USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Kingston > Ships of Kingston. : "Good-bye, fare ye well" > Part 15
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After Kipling went away they kept up correspond- ence, and when he revisited New York and was ill with pneumonia Dr. Conland was summoned.
He was a member of the Vermont Legislature and served on important committees. His own death, which took place about three years ago, I forget just the date, was caused by visiting a patient at midnight during a hard storm when he was unwell himself.
This is a plain unvarnished tale. Of course one might dwell upon his early struggles, etc. at much greater length. If there's any fact you would like that I have omitted, command me.
Affectionately, Signed, JULIA H. TIRRELL.
I have given Dr. Conland's life, as written by Mrs. Tirrell, so as to show what an orphaned boy, who started life in the forecastle of a fishing vessel, could accomplish by his own efforts. Few boys commencing to follow the sea so young leave it as he did and the verse from Longfellow in the dedication of "Captains Courageous" is most appropriate:
I ploughed the land with horses, But my heart was ill at ease, For the old seafaring men Came to me now and then With their sagas of the sea.
After the Lucy Holmes was sold, her new owners continued her in the West India trade until she was lost, soon after 1877 on a voyage to these islands.
One of the few sloops built in the shipyards on Jones River was the sloop Rosewood which he launched in 1868. This sloop was built for Captain Simon Burgess of Plymouth. She was built between the two timber docks on the middle wharf at the Landing and launched sideways into the river. She was used for lightering and short trips along the coast by Captain Burgess and when quite old was sold to Captain Parker Hall of Duxbury, who used her in the same business a few years and she was then hauled up on Morton's Hole, on the west side of Captain's Hill, and finally went to pieces. When new, her mast was the foremast of the old Glance.
Like the bark Solomon the bark Hornet of 330 tons that he built in 1868 was first regis- tered in the Plymouth Custom House as hailing from Kingston. This vessel was named the Mary Baker when launched, but was at once sold to Daniel Draper of Boston. She was taken to Boston with the name covered and on arrival it was taken off, and she was called Hornet, and hailed from Boston. Captain David Ellis was her first captain and Robert Thompson, mate; she was used in the Mediterranean fruit trade and other voyages. In 1877, she was owned and hailed from Philadelphia.
As the bark Mary Baker's name was changed, Mr. Holmes called the next vessel he
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built the Mary Baker, which was a schooner of IOI tons. A picture taken from a photograph of the sail plan of this vessel is shown here and the "Re- marks" concerning her taken from my "Story of Kingston Vessels" are given in full.
In 1873, he laid the keel of what was to prove to be the last sailing vessel built in Kingston, the brig Helen A. Holmes, 316 tons. By this time many of the former ship carpenters of Kingston had died or become too old to work. Fewer vessels were be- ing built in the smaller yards each year and owing to the increased cost of construction and scarcity of orders these yards were fast being abandoned and young men were not learning the trade of shipwright, as in earlier days. For this reason, there was some delay in completing this vessel, workmen having to be hired from other towns.
She was a good sailer, but often in need of repairs and a passage from New Zealand to Scot- land very disastrous. At St. Helena she was leak- ing badly and again at St. Thomas, both most expensive ports of call for vessels in distress. The ICHABOD PETERSON, THE MASTER RIGGER quality of the work done on her when building or material used may not have been as good as formerly, but whatever the cause, Mr. Holmes always found her to be the most costly of all his vessels to send to sea. A complete record of this brig's voyages are shown with her picture.
With the new brig he had now three vessels afloat and hailing from Kingston, the schooners Fisher and Mary Baker, the Lucy Holmes having been sold in 1874 when the Holmes was building, and the story of their employments is told in the "Remarks" on these vessels. For several years he sent these three schooners to the Grand Bank on salt cod fishing trips and if they all arrived home in the fall at about the same time, as often hap- pened, there were no vacant berths at the Landing or fish wharves. With two schooners washing out and drying their fish and another waiting her turn, the Landing and River were scenes of great activity while this work was going in.
The Mary Baker, sold, sailing in the fall of 1887 never to return, and the death of Mr. Holmes the following spring, marked the closing chapter of the shipping industry of Kingston that had been carried on for so many years.
