Page 24. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2017 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


22 February 1912 Sch. THURLOW Ashore


Left Bangor, December 19, for West Haven, Connecticut, from Sterns Lumber Co.; Rescued from Ice The schooner LEORA M. THURLOW,


the last vessel to leave the port of Bangor before the river closed, is in trouble again. At daylight Thursday morning, according to an Associated Press dispatch received by the Commercial, she was found hard aground near Goshen Point outside of New London, Connecticut. She is in an exposed position and so far upon the beach that, with the heavy seas that are running, the Scott wreckers cannot reach her. The LEORA M. THURLOW, a three-


masted schooner of 178 tons, left Bangor for West Haven, Connecticut, December 19, with a cargo of spruce lumber from the Sterns Lumber Co. She was held up by the ice along the Maine coast and fi gured in press despatches two weeks ago when she was nipped in the ice in Vineyard Sound and rescued from her predicament by the revenue cutter GRESHAM. The THURLOW was built at Bath in 1891 and is owned there.


24 February 1912 SENECA Nears ERNE Expect to Pick Up Wrecked Ship Tonight or Sunday To Bring Back Bodies


Derelict Destroyer Has Orders Not to Bury at Sea Any Which May Be Found – Wireless Received


Oscar A. Fickett of the city Saturday


received a long distance telephone message from the Boston agents of the wrecked ship ERNE, of which his cousin, Capt. Temple A. Fickett of Hampden was master, announcing that a wireless had been received from the derelect destroyer SENECA which has been sent out in search of the ship of mystery. The SENECA, so the message said, was


nearing the latitude and longitude where the ERNE was last sighted by the British steamer CESTRIAN, from Liverpool to Boston. The SENECA’s skipper added that he expected to pick up the wreck either Saturday night or Sunday morning. Strong hopes are entertained that the examination which the SENECA’s offi cers will make of the ERNE when she is found, may result in shielding some light upon the mystery of the disappearance of Capt. Fickett and his wife and the other members of the ship’s company, said by the time rescued sailors to have left the ship in a lifeboat unbeknown to the survivors. The SENECA has received strict orders


to make a thorough inspection of the ERNE, and in case any bodies are found on board of her, not to bury them at sea, but to bring them ashore. Capt. and Mrs. George N. Williams


of Wellfl eet, Massachusetts, are intimate friends of Capt. and Mrs. Fickett and a few days prior to the sailing of the ERNE from Boston, Mrs. Williams received the following letter. It was written the latter part of January, the exact date not being given: “Dearest Anna I wonder what you will


say when you get this, I have been trying to learn where you were for years and today Temp shipped a steward, you old Chinaman, who says you are at home. O! I am so happy and can’t wait to hear from you, for you two are friends that have never been forgotten. Temp, is on the Br. Ship ERNE now, now running to Buenos Ayres. I go all the time, as I like the long voyage. “We sail again the fi rst of next week.


The ship goes in the stream Saturday morning. I want to hear just a word from you before we go and I want a good long letter


telling the all about yourselves on our arrival out. Address care Charles Hunt, 91 State St., Boston, and send care British consul to Buenos Ayres.


“Love to you both, “Susie T. Fickett”


The steward referred to is George


Ray, who made many passages with Capt. Williams, 20 or more years ago, Capt. and Mrs. Williams have been located for many years upon the Pacifi c coast, which accounts for the fact that Mrs. Fickett had lost their address. The two captains and their wives have been the warmest kind of friends for many years past. In connection with the wreck, Capt.


Williams said: “There is surely something wrong about the strange disappearance of Capt. Fickett, and I am convinced that there has been foul play of some kind. Capt. Fickett would have been the lst man to leave his ship under any circumstances. The ship, being lumber laden, could not sink, and the captain would never have abandoned her in such a peculiar way as the rescued sailors would have us believe. “Another matter which is very peculiar


is the statement that the captain and his two men lowered the lifeboat from its davits. This would have been absolutely impossible for three to accomplish as the boat was so large and heavy that it would need the assistance of the entire crew to have placed her in the water.”


