USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Kingston > Ships of Kingston. : "Good-bye, fare ye well" > Part 14
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SCHOONER Fisher
Schooner Fisher of Kingston, 86 tons, built at Kingston by Edward Holmes, in 1865; owned by Edward Holmes.
REMARKS
This vessel was one of the last two schooners owned in Kingston and was used for fishing, coasting and West India voyages. She left Kingston May 3, 1865, new, on a Grand Bank trip in command of Captain Elisha Eldridge of West Chatham and later Captain Elisha Morton Eldridge was in command. Captain Otis Finney of Plympton was master on many Bank trips and a number of men belonging to Kingston, Plympton, and Dux- bury made up her crews. Calvin Bryant was captain on her last trip to the Grand Bank a year or two before she was sold.
At one time she was chartered to bring fruit from the West Indies to New York and was one of the first vessels to be engaged in that trade.
In 1884 she was sold to the Nicholsons of Bucksport, Me., who carried on a fishing business and was soon after lost near Portland.
CAPTAIN CALVIN H. BRYANT
Living most of his life, when on shore, in Plympton, where he was born in 1827, he was always asso- ciated with Kingston through the family of Edward Holmes.
On retiring from the sea he made Kingston his home and died here
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SHEER AND SPAR PLAN OF SCHOONER Fisher OF KINGSTON, 1865
BARK Solomon OF KINGSTON, 1866
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in 1899. Although he first appears in the Records as mate of the bark Fruiterer in 1861, it is probable that he sailed in other Kingston vessels before this, as a boy or young man.
After the sinking of the Fruiterer he became master of a Boston vessel and for many years was in the coasting trade on the China coast; several years after giving up the sea, in 1881 and 1882, he made two salt fishing trips to the Grand Bank for Edward Holmes in the schooner Fisher and then retired from the sea for good.
BARK Solomon
Bark Solomon of Kingston, 600 tons, built at Kingston by Edward Holmes, in 1866; owned by Edward Holmes.
REMARKS
This was the largest bark built in Kingston and next in tonnage to the largest ship, Joseph Holmes. After launching, she was rigged at Rocky Nook Wharf and taken to Boston, having been sold to Daniel Draper of Boston, who named her for Solomon Hancock before she was launched. Her first voyage was to Smyrna with rum. She was still owned in Boston in 1877, but afterward reported used as a hulk in Hong Kong.
This vessel was about one-half completed when work was stopped on her and the schooner Fisher was built, her keel being laid just south of the Solomon and she was launched out of the same dock, there being just room for her to launch by the Solomon's stern.
By the kind permission of Messrs. Robinson and Dow, the pictures of the bark Solomon and ship Leodes in a storm are shown in this book.
They were taken from "The Sailing Ships of New England. Second Series." By Robin- son and Dow. Publication Number Five of the Marine Research Society of Salem, Mass.
SCHOONER Mary Baker
Schooner Mary Baker of Kingston, 101 tons, built at Kingston by Edward Holmes, in 1869; owned by Edward Holmes.
REMARKS
This schooner was the last vessel owned in King- ston. She was launched in 1869 and was named Mary Baker for the daughter of Captain Otis Baker of Kingston who had married a cousin of Edward Holmes. She was used for many years in the West India trade, running into Boston and New York. She was one of the first vessels to bring bananas to this country from the West Indies. Captain Robert Thompson was master of this vessel nearly all the time till she was sold and made many very fast and successful voyages. She was also used in the Bank fisheries. In 1883, she was hauled into the north timber dock at the Landing and retopped, this be- ing the last carpenter's work ever done on a vessel in the Holmes' shipyard at the Landing. Mr. Ed- ward Holmes having become an aged man, eighty- one years old and the vessel lying alongside of the wharf at the Landing for three years and also old, was sold in 1887 to the Nicholsons of Bucksport, Me., and a few years after dragged ashore in a gale of wind while anchored off Rockport, Mass., and was a total loss.
CAPTAIN CALVIN H. BRYANT
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The Nicholson's having previously bought the Fisher, which had been found to be a vessel well adapted to their fishing business and knowing that the Mary Baker was built on the same lines sent Captain Angus Nicholson in November, 1887, to buy her of Mr. Holmes and bring her home when they learned she was for sale.