When first married he lived in the house at the Landing, now called the Landing House, belonging to his father. After several years he bought the house now occupied by his grandson, Horace Holmes, and on the death of his brother, Paraclete, came into possession of his place, residing there until his death. This property is now owned by Roland Bailey.
ICHABOD PETERSON
He was the son of Thomas and Sarah Alden (Sampson) Peterson, and was born in 1814 at Powder Point, Duxbury. He worked in his father's sail-loft, which was an adjoining building, until he was married in 1842, when he came to Kingston and bought the house in Stony Brook, where he lived the rest of his life.
He was a master rigger and worked in the Kingston shipyards as long as he was able, dying March 22, 1897, age 82 years.
It was a familiar sight to see him with his companion worker, Mr. Samuel Cushing, trudging off to their work at the Landing with their wheelbarrows in summer and hand sleds in winter, in which to bring home from the yards the huge chunks of wood and chips when they came from work at night.
BRIG Helen A. Holmes AT THE WHARF AT THE LANDING, 1874
BRIG Helen A. Holmes OF KINGSTON. CLEMENT ELDRIDGE, MASTER. IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL, 1874
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He was the master rigger for the yards of Joseph Holmes and his sons, Alexander and Edward, and was highly esteemed by them all for his skill in the masting and rigging of their vessels. The safety of a ship when first out of port often depended on what had been done by the riggers, and although sailors always spoke contemptuously of this work as a rigger's job because it was not as finished as theirs, Kingston vessels never suffered any loss from poor workmanship in their rigging.
THE BRIG Helen A. Holmes AT THE WHARF AT THE LANDING
This picture of the brig Helen A. Holmes of Kingston is from a pencil sketch made in the spring of 1874, about a week after she was launched and before the masts were stepped or jib-boom rigged out. The vessel lies between the two timber docks, the bow hiding the northerly one, at what was originally Foster's wharf, which was built on the site of the first one at this part of the Landing.
She had a flush deck fore and aft with no bulwarks and the railing that took their place is lacking in several sections, as are many other fittings about her upper works and deck. The reason for this flush deck was to gain a between decks about five feet high and so increase her tonnage, the bottom of the between decks being the real main deck. Some of the earlier vessels were launched with their masts in, yards crossed, sails bent and all ready for sea, but Edward Holmes left all he could of the work of finishing off his vessels above water until after launching, as it was easier to do this alongside of a wharf than when she was on the stocks with the deck and top sides high above the ground. This flush deck was sure to be free from water in bad weather, but decidedly bleak and uncomfortable for sailors with no lee from any bulwarks.
The buildings not concealed by the brig's hull that were in use at the time Edward Holmes was building, are seen and their location can be better placed perhaps by con- sulting his plan of the Landing. The roof and second story of the rigging, sail and mold loft show over the vessel's bow. On the wharf and joining this is a coal pocket for storing coal brought in the vessels from Philadelphia or New York. Above this pocket is the easterly end of the joiner's loft with door and steps to platform in front. The rear end of this building was almost connected by a shed to the large, square dwelling-house which rises above the center of the vessel and always called the Landing House. This house was built by Stephen Drew from whom Joseph Holmes, in 1806, purchased that portion of the Landing that extends from the bow of the brig to the end of the wharf opposite the joiner's loft.
Under the vessel's stern is a part of the southerly timber dock. An old mast was laid across the entrance to the dock from the ends of the wharves, with pieces of plank driven into the mud and spiked at their tops to the mast. This made a fence on a large scale and held the timber that was kept in the water so it would not become wormeaten, from floating out into the river at high tide. When a launch was to take place the timber was hauled ashore, the mast and planks removed, and the launching was through the opening. To the left and over the vessel's stern are seen the staging poles that stood on each side of the hull of the vessel when she was on the stocks. Over the port corner of the after end of the cabin house the bow staging shows; this was a permanent stage with a gradual incline of planks leading from the ground to the top of the vessel's stern when planked and was used by the carpenters to carry up the planks, knees and other material that went into the decks and upper works as this part of the hull neared completion. Behind the bow staging is a long, one-story building used for a workshop. The floor was the bare ground and the ships' timbers were hewed and shaped here when the weather was unfit to do this out-of-doors. Two saw pits were on one side and a very large stone fireplace on the other, where in cold weather the ship carpenters gathered around to eat their dinners. The work of building a vessel went on out-of-doors in winter the same as in summer, as very little of it could be done under cover and the old-time workmen did not seem to mind the heat or cold.