27 February 1912 Schooner MILDRED NOONAN Lost on the Rocks


Biddeford, February 27. Fishing schooner MILDRED


NOONAN, 73 tons, built in Boothbay, Maine, Capt. Howard Noonan, with a crew of 12 men, went ashore on Vaughan’s Island reef between 8 and 8:30 o’clock Monday evening, while trying to enter Cape Porpoise harbor in the heavy northwest gale. Capt. Noonan and two of his crew


were from the Cape district; the others were shipped at Boston. All took to the dories and succeeded in getting ashore. The vessel was owned by Capt. Noonan and Ernest Goodale of Sanford, Maine. She is a total loss and now lies bottom up and split completely in two. This was her fi rst fi shing trip in some months, having started in Monday for the spring fi shing. She had been fi shing off the coast all day.


2 March 1912 Survivors’ Story


Rescued Sailors Tell of Wreck of British Ship ERNE


Their Final Rescue Raging Seas Separated Those Who


Were Forward from the Little Band Aft; Missing Boat


The fi rst authentic story of the loss of the


ship ERNE was received in Boston Friday, according to the Globe, from Liverpool by the agents, Charles Hunt & Co., an account obtained from the Liverpool Journal of Commerce from the survivor. The ERNE bound from Boston to Buenos Ayres with a cargo of lumber was lost in the North Atlantic, Thursday morning, February 8. Nine shipwrecked men, the only


survivors were picked up by the Leyland liner CUBAN. The men rescued were Messroom


Steward William Walker of Edinburg, able Seamen Richard Fishwick of Preston, Harry Franklin of Queenstown, Samuel J. Mack of Boston, U. S. A., Andrew Allen, U. S. A., John Jolm, Swedent; M. Lind, Norway; William Selm, Finland, and David Magher of Sweden. The following narrative is the result of


an interview with some of the men: On Saturday, February 3, when about


750 miles out of port, a heavy gale from the northwest set in. Terrifi c waves made a clean sweep over the vessel, causing extensive damage. The wind was blowing at a tremendous


velocity, and the vessel, under (?) poles, except for three stormsails was driving before it, when she suddenly broached to and took on a huge broadside that nearly engulfed her. Another sea swept in through the


broken rail and carried a large portion of the deckload overboard through the other rail, thus leaving an open space of 25 feet across the deck from the forward to the midship house. Those located in the fore part of the vessel were almost entirely cut off from communication with the after part. Every eff ort was made by those on the


poop to get steerage way on this vessel, but the ship would not steer and fell off into the trough of the sea. At this time there were aft Capt. and Mrs. Fickett, Second Offi cer F. Cushing, Mr. Hay, four seamen and the boy, Walker. Forward there were the remainder of the men and Chief Offi ce Elliott. The water was pouring in slow, Mrs.


Fickett’s suff erings from sea-sickness, fear and want of dry clothing and food were acute. Capt. Fickett made her as comfortable in the saloon as circumstances would permit. While she was lying down a great wave swept through the compartment, carrying her body through a large plateglass mirror into an adjoining compartment, where she was carried back into the saloon by another wave.


Mrs. Fickett was carried in the (?) room


in a fainting state. All the boats except one had been smashed up by the gale, and this one was in its place at the break of the poop until between 3 and 4 o’clock when it was missed by the messroom steward, who had gone to his room to hunt for dry clothes. The chart room was still standing but


