USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Bath > History of Bath and environs, Sagadahoc County, Maine. 1607-1894 > Part 11
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Mathew Todd, F. D. A. Foster,
Lieut., Captain, Lieut.,
Jas. Cushing, Sr.,
Francis Cushman,
May 5, 1812,
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HISTORY OF BATH.
The privateer SHIP AMERICA of Salem came into the river during the war and anchored off Hyde's wharf. She thought she was pursued by a British frigate at sea, and in order to make her escape she put away for the Kennebec. The ship that was in chase proved to be the " Peace and Plenty" of New York. She sprang a leak, was obliged to make a harbor, and ran on the flats below Union wharf. She was afterwards hauled to Clapp's wharf and repaired. The America was a fine ship and mounted twenty long-nines, was formerly an East Indian, and belonged to the Crowninshields of Salem. She had her deck taken out when they fitted her for a privateer. She came into Bath the second time. She also sent in several prize ships; one of them was loaded with English goods and was very valuable. Luke Lambert contracted with the owners for ten thousand dollars to haul them to Boston by land to avoid the cruisers in the bay. At the same time there came in a Letter of Marque schooner for a harbor, and the two armed vessels made something of a war-like appearance on the river.
During the war all kinds of goods were exceedingly high in price, more especially imported goods. The following LIST OF PRICES is recorded in diary of Zina Hyde, then in mercantile business with Jonathan Hyde. Their store was a brick one on Water street, immediately north of the Houghtons' office, and was demolished in 1885 or thereabouts. "W. I. rum, $1.40 to $1.60; molasses, .80 in Bath, .85 in Boston; sugar, .16 to .18 in Bath, .19 to .21 in Boston; coffee, .20; S. tea, $1.20 to $1.25 in Boston and rising fast; corn, $2 in Boston, more in Bath; flour, $13 in Boston, $16 in Bath."
During the war of 1812 there were those who entered into the SPECULATION of supplying the British with provisions. Parties drove cattle to sell in Canada. Wiscasset was a depot from which British war vessels cruising off the Maine coast obtained supplies of fresh mutton, sheep being sent there for that purpose, in which trade it is said by good authority that know that sheep were sent from Bath.
The Kilgore Robbery. - During the war of 1812 the general government levied a direct tax, which was especially unpopular with the Federal party, which opposed the war. Mr. Kilgore of Topsham was appointed to collect the tax in Phipsburg,
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which having completed he was in the night on his way home on horseback, when a man came out from a clump of bushes about where is now the Dromore guide-board with a gun in his hand and taking the horse by the bits, demanded the tax money, which was delivered to him, when the collector was permitted to pass along in safety. A prominent man living in Topsham was arrested for the act, and at the trial Kilgore positively identified the prisoner as the man who robbed him. On the defence the prisoner clearly proved an alibi and was acquitted. He mistook his man in this way: the prisoner had a brother residing in Phipsburg, closely resembling him, and he was the man who did the act, as it was afterwards universally known. He could not be touched, however, because the collector had sworn that the other brother, when on trial, was the guilty man.