Mr. Holmes at this time being in poor health was unable to superintend the outfitting of the vessel as he had been accustomed to do when one was sold, which accounts for the trouble Captain Nicholson experienced on his passage home as is shown in his letter, of which the following is a copy :
Bucksport, Nov. 26th, 1887.
Friend Holmes,
I thought I would drop you a few lines to let you know how we are getting along with the Mary Baker.
After Edward left us in Boston I took on board 1000 barrels of flour for Bangor, but some of them laughed at me saying I would lose both vessel and flour, the vessel having been hauled up so long she would be damaged.
We came outside and took a heavy breeze of wind, but it was fair, but come to look around we found we were on a lee shore and then I had to haul snug on to the wind and carry sail very hard to save life and property.
The first thing we knew the forerigging gave out. There was a scrape. We had to get everything aloft we could to save the foremast. Only three of us on board. Would like you to let me know if the main rigging is as old as the forerigging. If it is I will have
to condemn it. I think this is the first rigging she ever had.
Now, I hope you are well, smart and able to go around without those sticks. If you were well when I was there you would have saved us all this trouble we had. What caused all the trouble was, one of the compasses was broken and the other one was two and one-half points out of the way, and if you were well to wait on us there is no doubt we would of had the spirit compass. But I have no doubt you will send it down by express.
I shall fit the Mary Baker for 2200 quintals of fish and if she comes back and you receive a nice package of tongues and sounds by express, you may depend it will be from the Mary Baker.
We got the flour out and did not have to pay any damages as she leaked but very little.
Yours Resp., Signed, ANGUS NICHOLSON.
Mr. Holmes died the following spring and this letter is the last record of a voyage of a Kingston vessel.
This vessel was built on the same model as the Fisher only about ten feet longer on the keel, which increased her tonnage by fifteen tons. Above water she was painted black outside with a white stripe around her at the upper bends or waterways and a green bottom. Bowsprit painted black, jib-boom and masts bright - with tops painted white, fore and main booms and gaffs bright. Rails and inside of bulwarks and houses on deck, white with trimmings and deck fittings blue.
On account of her being used so much in the West Indies, about 1876, this schooner in order to obtain crews, who were then beginning to demand better accommodations, had a house built on deck abaft the foremast, divided by a partition into a forecastle and galley. This was much more com- fortable for the crew, especially in the warm latitudes, for the custom had been for the forecastle to be below decks, forward of the fore- mast on all of the smaller vessels.
SAIL PLAN OF SCHOONER Mary Baker OF KINGSTON, 1869
In the fall or winter when en- gaged in coasting or West India voyages with no forward house, a small portable house about six feet square and five feet high, called a caboose, was brought on board and lashed to ring bolts on deck abaft the foremast and used for a galley by the cook, there being just room enough for a stove, little wood or coal box and the few cooking
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utensils needed. Sliding doors on each side provided light and ventilation. The stores were kept in the cabin and below decks, and brought up as required.
Across the after end of the caboose was a bench used for a seat by the cook when at the stove, for with a scant five feet of head room most of the work in the caboose was done sitting down, the stove being within easy reach from the bench. Sometimes caboose and cook were both washed overboard by the vessel shipping a heavy sea and then captain and crew were on short allowance as far as cooked food was concerned for the rest of that voyage. The caboose was never carried to the Banks as all the room on deck was needed for the dories, rope cable, gurry butts and the handling of the fish when first caught. The crew lived in the forecastle below decks, forward, and in this confined dark place, they cooked, ate and slept. It was worse in the smaller and earlier vessels that used fireplaces instead of stoves, the cook often being a fourteen-year-old boy, probably making his first voyage to sea.
Augustus Simmons of Kingston, a Grand Bank fisherman who died several years ago a very old man, was one of these fourteen-year-old boys who went cook. As a boy, in 1840, he was on the John Drew, going as cook or as he called it, cook's helper. During his latter years he often spoke to his nephews, Alexander and Dr. Arthur B. Holmes, of some of his experiences on this voyage. He said they cooked in a fireplace with a wooden chimney which had to be taken down in bad weather, and then no cooking was done. Each fisherman brought most of his own supplies, doing his own cooking, and the boy or cook's helper cleaned up and cooked what was the custom for the vessel to furnish the crew.
