January 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25.
Kreger of Fairfi eld. The vessel will leave the Kennebec to enter the coal trade within a week from her launching day. In the Percy & Small yard is the frame
for another big six-master for J. S. Winslow of Portland, the keel after the LAWRENCE’s launch. In addition Percy & Small have a fi ve sticker to build for William F. Palmer of Boston.
17 December 1909
Capt. Jessen Lost at Sea Portland, December 17.
The crew of the fishing schooner
LITTLE ELVA Saturday reported the disappearance of Capt. Antin A. Jessen of Portland, part owner and master off Port Clyde Thursday forenoon. After being below fi ve minutes the
crew returned to the deck and found that the captain whom they had left alone had gone overboard. It is supposed he became faint while looking after the dories and fell overboard. The crew consisted of two men beside the captain. Capt. Jessen leaves a wife and four
small children.
24 January 1910 Schooner MERTIE B. CROWLEY Lost Wrecked on Martha’s Vineyard; Captain, His Wife and Crew Rescued. The schooner MERTIE B. CROWLEY,
one of the six-masters fl ying the American fl ag, lies a total wreck on the reefs off the southeast end of Martha’s Vineyard Island. Already the CROWLEY has broken in two and great seas are fast splintering her stout timbers. She was bound from Baltimore for Boston with coal. To the bravery of Skipper Levi Jackson
and his crew of four men of the Edgartown fi shing smack PRISCILLA, is due the resent of the 15 persons aboard Capt. Haskell, Mrs. Haskell and 12 members of the CROWLEY crew. The captain’s brave wife, like the others, had been lashed for ten hours to the rigging of the battered schooner, the hull of which was entirely submerged and broken in two. The great seas swept incessantly over the hull and through the rigging and fi nally the fore and mainmast gave way and swung widely, to the fearful discomfort of those lashed to the ratlines. Then Capt. Jackson Brought his little smack near enough to send out dories to take off those off the CROWLEY. Disaster overwhelmed the schooner
at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The wreck was (?) it is thought to the mistake of the man at the wheel in making out Edgartown light as that on Block Island. But blame (?) to him. The schooner had been hove to for 30 hours on Friday and Saturday during the severe southerly storm. Roundabout was a heavy haze, which precluded observation. As careful reckoning as possible was made of the CROWLEY’s drift and movements and when Capt. Haskell thought it safe to proceed, he stood up, hoping to make either Shinnecock or Montauk light on Long Island and Sound. A fi xed white light was made out and in the haze it was supposed to be Shinnecock. But it must have been Block Island. Capt. Haskell says he then steered east by north, expecting to make Block Island light. At 5:30 Sunday morning the lookout discovered another fi xed light. This he took to be Block Island light. In proved fatally for the MERTIE CROWLEY to be Edgartown light. Shortly afterward after the man at the wheel had taken his bearings from “Block Island” light, the big vessel struck bottom. It developed ultimately that she had run upon the northwest end reef, (?) about three miles off the southeast shore of Martha’s Vineyard island.
HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s When the vessel struck Capt. Haskell
ordered all hands on deck. It was early seen that there could be no hope of saving their vessel. Huge waves forced the CROWLEY around stern to the island, exposing her broadside to the attack. All the ship’s boats were swept away and smashed. The seas before this had begun to surge below. Mrs. Haskell was informed of the disaster by her husband and hurried from her berth. A little longer and the waters would have fl ooded the cabin and drowned its occupants. Mrs. Haskell succeeded in snatching only a few clothes which she put on over her nightdress. She gained the deck with the assistance of her husband and some of the others and climbed the fore rigging, where she was lashed to the cross trees. With a pair of seamen’s rubber boots and the captain’s winter hat and overcoat covering her, Mrs. Haskell said she did not suff er greatly. By her side was her husband, although he did not join her until all the others had been assisted to secure places. All day long they clung to the rigging,
some of the crew handing on the jibboom, while the seas battered their great vessel to fragments. At 10 a.m., the CROWLEY broke in two and her stern settled deeper in the water. Fortunately no one was lashed to that end. So great was the rush of the seas that
the decks were swept clear with every wave. Even the forward house was lifted off and carried away. But the schooner’s plight had been seen
