester, Massachusetts, May 28.


– A dispatch was received here Tuesday from Port Hawkesbury, N. S., announcing the arrival of the fi shing schooner M. B. STETSON of Bucksport, Maine, which was frozen up last winter at the Bay of Islands, N. F.


While nipped in the ice the STETSON


drifted ashore, but fl oated later. She has a full cargo of salt and frozen herring for this port.


6 June 1097


Machias Captain’s Narrow Escape Lincoln Robbins Knocked Overboard


from the Schooner LILLIAN off Seguin – Rescued by Two Boys


The narrow escapes of Capt. Lincoln


Robbins of Harrington from drowning and from losing his little schooner LILLIAN were reported Thursday on the arrival of the LILLIAN from a trip with lumber to Salem. On May 25, when off Seguin in a squall Capt. Robbins, while endeavoring to shorten sail, was struck by the mainboom and thrown into the water to the leeward of the schooner, some 20 feet from the rail. Two boys, Stephen Pettegrow and Leland Small, aged 14 and 16, who were making their fi rst trip before the mast were the only other occupants of the craft. They threw overboard everything movable about deck that would be of assistance to the captain, he being in the water three-quarters of an hour. Capt. Robbins succeeded in reaching


the schooner which had shifted her course and was pulled aboard by this juvenile crew.


8 June 1907 Launch Stolen Near Ellsworth


Bold Thief Drove Lawyer Whiting from his own Boat at Point of Pistol


Ellsworth, June 8. Forced by a stranger, whom he was


escorting to Blue Hill, to leave his own launch and put off to shore in a tender, was the experience of Wm. E. Whiting, a lawyer and referee in bankruptcy, Saturday. The demand of the unknown man was enforced by a revolver. The hold-up took place in Union River


bay, near Newburyneck and the robber disappeared with the launch which is valued at $300. He was reported to have passed Bass Harbor, headed east at noon. Mr. Whiting made his way to South


Ferry, enlisted the services of S. W. Wilder, a summer cottager, in whose launch they started in pursuit. Sheriff Mayo was notifi ed and started a search. The thief, who arranged a day or two


ago with Mr. Whiting to carry him to Blue Hill, is about 25 years old and of light complexion. The launch is named “RUTH W.,” is 31 feet long and painted white.


27 June 1907 Str. RANSOM B. FULLER STRUCK Bolt of Lightning Hit Top of Mainmast and Splintered it Somewhat Damage in Other Places.


The steamer RANSOM B. FULLER


was struck by lightning as she was going down the Kennebec to Bath Tuesday evening. The craft was off Abagadasset Point when the center of the storm was reached. Capt. Colby, who was in charge of the pilot house at the time, says he never saw it rain harder. The bolt which struck the steamer burst


with the noise of a cannon and hit the top of the mainmast a little on the port side. It ran down the mast for about fi ve feet to the rigging, taking away the half on the port side and ran down the rigging into the


water. Capt. Colby, who was standing at the window was thrown to one side and the electric wires to the light for the compass were rendered useless. All over the steamer the shock was


felt. Baggagemaster Owen, who was near the mast where it goes through the after gangway, reports feeling the shock and his arms were slightly aff ected when the steamer arrived here. Watchman Martin Carroll, Second Steward Jordan and News Agent E. B. Haggett were standing in the gangway door on the port side and when the bolt went into the river they were all shocked and felt the eff ect for some time. A deck hand was doubled up and suff ered considerable pain in his right leg and arm. J. W. Robbins of Providence, a


passenger, was on the saloon deck in one of the entrances to the side of the boat and he felt the shock in a peculiar manner. He was knocked about and did not know what was happening for a minute. After the shock he discovered that one of his stockings was scorched and he felt the electricity for some time after. The ladies in the cabin were frightened


and there was a bit of excitement aboard for a few minutes after the craft was struck. Splinters of the mast which fell on the hurricane deck were eagerly sought as souvenirs.