Coming home he remembered seeing the first cook stove that was used in Kingston. They had a severe season on the Banks that summer and vessels first to come home reported a number lost.
The John Drew being overdue, the boy's mother became anxious as to the safety of the vessel and crew, and spoke to Joseph Holmes about it. He told her not to worry as the schooner was strongly built and able to stand any kind of weather. They were gone four months and bound home arrived off the Gurnet after dark when no report of their being below could be made. Continuing on, up Kingston Bay, they anchored off Cripples Rocks. The captain, who lived near his parents, was anxious to see his family, and know- ing the boy was also anxious to be at home, took him in a boat and landing at the mouth of the river, both walked home to Northwest Kingston reaching there about 11.00 P.M. The boy knocked on the window of the room in which his father and mother were sleeping and they were much surprised at his appearing at that time of night so unexpectedly.
His wages were $II per month which made his summer's work come to $44. When his mother went to Alexander Holmes, the owner of the vessel, to settle for her son's voyage she found that she owed Mr. Holmes $32 for supplies, which, due to the hard times of 1837, made the amount due him $37. There was $7 from the boy's wages left her. With this she bought him a piece of corduroy and made him a suit of clothes so that he could go to school the following winter.
A description of the forecastle and cabin of the Mary Baker before the forward deck- house was built will apply to all of the later vessels owned by the Holmes' and others, used for Bank fishing. The forecastle was situated in the eyes of the vessel and the entrance was through a hatchway covered by a small house or companion way, just forward of the foremast and abaft the windlass.
Descending the stairs, which were almost perpendicular, one was confronted by a table abaft the windlass bitts where they went through the forecastle from deck to keel.
On the starboard side with a narrow bench in front of them within reach of the table which was opposite to them were four bunks, two lower and two upper. To port, they were arranged the same and at the after end was the stove which came just beside the foot of the stairs. Lockers on the side of the vessel opposite the stove held dishes and cooked foods. Opening out of the forecastle at its after end was a small, roughly finished
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room through which came the vessel's foremast and was used for the stores for the crew. A mov- able bench made a seat for those occupying the after end of the table at meals, the table having a high rising around its edge to hold the dishes from sliding off when it was rough. The stove pipe came up through the deck above the stove and at each side of the companionway was a six-inch glass bull's-eye, let into the deck for light, though a smoky lamp and the companionway also fur- nished light. This was the quarters for the crew of six or eight men and in bad weather it was one stifling place!
The cabin in the after part of the vessel usually had a small room on the starboard side forward for the captain and on the port side were two double berths under the deck. A table, chairs and some lockers in the after end of the cabin com- pleted these quarters. Besides being used by the CAPTAIN ROBERT THOMPSON captain, the cabin was also the quarters of the sharesmen and older members of the crew. In the later vessels some of the crew were hired by the month and others went on shares. The Lucy Holmes was painted in the same style as the Mary Baker, except that she had a red stripe around her upper bends instead of white.
The Fisher was always painted a medium shade of green above the waterline with a darker green for her bottom. Rails and inside of bulwarks were green and house and deck fittings were of the same color. Masts and spars were finished the same as those on the Mary Baker. Green seemed to have been quite a common color for fishing vessels up to the time the last one was sold from here. With the exception of the Fisher and Lucy Holmes all of the vessels built by Edward Holmes were painted as I have described the Mary Baker to have been.
The schooners built by Mr. Edward Holmes were never coppered, for their stay in the warm water of the south was only for a short time, and soon coming north into cold water and often up the river to the Landing, the cold and fresh water killed all worms in their bottoms. The barks and brig, Helen A. Holmes, built by Mr. Holmes, were coppered before launching.
CAPTAIN ROBERT THOMPSON
The picture of Captain Robert Thompson shows him as he looked as a young man at about the time of his coming to Kingston in the brig Bird of the Wave, in 1858.
For a number of years he lived in Boston when ashore, but during the last of his sailing for Edward Holmes he made his home with him or his son, Edward K. Holmes of Kingston, and so can be called a Kingston captain.
Mr. Holmes always placed great confidence in him and no sea captain ever took more care of his owner's interests in the management of his vessel than did Captain Thompson.
