Page 26. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2017 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s The KINEO was picked up Saturday by


the tug HUGHES off Reheboth, Delaware and towed to this point. Captain Farrell has engaged another tug to tow the tanker to Providence.


3 March 1914 Steamer OKLAHOMA Was Badly Built Lack of a Law to Enforce Standard Construction Blamed for Disaster. Boston, March 3. – Responsibility for


the wreck of the tank steamer OKLAHOMA, which broke in two off the New Jersey coast on January 4, with the loss of 26 lives is placed wholly on the failure to put in force a legal provision that would control and standardize the construction of steam vessels. The report of the federal inspectors was


fi led here Tuesday. U. S. Steamboat Inspectors John F. Blair


and Andrew J. Savage, who investigated the disaster, found that the OKLAHOMA was structurally weak and absolved the directing offi cers of any responsibility for the unusual catastrophe. Nor was anything found to show that the steamboat inspection service was in any sense dilatory in its supervision over the vessel as required by law or the general rules and regulations. The steamer so far as equipment was concerned appeared to have been in as good and serviceable condition the day of the accident as when inspected at Newport on April 11, 1913. In the opinion of the inspectors the


evidence indicated that at the time she broke in two the steamer was in her most hazardous position. Before one very heavy sea had passed under her amidships another followed. As the ship made her way through the two seas she was left in the position of being fairly buoyed upward at the bow and stern so that the amidship section was placed (?) and for a time in the trough between the two seas and thus deprived of support. The result was the fracture at amidships. Since the building of the OKLAHOMA


six years ago, the law regarding the construction of vessels has been changed and at the present time the steamboat inspection service has a standard with which to determine the strength of vessels. In conclusion, the report states that


there is no reason to think the designers, owners or builders of the OKLAHOMA willfully constructed or sent to sea a ship that was not seaworthy. It, therefore, appeared that the whole blame rested in the failure to put in force a legal provision that would control and standardize the construction of steam vessels and their load line and to delegate to federal inspectors authority to see that the vessel is structurally seaworthy and up to uniform standard.


* * * * *


Fine Memorial Fountain to be Erected in Honor of Wireless Heroes Who Lost Lives at Sea


Memorial Fountain To Wireless Heroes A fountain with granite seats and


cenotaph and surrounding evergreens will soon be erected at the base of the tower of the barge offi ce in Battery Park, New York, as a memorial to Jack Phillips, the wireless operator who perished on the TITANIC, and to six other wireless heroes. Many monuments have been erected in memory of the victims of the TITANIC, but this memorial is especially interesting because the funds were donated in small amounts by wireless operators of the sea. The memorial will be in honor of the following besides Phillips: George C. Eccles, steamship OHIO, foundered August 25, 1909, off Pacifi c coast; S. F. Sczepanek, steamship PERE MARQUETTE, sank in Lake


Michigan, September 9, 1910; Lawrence Prudhunt, steamship ROSENCRANZ, sank off Pacifi c coast, January 7, 1913; Donald Campbell Perkins, steamship STATE OF CALIFORNIA, sank off Pacific coast August 18, 1913; Ferdinand J. Kuehn, steamship MONROE, sank off Atlantic coast January 30, 1914. The memorial was designed to Hewitt & Bottomley, New York architects.


9 March 1914


Adrift in Sinking Vessel with all Lifeboats Lost


Capt. F. P. Hardy of Schooner JOHN J. HANSEN Returns to Bangor After Perilous Voyage; Vessel Crippled Friday the 13th


; Rescue of Crew by Passing Steamer


To be adrift in a sinking vessel from


which all the life boats had been washed away may appear to most people as coming pretty near to cashing one’s checks, but Capt. Frank P. Hardy of Bangor, who has just returned home after going through that experience, says that he didn’t fear about coming out of it all right. “I felt that my time hadn’t come, and I was right.” Capt. Hardy, as already briefl y reported


in the Commercial, was aboard the schooner JOHN J. HANSEN of which he was part owner, when she ran into hard luck on Friday, the 13th


of February, which might


give him reason to believe that there’s a hoodoo on that day. The JOHN J. HANSEN was bound from Porto Rico to New York with a cargo of molasses and after leaving Bermuda, ran into a gale that washed away life boats and otherwise crippled, the vessel so that she was in a sinking condition. A tragedy of the sea was averted by the appearance of the steamer COAMA on the scene, two hours after the distress signal had been hoisted on the HANSEN. But to tell the whole story, this is what


Capt. Frank P. Hardy told the Commercial reporter, Monday morning, at Capt. Hardy’s home on Poplar Street. There was but little of the atmosphere of a desperate struggle with the elements about as Capt. Hardy, seated in his warm, sunny parlor, related in simple language the events of that perilous trip, in a manner that indicated nothing beyond that to be met in the day’s work. The JOHN J. HANSEN sailed from


Boston on November 1 and arrived in San Juan, November 20. She loaded a cargo of 3,090 barrels of molasses for Boston, and sailed on December 17, with Capt. Wilkinson in command. Rough weather was encountered almost from the start. It was 22 days later when she limped into St. George, Bermuda, with her steering gear crippled, and much of her sail gone. “Capt. Wilkinson, who has been on the


seas for a long time, said it was the roughest weather he has ever experienced in his years at sea. When the schooner arrived in Bermuda, Capt. Wilkinson sent me a cable at Boston advising me of the trouble, and I went down at once, with new canvas and other materials needed. I arrived there a few days later, and helped repair the ship. We set sail on February 4 for Boston. “We had rough weather off and on


almost from the time we left Bermuda. We’d run into a gale that would last for a few hours and then it would let up a bit. The worst weather came on Friday, February 13. I was tired and went to bed early, and Capt. Wilkinson was on watch. Along about 11 o’clock Capt. Wilkinson came back, and woke me up, and said we had lost out mainsail. I got up and shortly after that everybody went to the pumps. “It kept blowing all the time. Sometimes we’d run into a gale, and then the wind


would cease down a bit. In the worst of it all, our boats were washed away so there was nothing to do but pump and fl oat as long as possible. In good weather we could just about keep afl oat using the hand and gasoline pumps all the time, but when the wind struck us we couldn’t keep even with the water. Our jib and headstays were lost too.