A Nautical Adventure. - Some forty years since a writer thus relates his reminiscences in a newspaper of the day: " In our last, we gave a little incident of our nautical experience, in which we were captured by the enemy in the last war with England and made a brief prisoner on board of one of his Majesty's ships-of-the-line. In the present paper we shall relate another incident of our young experience, in which we were not taken by the enemy. It was whilst on our first voyage to the District of Maine, in September, 1813. Circumstances of a domestic nature, induced by the war itself, rendered it expedient, if not necessary, that we should remove from the land of our fathers in the Old Colony to the abode of contemporary relatives in Bath. In these times, when, if a man has not been around the world, he has been nowhere, and when he may be almost everywhere in the same day, it is no more to go to Europe than it formerly was to cross a mill pond; but forty years ago it was a great and venturesome thing, especially in war time, to make a sea voyage from Plymouth to the Kennebec. It was not the day of steamboats or railroads; such things were not so much hoped for as a means of locomo- tion as the idea is now entertained of navigating the atmosphere under a convoy of eagles. Indeed, by post-coaches, if they had
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been established on the entire line, the journey from Boston to Bath was accomplished only in the better part of two weeks, and at a cost that would now carry a passenger by steam power from Boston to Wisconsin. Maine merchants must procure their goods in Boston, and these goods must be conveyed by water, notwith- standing the British cruisers constituted a cordon investing the coast from Cape Cod to Eastport. Coasters must attempt the 'run,' though at fearful risks. Many, very many, of them fell into the hands of the enemy; but a few by watching their opportunities, and especially by running in the night time, had the good fortune to make their trips with success. Amongst these lucky ones was a large schooner, rigged in the old-fashioned style of two topsails, very brig-like, belonging in Bath and commanded by a daring old salt, Capt. Mckown of Woolwich ( Robert ). He belonged to the war party, was zealous for 'sailors' rights'; fearless himself, he had a most ravenous appetite for 'the blood of an English- man.' His formidable craft lay at the T wharf in Boston, watching her opportunity to put out of the harbor when the weather had forced the cruisers temporarily to withdraw from the coast, and make her run without detection to the Kennebec. In a swift 'shaving mill,' like that in which we had been captured three months before, we proceeded to Boston and took passage in Capt. Mckown's great schooner for Bath. She was deeply laden with merchandise, and several of the merchants of Bath and adjacent towns were on board with their goods. Some ladies were of the party.
The first part of the voyage was made between two days, pro- tected from observation by the cover of darkness. Morning found us within a few leagues of Portsmouth, which, by help of a fair wind, our captain hoped to reach in season to lie by, till another night should afford a second opportunity to run eastward. But soon an armed brig was discovered in the southern horizon making for the coast; and by the time she had become clearly visible to the naked eye, a ship was also seen in the same direction, lying off and on, as if to support the brig in her adventures. The ship, we afterwards learned, was the La Hogue, which was commanded by an Englishman who, when he was drunk, - and that was most of the
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time, - disgraced the British navy by his savage cruelties to his captured Americans. The brig had evidently got a sight of our noble looking schooner, and was pressing all her canvas to cut us off before Capt. Mckown could reach Portsmouth; and so rapidly did she gain upon us, that it became quite certain she would cut our line before we could reach the point of safety. A consultation was had, and the resolution formed to run the schooner on shore and beach her rather than give her up to the enemy. Suddenly, how- ever, we noticed that the brig hove about and shaped her course for the La Hogue. This was, indeed, a happy change for us, but it was altogether inexplicable, till shortly the mystery was explained by our noticing two United States brigantines, --- the Enterprise and Rattlesnake, - an armed schooner, and several gun-boats, coming out of Portsmouth, by the fort that defends the harbor, and pro- ceeding in the direction of our pursuer and the La Hogue whose protection she was seeking. Our schooner joined the American fleet shortly after the fort had been passed, and our vali nt captain, burning with a patriotic zeal, put up his helm and steered in the same direction. We fell in by the side of the Enterprise, which near the mouth of the Kennebec had had the battle with the Boxer, and took her and brought the slain captains of both vessels into Portland, where their bodies now lie side by side. In vain did our passengers protest against Capt. MeKown's temerity in going out to participate in the hazards of a naval engagement. Argument was lost upon him; his throat breathed vengeance; his very eyes flashed fire; he was an old ' war-hawk ' and could not be restrained. We recollect how one of the passengers, a merchant who had goods on board, Hon. David C. Magoun, a most respectable gentleman of Bath, protested to Capt. McKown against his perilling his vessel, the property committed to his charge, and even the liberty and perhaps lives of us all, by the daring venture of accompanying the fleet to the forthcoming sea-fight .- ' You are entirely unarmed and cannot possibly be of any service in the engagement.' 'No matter for that,' asserverated the old ' war-hawk,' 'the British do not know that; they don't know but we are half full of arms and men; at least we shall add one to the number; I have one old shooting
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iron down below, and I know I can make a hole with it in some dl-d red coat before we quit.