After the Mary Baker was laid up to be sold he sailed out of Boston in various schoon- ers on coasting and West India voyages. When Charles T. Powers of this place was appointed to the command of the Succonesset Light Ship in the Vineyard Sound, Cap- tain Thompson, who then had no family or home, joined the Light Ship as one of the crew about 1894. He remained on this lightship a few years until the infirmities of age compelled his retirement and he then entered the Sailor's Home in Quincy and soon after died there.
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EDWARD HOLMES
Edward Holmes, the third son of Joseph Holmes, was born in Kingston, in 1806. He was the last of the old-time shipbuilders of Kingston. Inheriting the Landing from his father at the time of his death in 1863 he continued the business of building and owning of vessels until a few months before he died in 1888.
Like his brothers and other boys of this time his opportunities for an education were limited, there being but one male teacher in the town. He taught part of the year in each school district and his pupils followed him from schoolhouse to schoolhouse.
After going in his father's packets and small coasting schooners several years he made his first deep-water voyage of 1826 in the brig Edward of Kingston, 238 tons, which his father had built and named for him in 1825. She was owned by Joseph Holmes and his son Alexander.
As nothing can be found about this vessel after 1826 she was probably sold during 1827. The first voyage of this brig is as follows: sailed from Boston June 17, 1826, captain, Ellis Bradford; Robert Foster, mate; both of Kingston, and Edward Holmes one of the crew; this being his first deep-water voyage. After a passage of ten days she arrived at Charleston, S. C., June 27, 1826, and Captain Bradford writes Mr. Holmes that he thinks the brig will sail well and behave well, and was within thirty miles of Charleston light in five days from Boston.
The day after leaving Boston he says they had a blow from the northeast and ran 200 miles in twenty hours under a close reefed maintopsail and foresail and a boy could have steered her. February 26, 1826, the vessel is partly loaded with cotton for Liver- pool. Business very dull. March 15, ready for sea, but did not sail until March 25 on account of head winds, vessel drawing 14 feet.
The captain writes from Liverpool that he arrived there April 22, after a very boister- ous passage of thirty-one days with no damage but the stern boat stove at the stern and vessel leaking considerable; had discharged cargo in good order and loaded 180 tons salt and crated goods and left room for thirty or thirty-seven steerage passengers bound for Boston.
The brig sailed May 3, 1826, and after arriving in Boston, was not chartered again until December, 1826, when she sailed from Boston, December 10, for Savannah, captain, Bradford; mate, Robert Foster; and Edward Holmes, again, one of the crew.
The captain writes they arrived at Savannah, December 25, 1826, after a very rough passage of fifteen days, but received no damage, but loss of stern boat. From the letter of instruc- tion to the captain, from Joseph Holmes, she probably loaded cotton again to Liverpool, returning to Boston, and was then sold, as no further accounts of her appear and Mr. Holmes was offered $10,000 for the brig before her sailing to Savannah and was anxious to dispose of her.
This vessel was a full rigged brig and for those days, a large vessel for this rig and must have been a good sailer to have made the passage to Charles- ton, S. C., in five days.
In 1834 he was mate of the new ship Rialto of Kingston, Perez H. Sampson, master, on a voyage to Charleston, S. C., Liverpool and Boston. On arriving in Boston his brother, Captain Paraclete took command and he continued as mate with his
EDWARD HOLMES
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brother for several voyages in this ship. His father's business, as a builder and owner, increasing, he gave up going to sea about 1837 to superintend the work in his father's shipyard.
At this time the demand was for larger vessels and having assisted in the building of the Rialto and then going in her for several voyages in the cotton trade, he was well qualified to become his father's master carpenter and improve the design and construction of the ships later built for the carrying of these cargoes. From this time up to the death of his father, Joseph Holmes, in 1863, he was more closely associated with him in his business than any of his other brothers, although all were usually part owners in his vessels as shown by Customs Records.
From 1863 to 1874 he built eight vessels. Two were sold to Boston at the time of launch- ing, or soon after, and one ordered built by Plymouth parties. The largest one was the bark Solomon, 600 tons, and while she was on the stocks, in 1865, he built the schooner Fisher, 86 tons, to the south and alongside of her. This bark was only II tons smaller than the ship Joseph Holmes, built by his father, in 1850, and the largest vessel ever built here.