To the left of the shop is the north end of a building used to store dry lumber in. Above
SLOOP YACHT Siren OF KINGSTON, 1880
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this to the right and overlooking all, is the roof and east end of the historic Major John Bradford House that stands on a bank across the roadway.
Among the staging poles and near where the keel blocks lay, a pair of high wheels can be seen. These were the wheels to Joseph Holmes' chaise that carried him for many years on journeys to Boston and other places in connection with his business. Becoming old and worn out the body and shafts were taken off and a heavy wooden tongue was fastened to the middle of the axle and these wheels were then used to move small timbers about the yard that were too heavy to be carried on the workmen's shoulders.
To the left of the wheels, leaning against a staging pole is an unfinished semi-circular platform that is the brig's foretop.
The after ends of the keels of the vessels were laid on high blocks on the sloping bank, so the longer ones extended some feet over the water at high tide.
The buildings were all very old and greatly in need of repairs before Edward Holmes removed them and there is no record by whom or when they were built.
BRIG Helen A. Holmes
Brig Helen A. Holmes of Kingston, 316 tons, built at Kingston by Spencer Drew, master carpenter and Edward Holmes, in 1874; owned by Edward Holmes.
REMARKS
This vessel was the last vessel built by Edward Holmes, son of Joseph Holmes, in the shipyard at the Landing just below the railroad bridge. She was rigged as a hermaphrodite brig and launched in the spring of 1874. She was named for the wife of Edward K. Holmes. Her dimensions were as follows: 114 95/100 feet long, 28 4/100 feet wide and 15 1/10 feet deep and 316 62/100 tons burden. She was rigged at the Landing and then taken to Rocky Nook Wharf, ballasted and sailed from there for Boston in tow of the tug, Storm King, the first of the summer. She was valued at $28,000 when she left Kingston ready for sea; Clement Eldridge of Harwich was master until she was lost. Her first voyage was from Boston to Antwerp with a general cargo, and returned to Boston with a cargo of pig lead and window glass, Manlius Baker of Kingston being mate and Thatcher Baker of Kingston, one of the crew.
After making two voyages to the Mediterranean she sailed for Dunedin, New Zealand, and from there to Greenock, Scotland, and returned to Boston. She was next chartered for a voyage from Boston to Surinam, South America, and return, and went ashore on Squib- nocket Beach, near Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, in December, 1879. Bad weather com- ing on she soon went to pieces, vessel and cargo of molasses a total loss. The brig was always an unfortunate vessel and her owner lost very heavily on her.
SLOOP Siren
Sloop Siren of Kingston, 10 tons, owned by Lewis H. Keith.
REMARKS
This was a centerboard yacht and was bought in New Bedford by L. H. Keith, in 1877 and used by him for racing and cruising until she was sold to Boston, in 1884. Captain N. B. Watson was master until the year before she was sold, when Captain E. A. Ransom was in charge of her. Her dimensions were as follows: 42 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 3 feet 6 inches deep with centerboard up.
While owned by Mr. Keith she was the fastest sloop of her size on the New England coast and won many prizes in races. She was a centerboard vessel as were most of the yachts of that period and had a large cabin, which with her shoal draft made her a most comfortable yacht for cruising.
On being sold her new owner made some alterations and she never sailed so well again. She was finally sold to parties on the other side of Cape Cod, and the last known of her was that she was used as an oyster boat.
TIGER.
STEAMER Tiger OF KINGSTON, 1898
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CAPTAIN NATHAN B. WATSON
He was one of the best-known yachting captains along the coast, a contemporary of Captains Banks, Haff and Charlie Barr of cup defender fame and also of Captain Aubry Crocker, master of the celebrated sloop yacht, Shadow, owned by Dr. John Bryant of Cohasset and George Lawley, the yacht designer and builder of Boston.