Really he was bent on his purpose. He was fully determined to see the battle, whether he could participate in it or not, and did not doubt that his presence might, in some fortunate circumstances, be of service to the American belligerents. They were going out to give battle to the ship and brig, which by this time had joined com- pany and were laid to, waiting to receive our approaching fleet. We shall never forget the appearance of the Enterprise and Rattlesnake as we moved along side of them, especially of the first, which was so near us that her captain and ours could converse with great facility. The decks were all cleared for action and, just out of port, were exceedingly clean and glistening. The boats were hauled up in the rigging, the port-holes were opened, every gun was manned, all was still except as the boatswain's whistle was heard, or the American captain held conversation with our schooner. 'Where are you going ?' asked he of Capt. Mckown. 'Don't you see,' exclaimed he, pointing to the two British cruisers that were waiting our approach; 'we are going wherever you go, if that's to Davy's locker !' 'My friend,' rejoined he, 'let me advise you to put back; you can be of no possible service to us, and you may see bloody work before you return.' 'That's just what I want to see,' replied our captain, and he refused to return. It was really a fearful hour to us all. Men going into battle never could feel differently from what we felt. Thus we sailed outward until with our glasses we could see the enemy's port-holes and witness the movement of his men on board. Almost were we within gunshot. Directly, without our knowing the cause, the whole American fleet 'about ship' and took the back tracks for Portsmouth ! This was in obedience to a signal from the fort on shore. Never did our young heart beat with a readier joy than when our captain concluded not to go and fight the ship and brig alone, but to return and make a port with the brigantines. On coming to anchor in Piscataqua, we learned the cause of recall. It seems that Com. Hull, who commanded on shore, had reason to believe there was a 74 gun ship, the Tenedos, in the offing within hearing of the guns, should an engagement be
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hazarded, and that she would come to the relief of the vessels our fleet was in pursuit of; and as night would shut in before the con- troversy could be decided, he thought it prudent, on the whole, to recall the force to port, which he did by the signals before alluded to. If any of our readers ever came nearer being in a sea-fight than we did, without being really involved in it, and experienced anything more of the sensations preceding such a conflict, we shall be very happy to hear from them."
Opposers of the War. -- At the commencement of the war of 1812 the Federalists opposed the enlistment of men and sent out circulars and employed men to ride through the country to dis- courage enlistments. Republicans ardently supported the war. In times of local danger, however, those of both parties rallied for defence.
Its Effects. - When this war ended in 1815, it required several years to restore the crippled commerce to anything like prosperity. During the embargo, non-intercourse, and war, vessels in course of construction at Bath crumbled on the stocks and others rotted at the wharves. At the time the embargo was declared, William King had five ships and four brigs, all but one loaded for sea, anchored in the river, stringing from shore to shore. Merchants who had amassed independent fortunes were reduced to penury, as the embargo cut off our trade also with neutral nations.
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HISTORY OF BATH.
SHIPBUILDING.
The most prominent feature in the history of Bath and con- spicuously identified with its business and growth is that which is connected with the construction and sailing of vessels. The history of the building of vessels on the Kennebec dates back nearly three centuries. Before the Pilgrim fathers had landed at Plymouth, before settlers had permanently established themselves in the New World, before any industry had set up its standands on this side of the Atlantic, the great business of building ships had begun on the Kennebec in the construction of the Virginia by the Popham colony. None of the undertakings that came afterwards were so strongly and lastingly established as the business of building ships. It has been identified with the country's growth and greatness from the very first, and its fluctuations have been the sure thermometer of the country's varying fortunes.
In times of peace and plenty, the ships of the Kennebec have carried the country's products to every sea and every clime, and brought back in trade the choicest products of every nation. In times of war, the sailors trained on American merchant-men have been the bulwark of the nation against the invading navies of her foes. Great is the glory that has come to our country by the brave deeds of our sailor-men in the war of 1812, and great the prosperity that has come to our country by the achievements of our merchant marine in times of peace before and since that event.
At the time when BRISTOL was the chief port of commerce in England, the ships hailing from there were considered models in build and rig; consequently when an American ship was rigged in a notably rakish style, it was remarked by seafaring men that she was "taut-rigged and Bristol fashion."
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Centuries ago the TERM SHIP had a wide significance. During the reign of William the fourth, of England, a statute enacted that the term ship comprehended every description of vessel navigating the ocean.