“We didn’t put up our distress signal


until about 9 o’clock Sunday morning. I would have fl own the union inverted the day before if we had been near shore, but I thought it was no use. At about 8 o’clock Sunday morning, we thought we saw a boat but it turned out to be only vapor. “At about 11 o’clock I was trying


to repair one of the pumps when a sailor cried out that a steamer was in sight. We thought at fi rst that it was only another vapor illusion, but after a while we could see the smokestack and smoke, and then saw that the steamer was headed for us. I quit working on the pumps and we began to get our things together. About 20 minutes later a boat from the COAMO with the fi rst offi cer, Steele, in charge, came and took us off . “As soon as we were picked up, the


COAMO sent a wireless to the revenue cutter SENECA at New York, telling of schooner so that it could either be sunk as a derelict or towed in. Evidently from advices received the HANSEN sank before the SENECA arrived, and I believe it sank before the next morning. We were then about 280 miles south of Scotland lightship, which is anchored outside of Sandy Hook. “The cargo of the HANSEP was insured


for $18,000, and my share of the vessel was insured, but I do not think the other owners were insured.”


21 March 1914 Capt. G. W. Eldredge


Skipper Widely Known Along Maine Coast Passes Away in Boston – Made Many Charts


Capt. George W. Eldredge, known in


person all along the New England coast and known by name from Quoddy Head to Key West, died Thursday in Boston. Ptomaine poisoning was the cause of his decease at the age of 6(?) years. His home was in Vineyard Haven. So well-known was the old skipper,


that his fi rst name was rarely heard or even recognized while even the title he was privileged to carry was often dropped. This was because of the Eldredge tide books and charts which bore his name and made him famous among all the sea-faring men. There were some who doubted the


sanity of the navigator, but as the old gentlemen said himself he was sane and he carried a certifi cate with him all the time to prove it. For all that he was looked upon as a truly great genius in marine matters. As one man who knew of him said after the news of his death had been received: “A man who could fi gure out the tides on the coast of Maine must have had a real head on him.” That was the case with Capt. Eldredge


surely, for not only did he fi gure out every possible fact in regard to the tides on the Maine coast, but he published charts, as well as deep water sailers, that were wonders of simplicity and of the greatest value to all men who sail the ocean. Had he done no more than this, the debt that sailors owe him could hardly ever be paid. Because of his experience on the sea and


as pilot of the old cup defender COLUMBIA, Capt. Eldredge became a familiar fi gure all along the New England coast. As chart after chart was issued by him and as his tide book became an almost indispensable adjunct to the sailing of vessels, his fame grew until he


27 March 1914 Wrecked Milbridge Skipper is at Bath Capt. S. Stover of Milbridge recently in


command of the foundered barge, GEORGE R. SKOLFIELD, and previously in command of the schooners ERINA F. PENDLETON and JENNIE R. HURLBURT, arrived in Bath this week with his injured hand in a sling. The ill-fated barge SKOLFIELD, by the way, was the last ship and last vessel of built in Brunswick. The barge foundered during the Sunday gale March 1, when off Fire Light, with coal she was carrying from Newport News to Boston. Capt. Stover was below helping the


engineer and had returned on deck when a piece of wreckage struck him on the hand breaking the small bones in his hand. The water that came on the barge’s deck went through upon the cargo of coal, but did not go lower until it made a break for the forepeak and caused the vessel to go down by the head.


was known in all parts of the world. But while he worked hard and long for


the seafaring men, he also had bigger things in mind. It was one of these that brought him to Portland during the early part of the present winter. He wished the approach to Portland harbor made absolutely safe and he said he had a plan whereby this could be done so the dangerous shoals, reefs and rocks that are to be found off the entrance to the coast could always be avoided. He made several speeches on this plan, to the Portland Board of Trade, to the members of the Portland Yacht Club and to other gatherings in that city. It is the idea of Capt. Eldredge to have a


series of gas buoys extend from the entrance to Portland harbor to a distance of 20 miles out at sea. From Portland headlight down past Half Way rock one of these serings of buoys was to be placed every mile and they were to be in a straight line. By having them numbered or with diff erent characterizations, Capt. Eldredge argued that as soon as a vessel trying to enter the harbor picked up one of them, it would be possible at once for her captain to tell his position and lay his course accordingly. In addition to this long string of buoys another was to extend from the lightship in a southeasterly direction to care for vessels coming from the westward. By this system, every possible precaution would be taken in securing an absolutely reliable course which mariners could follow in coming into Portland. Capt. Eldredge was well liked


everywhere he went. A brilliant speaker, humorous and at the same time sincere, he was one of the most agreeable men that could be obtained for an address after a dinner. When he spoke, his keen eyes lighted under their bushy brows and his rather high, strong voice rolled forth from this bearded lips in a regular stream of eloquence. The old chart maker is survived by a wife and four daughters.


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