He was born on Clark's Island, Plymouth Harbor, in 1844, dying there in 1925, and belonged to the old Plymouth family of Watsons who owned Clark's Island for many years. Always living on the Island as a boy he early learned the handling of boats and this training was later the means of making him one of the most skillful racing captains of the Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays. On his marriage to a sister of Captain Edward A. Ransom he made his home in Kingston, as well as on Clark's Island, building lobster boats and small yachts winters, and going lobstering and fishing summers as has already been told.
When he became master of the schooner yacht Constellation he gave up using the boat- shop, except for the storage of boats, being obliged to remain on the yacht the whole year, making cruises to the West Indies in winter or overseeing to her overhauling if laid up. He was captain of the Constellation for two owners, Bayard Thayer of Boston and Lancaster, and Francis Skinner, Jr., of Boston. In those years she was the largest and fastest sailing yacht of her class, but on account of her size was obliged to give so much time allowance in many races that it was seldom any great interest could be taken in the contests. After the death of Mr. Skinner the vessel was sold and Captain Watson retired from yachting, spending the winter on the mainland and summer on Clark's Island. It was at this time that he purchased a small launch for going about the bay in, using her for this purpose for a number of years and so retaining his interest in the water until his death. Shortly before this, the boathouse was sold to Dr. Arthur B. Holmes of Kingston and it is now used to haul up his yacht Seconset in.
For over fifty years this building has been a gathering place for the boatmen, former sailors and sea captains of Kingston, especially in winter and its only equal was the office of the late Captain John C. Dawes of Kingston where he presided over the famous Bob Stay Club. Many voyages to all parts of the world have been resailed on the old bench alongside the red hot stove by men who were more familiar with foreign ports than some of the near- by towns. Very often in the excitement of recalling the incidents of a particularly hard and long voyage, a passage around the stove in the confined space was full as dangerous to them as one around Cape Horn. Usually in a joking way Captain Watson was only too ready to add to the confusion when several stories were being told at once, with the use of plenty of strong language, by loudly calling the attention of all hands to what he had to say about some of his own cruises and his voice being the loudest he always held the floor.
These old seafaring men would never admit that a modern craft could compare in speed with the old-time vessels they once sailed in and when- ever a recently fast passage was reported some one was always sure to have made a better one in some ancient brig or schooner that had been lost or condemned years ago and her very name for- gotten by all except the one who went in her.
Before taking command of the Constellation, Captain Watson sailed for a number of seasons on
CAPTAIN NATHAN B. WATSON
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JOHN N. DREW, THE PILOT
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the sloop Nimbus of Cohasset, cutter Huron of Boston and New York and several other yachts owned at Boston.
This picture of the captain shows him standing beside the wheel of the Constellation, the vessel lying at anchor in port.
STEAMER Tiger
Steamer Tiger of Kingston, 30 tons, built at Kingston, in 1898, by Edward A. Ransom; owned by Edward A. Ransom, A. J. Hill, C. A. Ransom and H. S. West.
REMARKS
This was the only steamer ever built on Jones River, and the largest vessel built on the Jones River since 1874. She was built in the boatyard of Captain E. A. Ransom, who was her designer and builder, and was launched from his yard on the south side of his work- shop or boathouse in the spring of 1898. Captain Ransom, her master, used her a few years for off-shore lobstering and fishing, when she was sold to the Churches of Tiverton, R. I., and used for a porgy steamer. Her dimensions were as follows: 53 feet over all, 14 feet beam and 6 feet draft. Her picture shows her to have been a very handsome vessel.
CAPTAIN EDWARD A. RANSOM
The first years of his life were passed in Kingston and on the Gurnet, Plymouth Harbor, and like Captain Watson, his brother-in-law, he learned to sail a boat when very young. As he grew older he made voyages to the West Indies and South America in Duxbury vessels and for a time was in the Plymouth packet, Sarah &. Hyde, running between Plymouth and Boston. After giving up the sea he lived in Kingston winters, and on the Gurnet and Clark's Island in summer, for a number of years carrying on the lobster fishing business, and it was then that his attention was called to the improvements that might be made in the design of the boats used for lobstering in the bay, by giving them a centerboard and overhanging stern. After he commenced building these boats at Kingston in the old Drew workshop he made still further improvements in their construction, of which a description is given elsewhere in this book.