First Vessel Built on the Kennebec. - The name of " VIRGINIA of Sagadahock " of 1607 was given in honor of the designation of New England as North Virginia. When the Popham colony broke up its settlement and returned to England, the Virginia sailed in company with the other vessel that took the members of the colony home. Her arrival at the port of Falmouth was a sensation; a wonder at the triumph of ship-carpentry in the distant wilds of the New World. This little craft was the forerunner of the great American industry that eventually arrived to the distinction of beating the world in the model wooden ship.
Interesting is the history of the ship-building on the Kennebec traced from the quaint little thirty ton ship, that was builded in the wilderness at the river's mouth almost three hundred years ago, through the centuries to the huge leviathans of peace and war that at this later day are rearing their giant frames in the ship-yards of this ship-building city. Imagination alone can speculate upon the methods of construction used by the master builder, "one Digby of London," as to whether he, with ship-building afore- thought, brought with him from England the spikes for the planking, or whether, Robinson Crusoe like, his men fashioned the nails out of whatever iron they happened to have at hand; whether the Indians helped them or hindered them, and what these natives thought of the strange pale faces who had come into their midst to build a huge canoe. But whatever the Indians thought of the settlers there is no question as to what the settlers thought of the land of the Indians, for soon after they had finished their ship, launched her upon the smooth waters of Atkins Bay, and fitted her for an ocean voyage, they availed themselves of the opportunity to leave these inhospitable shores and sail back to the mother country in their new vessel and the Mary and John, the supply ship. Neither the colonists nor the ship ever came back to
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the Kennebec, but the new ship was used in transporting colonists to the South Virginia settlement.
The Second Build. - It was sixty-eight years later when another vessel was built on the Kennebec shores. When the famous firm of CLARK & LAKE came into possession of the island of Arrowsic and established vast business enterprises, they built vessels on the island and sailed them in transporting the products of their trade with return cargoes of supplies. Their yards were on the Kennebec side of the island and on the eastern side at or near Spring Cove. Across the bay from the latter locality, on the Woolwich shore, lived the FATHER OF WILLIAM PHIPS. The natural tendency of the times being for vessels, the youthful ambition of this subsequent famous man seems to have led him to become a shipwright as the basis of the future eminent career which he early mapped out for himself.
SIR WILLIAM PHIPS.
James Phips, the father of Sir William, emigrated to this country in 1651 and settled on the Kennebec at Butlers Cove (vide " Fathers of New England " ). Afterwards he purchased the land known as Phips Point in Woolwich bordering on the Sheepscot River. PHIPPS. HIe settled there as a farmer, at the same time pur- suing his trade of gunsmith. He had a family by one wife of twenty-one sons and five daughters. His tenth child was WILLIAM, born Feb. 2, 1651, on Arrowsic Island, and while a child was taken by his parents to Woolwich. He learned the trade of shipwright by a four years' apprenticeship in the yards of Clark & Lake at Arrowsic. Upon the end of his apprenticeship, at the age of twenty-two, he went to BOSTON to work in ship-yards in 1673. There were no schools in his town, and he received no education. While working at his trade in Boston he married the widow of John Hull, daughter of John Richards, the original proprietor of Arrowsic, who brought him some property and taught him to read and write. He returned to his old home in WOOLWICH in 1674, where he built a ship for Boston
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parties which he completed in 1676. This proved a very fortunate circumstance to the settlers in that vicinity, for on the completion of the vessel the first Indian war broke out and savage depredations began. The settlers on the SHEEPSCOT, terrified by the tidings of the massacres at Hammonds Fort and at the garrison-house of Clark & Lake, fled to the islands in Booth Bay, when William Phips took them on board his vessel and sailed for Boston, although he was obliged to abandon a portion of his cargo of lumber that was ready for shipment. He continued building and sailing vessels at Boston for some years until he engaged with the Duke of Albemarle to proceed in one of the king's ships in search of a sunken Spanish treasure ship that was lost off the Bahamas. On the second voyage in this enterprise he was sucsessful in finding the wreck in some fifty feet of water. From this wreck they obtained $1,350,000 in gold, silver, and jewels. Phips' part amounted to $80,000 and for this great service he was knighted. He had the generosity and the justice to divide with his sailors a fair proportion of the treasure recovered.