3 July 1907 Struck by Barge


Bangor Schooner REUBEN EASTMAN Damaged in Collision. Owned by Ayer & Co.


Accident Occurred in Dense Fog Off Pollock Rip – Schooner was Towed into Vineyard Haven.


A collision off Pollock Rip between the


Bangor schooner REUBEN EASTMAN and the barge ST. NICHOLAS in which the schooner was considerably damaged was reported at Vineyard Haven Wednesday when the EASTMAN arrived in tow of the tug CARLISLE. The collision occurred in a dense fog about noon. The ST. NICHOLAS was the rear of three barges of the tow of the CARLISLE and struck the schooner while it lay at anchor carrying away the bowsprit, jibboom and headgear of the EASTMAN and starting her bow and stem. The CARLISLE fi nding that the EASTMAN was considerably damaged anchored her barges and owed the schooner into Vineyard Haven. The EASTMAN was bound from Bangor for Vineyard Haven for orders. The barge was not injured. The EASTMAN is owned by F. W. Ayer


& Co. of this city and is a schooner of 109 tons net and was built at Bath in 1878. She cleared from Bangor a few days ago with a cargo of lumber consigned to Chase, Talbot & Co., of New York. The steamer CITY OF ROCKLAND


was held up at Winterport on her outward trip Tuesday afternoon owing to a heated box which rendered further traveling an impossibility until it could be cooled. It was able to proceed about 10 o’clock in the evening after having been delayed fi ve or six hours.


The following schooners cleared


from this port Wednesday: The MARIA WEBSTER for New Haven with lumber from the Sterns Lumber Co.; NED P. WALKER from James Walker & Co., for Boston, which did not get away Tuesday’ the KIT CARSON from Ayer’s and the barge PINE FOREST to a coal port. The fi ve-master GEORGE P. HUDSON could not clear Tuesday because its crew, which came from Boston, left their dunnage behind. It was expected that it would get away Wednesday or Thursday.


on the Kennebec-Boston route is evidently giving the best of satisfaction judging by the following item in the Bath Times: “The steamer CITY OF BANGOR


made her first trip from this city to Boston last evening, leaving on time and carrying a heavy freight and quite a list of passengers. Capt. Colby reported that the craft handled fi nely up river and that he went into Richmond Saturday and also again yesterday. The BANGOR is a good boat and is about 100 percent improvement over the old PENOBSCOT which had run opposite to the FULLER.”


6 July 1907 Say CAMDEN is O.K.


Steamboat Men Say the Trouble is not with Boat nor Men. Landings to Blame


Wharves at Northport, Searsport and


Winterport will be Lengthened – CITY OF BELFAST Coming


Everything is within the range of


possibility of course, but in the opinion of men who have forgotten more about steamboats and steamboating than most newspapers in this part of the country will ever know, the press reports which have been published regarding the withdrawal of the turbine steamer CAMDEN from the Boston- Bangor division of the Eastern Steamship Co., are the purest kind of poppycock. The CAMDEN was built for the Boston-Bangor division and she has come to stay. Moreover there is now in course of construction at Bath another turbine steamer to be called the CITY OF BELFAST, which will come on the Boston-Bangor run after she is launched in the spring of 1908. The CAMDEN has been unfortunate


since she came on the Boston-Bangor run. She struck the hoodoo on the very fi rst trip when she brought Charles W. Morse and a party down on a tour of inspection and was scorched while lying at the wharf at Bath. She has met several reverses since, disabling her steering gear while in Bangor, and one of her propellers at Searsport and having a hard time at several of the landings. But none of these things were any more of fault of the boat or her crew than was the scorching she received at Bath. The trouble has never been with the boat


nor her crew. The boat handles all right and the quartermasters and pilots know how to handle her. To be sure she does not handle as readily as the side-wheelers. No propeller boat does and a turbine boat is diff erent from other propeller boats and cannot be stopped and backed as readily owing to the length of time required for the steam to get out of her turbines. The CAMDEN has met her chief


