USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 17
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The Beginnings of the Great Days
the sum of $5,093.17, which was surpassed in the county only by Bath with a similar appropriation of $6,000.00.1
The population figures tell an amazingly similar story, Waldoboro ranking with the largest towns in the state. The fol- lowing table will furnish an index to population growth in four of the leading towns in the state over a period of four decades:2
AUGUSTA
BATH
PORTLAND
WALDOBORO
Date
Pop.
Date
Pop.
Date
Pop.
Date
Pop.
1790
Not incorp.
1790
949
1790
2240
1790
1206
1800
1211
1800
1225
1800
3704
1800
1516
1810
1805
1810
2491
1810
7169
1810
2160
1820
2457
1820
3026
1820
8581
1820
2449
1830
3980
1830
3773
1830
12,601
1830
3113
During this half century of its early history the town ranged along in size with Augusta and Bath and in 1830 was a quarter as large as Portland.
This was a period when Waldoboro was not only building ships but was furnishing them with crews and captains as well. There were literally several score of skippers in the town in these decades, masters of vessels sailing all the seas of the Atlantic world. This was a material factor in the increase of the town's wealth, which was still further augmented by an ever increasing number of citizens buying shares in vessels. In 1806, 18,214 tons of shipping were owned in the Waldoboro Customs District, which bears comparison with 14,538 tons owned in the Wiscasset District. In 1815, directly after the close of the war, this figure had risen to 19,882 tons, and by 1820 the tonnage owned reached a total of 21,754. The extent of the town's shipping interest in these years is strikingly clarified by a comparison of the tonnage owned in 1820 in the different Customs Districts from the Piscataqua River to the St. Croix. The figures follow:3
District
Tonnage
District
Tonnage
District
Tonnage
Passamaquoddy
5508
Belfast
8128
Portland
33,619
Machias
3797
Waldoboro
21,754
Saco
3364
Frenchman's Bay
8005
Wiscasset
10,636
Kennebunk
8571
Penobscot
14,048
Bath
21,612
York
1326
Nearly everyone who had a little surplus capital bought shares in vessels. In fact, this field of investment seems to have played the same role in the local economy of the period as the Savings Banks in later days. The Ministerial Tax List for 18164 reveals a small
1Abstract of Returns by the Selectmen reported to the Legislature, Portland, 1829. 2Census Schedules, The New York Public Library.
3Annual Reports of Treas. Dept. on Commerce and Navigation. Figures compiled by Wm. H. Rowe.
4Original in possession of Mrs. Warren Weston Creamer.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
host of the town's citizens as owning shares in vessels, the many owning only a few, and the few more heavily interested. This roster of owners shows the surprising total of eighty-four owning shares, an ownership not limited to the village alone but extending to every part of the town.
This number of local shipowners quite naturally continued to grow with the expansion of the industry, but even in these early years it was sufficiently large to make clear the feverish partisan- ship with which the town followed the effects of the contemporary European wars on its maritime fortunes, and the degree of opposi- tion which it put up against the efforts of Jefferson's and Madison's administrations to avoid war by keeping American ships tied up at their home docks. The effect of world developments is as much a part of local as of national history, for their impact is felt as inevitably by little people in little communities as by the great folk in great communities. This was tragically true in the Waldo- boro of these days. The decisions reached in the chancellories of Europe were the determining factors in the economic life on the Medomak, and they were definitely not favorable. Every ship- builder, if he built at all, was compelled to face the possibility of loss from the moment any given ship entered dangerous waters; likewise the smaller owner of one or two sixteenths faced the loss of his property, and the skippers and crews faced definite hazards to life. Such was the state of affairs in the period from 1800 to 1815. In particular the years 1808 to 1812 were hectic and hazard- ous in the shipping business. Loss from the seizure of ships on the high seas was heavy; those tied up in port became idle and obso- lescing capital, and there was apparently little point to building more. As we have seen, an export trade totalling $20,100,000 in Massachusetts in 1807 dwindled to $5,100,000 in 1808, and the tonnage constructed this latter year was but a third of that of 1807.
Following these years of paralysis in the industry and in trade came the war years of 1812 to 1815, during which for a brief sea- son the traitorous policy of the New England Federalists led to the immunity of their shipping against British seizure. This honey- moon period, however, was of brief duration, and in the latter years of the war Maine coastal waters were one of the tight spots of the British blockade. Despite such unfavorable conditions shipbuild- ing never completely stopped in Waldoboro. The vital urge of the town's most enterprising men seemed only to slacken somewhat and to wait. There never was a year when there was not one or two vessels at least under construction in the yards on the Medo- mak. These builders knew the war would end some day, and they wanted bottoms ready for the great rush of trade that would inevi- tably follow the long years of smuggling, blockade running, and trade stoppage.
