April 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 23. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


he was the guest of his cousin, his farm at that time being let. He has spent many of his vacations here and has many friends, as well as has Mrs. Fickett, and it was with deep sorrow that the news of their plight was earned.


Capt. Fickett has been to sea for over


25 years and for the past 18 years has been engaged in the export trade between Boston and Buenos Ayres. Mrs. Fickett has been to sea with her husband for many years and has made 19 voyages to Buenos Ayres. She was an excellent sea woman and could take the observations and pick out the course almost as well as her husband. Capt. Fickett has never before been


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wrecked. Many times he had encountered heavy storms but had weathered them without loss of life. He had the reputation of being an able and careful navigator. Previous to engaging in the export


trade to Buenos Ayres, Capt. Fickett was for several years master of the four-master MILES M. MERRY, which made trips to Bangor with coal. The schooner was fi nally wrecked on East Moriches, L. I., but Capt. Fickett was not on board at that time. Later Capt. Fickett went to Europe and


took command of the ill-fated ship ERNE, which was soon after purchased by the Export Lumber company of Boston, and put on the Buenos Ayres run. The ERNE was a full-rigged, three-masted ship and Capt. Fickett had been heard to remark many times that he thought she could stand any storm that would be encountered. She had weathered many high seas and strong blows and he felt that she could stand anything. Capt. Fickett was born in Harrington


and is about 49 years of age. He has seven sisters and two brothers living in Harrington and a number of cousins in Bangor and vicinity. Mrs. Fickett was born and brought up


in Milbridge but her parents are dead. She has one brother, William Greeley living in Portland. The passenger spoken of in the above account of the wreck is Mr. Greeley’s wife’s brother, Mr. Hay. The friends and relatives here of Capt.


and Mrs. Fickett still entertain some hope that they may have been picked up and taken to some distant port.


20 February 1912 Capt. Fickett Had Trouble with Mate of Ship ERNE


Came to Blows Before Sailing, He


Told His Cousin – Capt. Horace Stone Believes Missing Ones Murdered That Capt. T. A. Fickett of Hampden,


master of the British ship ERNE, nine of whose crew were brought into Liverpool Sunday by the British steamer CUBAN from New Orleans, who took them from the vessel in latitude 40 north, 50 west, on February 8, came to blows with his fi rst mate before the ship sailed from Boston, February 1, on her long voyage to Buenos Ayres with a valuable cargo of lumber, was disclosed Tuesday by Oscar A. Fickett of this city, a cousin of the missing captain. “I don’t know just what the trouble


was,” said Mr. Fickett, “but the captain slapped his mate’s fate. Either the reports of the statements made by the crew in Liverpool have been garbled or there was trouble on the ship. I hope to know more by night.” Mr. Fickett Tuesday was hourly


expecting news from Charles Hunt & Co. of Boston, the owner’s brokers, giving defi nite details of the story which the nine men taken off the ERNE and brought to Liverpool have told. His future course will depend much upon the nature of the news which he receives here. It is inconceivable, Mr. Fickett thinks,


that Capt. Fickett, the second mate and Robert E. Hay of 244 Brighton Street, Portland, a passenger who had, however, signed as a member of the crew, could have launched the ship’s boat alone and left the vessel with it, taking Mrs. Fickett with them. The boat is far too heavy for three men to handle, Mrs. Fickett says, and the reported story told by the crew that the four got away unnoticed, is an impossible one to believe. Capt. Horace A. Stone of 491 Main


Street, a well-known deep water sailor of wide experience, was on the ERNE at the Mystic Wharf in Boston a few days before she sailed and had a long talk with Capt. Fickett.


“I’m afraid they’ve killed him,” was


Capt. Stone’s comment to a Commercial reporter Tuesday. “Capt. Fickett would never have left


his ship and nine of his crew on board – I am positive of that,” said Capt. Stone. “It would have been impossible for he and the


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second mate and Mr. Hay to have launched the small boat alone and they wouldn’t have taken their chances of freezing to death in an open boat in norh Atlantic winter weather when they could have stayed on board the ship which was far from being in bad shape when the Cuban sighted her. This is entirely apart from the fact that Capt. Fickett would never have deserted his vessel, leaving any of his crew on board, even if he had been in a far more desperate plight than was reported. “The whole aff air seems a very strange


one to me and it looks bad. Although the ERNE sailed from Boston February 1 the point where it is reported the steamer CUBAN took the crew off February 8 is only about half a day’s sail from Boston. I have pricked it off on the chart. There are many T Wharf fi shermen in that vicinity and it is a wonder that some of them did not fall in with the ERNE. She has a valuable cargo and I look to see her towed into port within two or three days. She is not in bad shape.


“There was no hurricane on the coast


from the time the ERNE left Boston until the nine members of her crew were taken off by the CUBAN, February 8, which would have caused such a staunch ship and such an able navigator as Capt. Fickett any serious trouble.” Capt. Stone visited the ERNE at Mystic


Wharf several days before she dropped down into the roads and took on her crew. The cook was on board at the time but that was all. The gravest fears are entertained here


that Capt. Fickett and the other three missing members of the ship’s company were done to death by the crew and further details of the story which is being told by them in Liverpool are being anxiously awaited. They are being held there pending an investigation, and every possible eff ort to get at the truth will be made by the owners of the ship and by the authorities.


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