through the haze from shore. At 9 o’clock Sunday morning it was known that a vessel had been wrecked on the northeast end reef. Eff orts were made to get out to her during the forenoon, but were unsuccessful because of the great waves. The sturdy fi shing smacks of Edgartown could make no headway against the elements, and Capt. Levi Jackson tried repeatedly to push his little power boat PRISCILLA through the great breakers. But combined sails and steam could not do it until late afternoon. Then, aided by the schooner VIKING, another of the local fi shermen, he put her safely through the breakers, lowered her said and with her engine at its top notch speed, succeeded in placing the staunch 37-foot craft a short distance to leeward of the wreck. There he anchored. Aboard the CROWLEY the sight of
the little craft was hailed with thankfulness and fear, when Captain Jackson and his four men, Patrick Kelley, Eugene Benent, Louis Doucette, and Henry Kelley, dropped overboard the fi shing dories. In each of the dories, the single oarsman
had a bitter fi ght against the elements, but all managed to reach the side of the schooner safely. Mrs. Haskell was the fi rst to be transferred. She was lowered from her cramped position in the cross-trees and down the fore-rigging as far as possible. With the same nerve which had held her up during her hours of exposure, she made a leap for the dory underneath and landed
safely and was saved. All the rest were rescued in a like manner, one by one, with a single mishap. But this nearl resulted in the loss of two men. When the colored
steward jumped for the tossing dory beneath him he missed it and went overboard. The dory in which Patrick Kelley was capsized. Kelley succeeded in grasping the vessel’s fore rigging, clinging at the same time
to the steward’s clothing. Another dory soon came from the PRISCILLA and both men were taken aboard. As Captain Jackson and his sloop
arrived at the wharf there with the rescued crew aboard, he and they together with his crew were given three rousing cheers by a great crowd, of people lined along the shore. It was a rescue which will go down in seafaring (?) of this quaint place as being on of heroism displayed at its best. The rescued, besides Captain and Mrs. Haskell, were First Offi cer Patrick Norcott, Second Offi cer Fred Shea, Engineer Fred (?), the colored steward and nine colored seamen. The revenue cutter ACUSHNET, which
was summoned to the wreck, arrived too late to be of any assistance.
26 January 1910
All Hope of Floating Schooner HASKELL Abandoned
Abandoned to the bars and shoals which
have so tenaciously gripped the schooner S. G. HASKELL that three days eff orts to fl oat her were without result, the schooner lies on Handkerchief shoals full of water and deserted. A fast rising northeast wind with rain will begin, it is feared the work of destruction which government engineers will fi nish with dynamite. Her cargo of cypress lumber which the HASKELL was carrying from Brunswick, Georgia to Portland, is still aboard and wreckers have get to jettison this and to strip her of fi ttings. Captain Staples and his crew of seven
men left the schooner Tuesday on the tug MURCURY, which has been pulling unsuccessfully on the HASKELL since she went aground on Friday last. With the lighter OAKS the MURCURY went to Vineyard Haven. The HASKELL is owned by John S. Emery & Co. of Boston.
29 January 1910 Schooner in Diffi culty Off Biddeford Pool
Portland, January 29. In answer
to a message that a schooner in diffi culty had been sighted off Biddeford Pool the cutter WOODBURY left the harbor at 10 a.m. Saturday to render assistance. The message was from Capt. L. C. Totman of the Fletcher’s Neck, life saving station who reported that a three-masted schooner with
her main topmast gone was in a dangerous position four miles southwest of the station and two miles off shore. Capt. Totman did not expect it would be necessary for his crew to go to the schooner’s assistance. No distress signals were displayed. It was not possible to identify the schooner. The schooner was about one miles off
Cape Porpoise. She was light and bound east. About 10:15 she disappeared from view and it was supposed she had beaded for Portsmouth for shelter as the wind was favorable for such a course, but as the weather was hazy, this was not certain.
16 February 1910 SEA KING from Tacoma to Bath in 109 Days
Bath, February 16. The Maine built ship SEA KING, which
sailed from Tacoma, Washington, September 14, with a cargo of 1,000,000 feet of lumber and was given 115 days by shipping men to make the voyage around Cape Horn to this port where she will be converted into a coal barge, was sighted three miles southwest of Seguin, Wednesday, having beaten her time allowance by six days. She will be towed here by the tug PEJEPSCOT Wednesday afternoon. The good ship never was spoken until February 7 when she was between Cape Hatteras and Cape Henry. She is commanded by Capt. H. Gillespie.
22 February 1910 Schooner S. G. HASKELL is Floated Off Reef
Chatham, Massachusetts, February
22 – Daylight Tuesday morning revealed the bare reef of Handkerchief shoals where until Monday the schooner S. G. HASKELL had been stranded since January 24. The vessel had been fl oated on the high water some time Monday and towed away by the tug CASCO. Where the HASKELL was
Continued on Page 26.
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