The first vessel he built after taking over the building yard at the Landing, or as later called, the Landing Ship Yard, was the schooner Anna Eldridge, 139 tons, and no plan or picture can be found of her. The dimensions of this schooner were as follows: 87 feet 8 inches long, 22 feet 3 inches wide, and 7 feet 2 inches deep. An old account book belong- ing to Edward Holmes shows that it cost $9,000 to build her and she was sold for $10,000 in 1866. The profits for two and one-half years were $5,000, and $2,500 of this was for one year. Her first voyage was fishing to the Grand Bank; second to Malaga, and third to the Bahamas. Several other voyages were made to the West Indies with fishing trips to the Grand Bank in between. While owned by Mr. Holmes, Captain Elisha Morton Eldridge of West Chatham commanded this vessel until she was sold.
The schooner Fisher was built next and the plan of this vessel and picture of the bark Solomon with their story are shown in this book. There are no plans or picture of the schooner Lucy Holmes which he built in 1867, but as Kipling makes mention of her in his "Captains Courageous" I have taken the following account from the "Remarks" on schooner Lucy Holmes in my "Story of Kingston Vessels."
She was 105 tons and Captain Elisha Morton Eldridge was master of this schooner when new and later Captain Clement Eldridge, a nephew of Captain Elisha Eldridge, was in command, remaining in her until she was sold, about 1874, to Boston parties. She was employed in the usual fishing and West India voyages and her design was similar to that of the Mary Baker. She was named for Lucy Holmes, daughter of Edward Holmes. Her name appears in Kipling's book, "Captains Courageous," a story of the Grand Bank, as does that of the schooner, King Philip of Kingston, Kipling getting the names of the schooners and idea of writing the book when living in Brattleboro, Vt., from his friend and family physician, Dr. James Conland of that place, who, as a boy, lived in Captain Elisha Morton Eldridge's family in Chatham.
Mrs. Julia H. Tirrell, a friend of my wife, who as a girl lived in Chatham and was then living in North Attleboro, wrote her under date of January 18, 1908, some interesting facts concerning Kipling and Dr. Conland that may not be generally known.
The many tales that must have been told to Kipling by Dr. Conland as to his life on a "grand banker" when a little boy explains how the former was able to write the story of "Captains Courageous" in such a realistic manner when he had never been on the Banks, seen only a few fishing vessels in port and made a trip of a few hours' sail from Boston to Gloucester on the fishing sloop Venus, Captain Dent. This Captain Dent was afterward mate with Captain N. B. Watson of this place, who was master of the schooner yacht Constellation of Boston and Captain Watson told me the manner of Kipling's going to Gloucester.
Mrs. Tirrell's letter says in part as follows:
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My dear Abby:
I hoped to see you before this time and tell you about Dr. Conland, but I have been disappointed.
The first I knew of him was when he was thirteen years old and attended the same grammar school I did. Elisha Morton Eldridge had taken him on a fish- ing voyage the summer before and had brought him home as a sort of protege. I learned later that his father, an Irishman, had gone to California sometime in the fifties and had never been heard from. His mother, a Scotchwoman had been housekeeper for Governor Andrew and he had been cared for by her, but after her death he was forced to shift for himself and had drifted to this fishing vessel - one of your father's I think. From this time on he was an inmate of Captain Eldridge's family, earning enough sum- mers to enable him to attend school winters. He showed marked aptitude for books and his teachers gave him special instruction evenings. When about seventeen he had saved money enough to begin the course at Wilbraham Academy. By working out of school hours he was able to graduate here and little later entered the Medical College at Brattleboro, Ver- mont. After completing his studies he had the usual trying experience of young doctors struggling to estab- lish a practice, but was soon recalled by an old instruc- tor at Brattleboro to act as his assistant. When the old Doctor retired Dr. Conland took his patients and from that time on had all he wanted to do. Mean-
while, he had become engaged to a cousin of mine. She broke the engagement for what seemed to her good reasons. He soon married a rich woman. One son was born to them, now about 20 years old.
When Kipling married his Vermont wife and went to Brattleboro to live he became acquainted with Dr. Conland and a firm friendship soon developed. The doc- tor told him some of his early experiences and Kipling became so interested he asked to visit the wharves of Boston and Gloucester, so they went together. The result was "Captains Courageous" which is dedicated to Dr. James Conland. The MS. was presented to him and was one of his most valued possessions. The Lucy Holmes is one of the fishing schooners and many of the people are real folks down on the Cape.
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