On his return to this country FROM ENGLAND he resided in Boston and was given public employment. In 1690 he commanded the colonial fleet that captured FORT ROYAL in Nova Scotia. He sailed from Boston in May with a fleet of nine vessels. He had the rank and title of commodore, his flag ship carrying forty guns. He completed the conquest of Acadia and brought back enough of the enemy's merchandise to pay the expenses of the undertaking. The next August he commanded an expedition against Quebec. The land forces were to proceed by the way of Lake Champlain, uniting with the fleet for the reduction of that place. Phips was repulsed in this undertaking, not having receiving the expected aid. A severe storm destroyed a portion of his fleet, and the expenses, which they anticipated would be paid from the spoils, fell upon the colonies, and money being scarce, bills of credit and paper money were issued, the first instance in our history. He subsequently rebuilt the destroyed fort at Pemaquid and named it Fort William Henry.
SIR WILLIAM went to England to obtain from the Crown a new
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charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and returned with it as governor in 1692. This office he ably administered until 1694, when, as had been the fate of all previous governors of the colony, he encountered opposition which culminated in his recall to England to answer to complaints against his methods of administration. This he did successfully and remained for some time in London. He died there in the year 1695 at the early age of forty-four years. This country lost an able, enterprising, patriotic, and good citizen.
WILLIAM PHIPs by his own force of character rose from a poor and uneducated youth to wealth, power, and distinction. In personal appearance he was tall and commanding; of comely and symmet- rical features; courtly and dignified in manner; of amiable and generous disposition. On his first return to this country, loaded , with wealth and honor, he tendered a splendid feast to the ship- carpenters of Boston in' consideration of his having commenced active life pursuing that honorable avocation.
William@hips-
The York Records of 1727 show that "John Lane of Boston recites that his mother, Sarah, was daughter of John White, and conveys land at Kennebec inherited from her, purchased by John White and James Phips from Edward Bateman. Good authority states that James Phips and John White were born about the same time." William M. Sargent, Portland, wrote that he had evidence that James Phips died and John White, his business partner, married Phips' widow and she had several children by him (vide S. Richards, South Paris).
Early Building at Bath. - The continued hostilities of the savages prevented vessel building to any great extent on the Ken- nebec as well as elsewhere on these shores until keels were laid at the " Reach " sixty-five years after Phips' Woolwich ship. The inception of the business as connected with this locality was the
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building of sloops and schooners on the banks of the NEW MEADOWS River, which at an early d y was the mart of commerce for this section.
In due time, however, the entire business became transferred to the KENNEBEC, where BATH has, for more than a century, held the lead in ship-building on this river and tributary waters, and eventu- ally has become the largest wood ship-building city in the world. Its rise and growth is a matter of general interest. It is the earliest of Bath industries and has continued paramount to all others. Its establishment and prosecution have brought into being many collat- eral industries indispensable to the building and sailing of ships. THIS LOCATION was well chosen. The country around was covered with forests of the best oak timber in the world to put into vessels, with tall, straight spruce for masts and spars, while the shore on this west side of the long stretch of deep water was well adapted, in its sloping trend, for placing a hull and sliding it into its des- tined element.
Bath skirts the shore for three miles on what was known as Long Reach, a broad, straight section of the river which forms a perfect harbor for vessels of the largest tonnage. This port is ample for the navies of the world, and if a harbor were the measure of a city's commercial importance, Bath would be second to none. These advantages have been utilized by Bath in the pursuit chiefly of her principal industry, for which she is known in every part of the maritime world. She has built ships upon its banks and launched them into its waters until the tonnage which bears her name out- numbers that of any other wood ship-building community in the world. Indeed, this industry, first located here on account of the accessibility of ship timber, grew to such large proportions and became so firmly established that when the supply of material near at hand became somewhat exhausted and it was necessary to resort to the pineries of the South and West, it did not decrease in volume or in any way was affected by this fact; on the contrary, the history of ship-building in Bath perfectly demonstrates the theory that the prime factor of success lies in the skill of the ship mechanic and the home ownership of a large portion of the tonnage produced.
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