difficulties at Northport, Searsport, Bucksport and Winterport. At Northport there is a small wharf and not any too much water at low tide. A side-wheel boat can get in and out there all right because her wheels are located amidships and she can work them where a propeller boat, with the propellers nearer bottom, could not. At Searsport there is just about ten feet of water at low tide. The sidewheel boats ground there sometimes at low water but can get out all right. The CAMDEN, owing to the location of her propellers, cannot be handled as readily in shallow water. At high water, however, she is all right. It was as a result of the low water at Searsport that the CAMDEN’s propellers were knocked out. At Bucksport the tide races out at a great


rate on the ebb. It is hard for any propeller boat to make a landing with the current astern. Even the small river steamers, the TREMONT, ROCKLAND, and the tugs,


when making the turn and make the landing with the turn and make the landing with the boat’s bow up stream. With her nose into the current the steamer is all right but with the current astern, added to her momentum, the current on the steamer’s quarter swings her out so that it is diffi cult to make the wharf. At Winterport there is another small wharf with shallow water and a ledge at the end of the wharf, so that the big boat has to be handled very carefully there. The Eastern Steamship Co. will begin


work in the fall to fi x over the wharves at Searsport and Winterport, building them out to reach deeper water. The company does not own the wharf at Northport but it is likely that wharf also will be lengthened to accommodate the big boats. Aside from these things pointed out there is no trouble with handling the CAMDEN in the river any more than with the other boats. The landing at Bangor where the boats have to turn has always bothered the captains considerable, but the CAMDEN has not experienced much diffi culty here, the ability of the boat to work one wing propeller ahead and the other astern making her easier to turn. No, the CAMDEN has come to stay.


The business demands her, and it is not like the offi cials of the Eastern Steamship Co. to withdraw a boat which meets the requirements as the CAMDEN does. Of course, as said before, everything is possible, but it is a good bet that the CAMDEN will stay and that she’ll be here next summer with a pretty twin sister, the CITY OF BELFAST, to keep her company.


8 July 1907 York Schooner a Total Loss


The schooner FLORENCE, owned


by Oscar Freeman and Walter Matthews of York, and used for carrying pleasure parties, was run upon a reef at the mouth of the Cape Neddick River at the mouth of the Cape Neddick River late Saturday night and will be a total loss. Freeman and Matthews, who were the only persons on board at the time, reached shore safely in their dory. The schooner was anchored out in the bay but bad weather was threatened and it was while her owners were attempting to shift her moorings to a place of safety that the accident occurred. The FLORENCE was a vessel of 49 tons, built in Boston in 1867 and was formerly a pilot boat in Boston harbor. She was valued at about $2,000 partly injured.


31 March 1908 Bath’s Next Launching


Six-Master EDWARD J. LAWRENCE to be Christened by a Fairfi eld Girl on Thursday.


The six-masted schooner EDWARD J.


LAWRENCE will be launched at 1 o’clock Thursday from the yard of Percy & Small, Bath. This LAWRENCE has the following measurements: Tonnage, 3,350; net tonnage, 2,483; length, 320.2 feet; beam 50 feet; depth, 23.9 feet. She is a little smaller than her sister ship, the ELEANOR A. PERCY, which measured 3,401 tons gross, and 3,062 net tons; had a length of 323.5 feet, width 50 feet, and depth 24.8 feet. The ELEANOR A. PERCY is the largest six sticker afl oat and this schooner to slide this week is the second largest six-masted schooner afl oat. Launching partes will come from


Fairfi eld, Portland, Bruswick, and other Maine towns and will be a gay event in the Shipping City. A Fairfi eld young lady will christen the big ship as she slides with a bunch of fl owers and there will be a luncheon on board while the schooner is mid-stream. The captain of the EDWARD J. LAWRENCE will be Capt. William R.


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