Capt. Fickett, his wife, the second offi cer and the passenger were missing. It is the opinion of the nine seamen that they must have taken to the boat and left the others to their fate upon the sinking vessel. This opinion, they say, is confi rmed by


the fact that before Walker went below the master ordered him to roll up some (?) in a bundle and place them on a settee in the chart room, together with the telescope. When Walker again visited the chart room those things were gone. Nothing further has been heard of


those were on the after end of the vessel and it is conjectured that they must have capsized after putting out in the small boat in the heavy sea that was running. The men believe that all hands in the small boat were drowned. The chief offi cer and the men forward


took shelter under the fore(?) head which was fitted with doors, but as the bow settled deeper into the water this became uninhabitable and they had to fi nd safety in places higher up although not entirely out of reach of the waves. The chief offi cer who has a wife and family in Liverpool, sought refuge with some of the men on the jibboom, while others lashed themselves to the rigging. Of the seven men who sought refuge on the jibboom but two survive. The other fi ve, becoming enfeebled and exhausted from want of food and exposure, lost their grip one by one and dropped off into the sea to their death. As the bow of the vessel sank lower


the stern rose correspondingly higher and it was decided by those who remained that the one who had survived this terrible ordeal best should try to reach the midship house.


Accordingly one of the men had a rope secured around his waist and he assayed the journey from the fore-rigging to the house. After considerable buff eting by the waves, he reached the place and then hauled each of the other men, one at a time, from the fore rigging and jibboom to the house in safety, whence they were able to gain the poop and chart room, which was then the only safe and dry part of the vessel. Nothing bt the skeleton of the ship, the iron work and the stanchions could be seen, for all the woodwork had been broken to splinters. The men had remained lashed to the


rigging and the jibboom from Monday night until Wednesday morning. No ships were sighted from the time


the ERNE was damaged and dismasted. A distress signal was fl ying until 8:30 on the morning of Thursday when the Leyland line CUBAN, bound for Liverpool, came in sight and saw the signals. A lifeboat was lowered from the steamer and the crew found the men in a pitiful condition and badly emaciated. They had no food or water since Monday morning. The men received every kindness and consideration from Capt. Marstens and the crew of the CUBAN.


14 January 1914 Five of PAUL’s Crew Saved Picked Up by Nantucket Lightship from Schooner Boat – Cook Died of Exposure Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts,


January 14. – Five members of the crew of the schooner JOHN PAUL, which sank in Nantucket Sound early Tuesday were rescued as they were being swept to sea by the crew of the Cross Rip lightship. The cook, John Thorr, of New York, died from exposure just before the rescue of his companions. The rescue of the men was due to the alertness of the lightship’s deck watch, who heard the ban of the men from the PAUL and summoned the lightship’s crew on deck so that half a dozen lines were thrown as the long boat of the PAUL swept by Captain E. B. Philips of Dennisport, directed the transfer of the frostbitten crew from the long boat to the deck of the lightship. The body of Thorr was left in the boat,


which was made fast astern. The boat broke adrift before morning and disappeared. Those saved by the lightship crew were Captain E. J. Hutchinson and Mate Frank Hardy of North Deer Isle, Maine; N. Hutchinson, of Stonington, and John Maxwell and Oscar Conk of Calais. The JOHN PAUL, bound from


Stonington, Maine to New York, was picked up on Monday night in a leaking condition. The ACUSHNET started to tow her to this port. Two miles to the westward of Cross Rip lightship, the schooner began to fi ll and the crew jumped into their long boat, which they made fast astern of the schooner. They cut the boat adrift just before the PAUL foundered and were immediately swept to the leeward by the gale. No one on the ACUSHNET saw the long boat drifting down the Sound and until Wednesday it was generally believed that the entire crew had perished.


During the drift down to the lightship


the long boat was fi lled with water four times and Thorr succumbed to cold and exhaustion. Just before reaching the lightship; the


survivors began to shout lustily and the cry was heard. As their boat bobbed by the lightship they had just strength enough to catch one of the lines thrown to them and make it fast. It took nearly half an hour to drag them over the side of the lightship. Capt. Phillips would not allow any of his crew to go down into the long boat for the body of Thorr. It is believed that this long


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