In 1883, he was captain of the sloop yacht, Siren, of Kingston and some years later was employed by George M. Winslow of Boston and Duxbury, to superintend the construction of his yacht, Gevalia, building at Essex, and going in her as master when completed. On retiring from yachting, he continued the business of building, hauling up and repairing launches and yachts until a few months before his death, in 1922, 77 years old.
An account of the steamer Tiger which he built in his yard on the southerly side of his boathouse, in 1898, together with her picture, is found among the list of Kingston vessels.
CAPTAIN JOHN N. DREW, THE PILOT
Captain Drew was born in Kingston, in 1821, and died here in 1906. His ancestor was Samuel Drew, the first of the Drew family to come here. As a boy and young man he went on the packets running between here and Boston, and bay fishing. For a number of summers he made his home at Cut River, or Green Harbor, fishing and lobster- ing, returning to Kingston in the fall and working in the shipyards as a carpenter in the winter. He was the pilot
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CAPTAIN EDWARD A. RANSOM
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for the bay and river for the later of Joseph Holmes' vessels and all of those owned by Edward Holmes. After the last vessel was sold he engaged in boat fishing and the carrying out of sailing parties from here until he was an old man, no longer able to handle his boat.
While Mr. James L. Hall owned the sloop yacht, Playmate, he went in her as captain and when she was sold to Plymouth and the Gurnet, remained in her for a season.
He lived in the house on the corner of Linden Street and the Landing Road now owned by Roland S. Bailey.
The picture of Captain Drew shows him standing in his sailboat, Matchless, waiting for a breeze and drifting down stream with the tide. It was taken from the upper Fish Wharf on Jones River, about 1890, by his friend, Mr. William L. Ames formerly of Kingston, and the Bradford House and Landing House with the old joiner's loft are seen in the distance.
In these days of steam and electricity when few remember the fleets of sailing vessels once seen in our seaports an endeavor has been made to interest the public in a revival of the merchant marine of the country by the publication, in various forms, of accounts of the most famous voyages of old Boston and Salem sailing ships. In many instances, their log-books, charts and sea-journals have been saved and it is easy to follow their different voyages to their completion. In Salem, records, pictures and models of them have been deposited in the Essex Institute as has likewise been done in the Massachusetts Historical Society of Boston and other societies interested in marine history.
For the same purpose many books are now offered for sale in England, giving the stories of the early and later days of sailing ships belonging to that country, and the accounts of their voyages are similar to those given of American ships. Beautiful illustrations, taken from the original paintings, are to be found in the publications of both countries.
Being obliged to depend almost entirely on the Holmes family for the accounts of the Kingston vessels, the Delano family records offering still less material, it has been impossible to enter into the details of voyages in comparison with those made by the more numerous vessels of the larger ports. Not a log-book is in existence. Several working models, paintings and old charts, a sea-journal of a few voyages, some old letters and account books, are all that remain today.
In this narrative I have endeavored to show the part taken by Kingston, in what at one time was the principal industry of New England. In years to come, when the river will no longer show any trace of the busy life once occupying its banks, it may be of interest to some to read this record of what was a source of wealth to those engaged in it and of great prosperity to the town.
I have derived my information from the Plymouth Custom House records, family letters, private journals, account books and what has been told to me by those who formerly took an active part in these affairs.
Looking across the bay, no sails are seen whitening the horizon. A small collection of pictures is all that is left to show that, for over one hundred and fifty years, Kingston was once a hailing port for ships that sailed the seven seas.
The sailing of the last one was so long ago, that to the few who remember her and were once familiar with the sea and the ships going down to it, the words of the old deep-water chantey, "It's time for us to leave her," seem most appropriate. And, as the last line of the day's doings in a ship's log book often read, "So ends this day," "So ends" the maritime story of Kingston.
To Ed + June - June 1959 Homer 8. Tilton
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