M
地设计
CAPTAIN JOSEPH MILLER
-
THE MAIL COACH ARRIVES AT MEDOMAK HOUSE (Dr. Packard's Gig at Hitching Post)
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The Beginnings of the Great Days
The peace following the War of 1812 came with dramatic unexpectedness. From 1815 and subsequent years party passion subsided; the old Federalist opposition crumbled and the country entered the "Era of Good Feeling." Long, peaceful years lay ahead. There was a great uprush of trade which carried a chal- lenging call to the shipbuilders. For the country as a whole, exports rose from less than $7,000,000 in 1814 to $82,000,000 in 1816, and imports from less than $13,000,000 to over $147,000,000. A sub- stantial part of this carrying trade was in Massachusetts ships. There was great activity in the coastal towns and the minds of enterprising men were haunted by bright and pleasant dreams.
In Waldoboro the industry that had moved cautiously ahead from 1800 to 1815, now extended itself rapidly. No site on the river offering a location for the construction of a vessel was overlooked. Wherever from a steep or sloping hillside the rains of autumn, or the melting snows of winter or of spring ran down in little brooks to the river, and wore out a guzzle through the mud beds to the channel, there was a likely site. In fact, it is still said among the old folks that "wherever there was a guzzle there was a shipyard."
Data are scarce on ships and shipbuilding in the period before 1830. This is due largely to the destruction of the early Custom- house Records in the fires of the mid-century, and naturally the early builders and the location of their yards is now beyond the back-reach of hearsay or tradition. But yards there were and the scattered evidence makes the location of some of them a reasonable certainty. On the east side of the river the first shipyard was directly north of the lumberyard of Alfred Storer and from it vessels were launched in a northwesterly direction up the river. Here Joseph Clark, one of the greatest of the Waldoboro build- ers, began his operations early in the 1830's. Whether this site was used for a yard earlier in the century is not a matter of present knowledge. It is said that Mr. Clark built his first vessel, a topsail schooner, in 1829 in the cove next south of the Storer lumber- yard.5 This was certainly the site of one of the early yards and it was located on the guzzle back of the present Benner livery stable. The property was a part of the original farm of the Razor family, and this section of it was sold in 1795 by Charles Razor to John Matthews.6 Who preceded Mr. Clark in this yard is not a matter of certainty, probably a number of builders, for the yards were not only used by the owners, but were leased for short periods, such as for the construction of a single vessel.
The next yard down the river was in a runway directly behind the present Button Factory, a site that in later years has
5Samuel L. Miller, History of Waldoboro, p. 254.
"Lincoln County Register of Deeds (Wiscasset, Me.), Bk. 50, p. 9.
144
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
been filled in and now forms a considerable embankment. Here also was a guzzle to the channel worn out by the brooklet that still runs to the river in wet seasons across the property of Mrs. Jane Matthews Brummit.7 This land in the early century was the property of John Matthews, but it is not known to whom he may have leased or sold it. Next southward was the Kennedy yard, still familiar to old-timers by reason of the rotting hulk of the old Henry A., which came to rest there from her final voyage around 1900. Built in 1851 she had kept to the seas for a full half century. I clearly recall the day when she stood up the river, light, on an autumn afternoon, her dingy hull standing high out of the water, and the dirty grey of her old sails silhouetted against the green and golden verdure of the western river bank, a reproachful ghost bearing youthful memories of the Great Days, returning now to her sleepy home port and her final berth by the same wharf where she was fitted out for her first voyage.8 "The old Henry A." was the only Waldoboro ship that ever came home to die.
The Kennedy yard was located on the original farm of George Kuhn. It is impossible to say whether General Kennedy was the first to use this site for shipbuilding purposes, but it was here that he began his career as one of the town's great shipbuilders in the same year that his cousin and erstwhile partner Joseph Clark began construction farther up the river. The names of the early Kennedy ships are not now known. The first of which evidence is shown in any of the Customs Records was the schooner Columbia, built in 1837. For forty-eight years, through the Great Days and on into the Decline, Henry Kennedy continued to build ships, up to the day of his death. It was in the year 1875 that he and Joseph Clark weighed anchor and stood out on their last voyage.
The fifth yard on the east bank was the cove west of the house built and owned by Solomon David, where a little guzzle makes out to the channel, worn by seasonal freshets from the ad- jacent hillside. This farm was owned in the early century by John Kinsell, possibly John Friedrich, the Frederich Kinsell who was collaborating in the enterprises of Captain George Smouse around 1800. He had cooperated with John Paine in shipbuilding at Broad Cove in Bremen and may have built vessels himself in this yard. The next yard on the shore was on still another guzzle which wormed its way out to the channel on the present lots of Edward Genthner and Earl Spear.
From this location there is no record of further yards on the east bank, until the site of the old Light's Ferry. This was at the junction of the farm and the lot next north now owned by Merle Castner. The more northerly lot in these early days was owned
"Oral narrative of Mr. John Gleason.
8Observed from the west window of the old Grammar School room.
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The Beginnings of the Great Days
by Ludwig Castner, and the farm next south, now the Castner Homestead, had been acquired in 1812 by Ludwig's son Anthony. Here on the site of the old ferry, where the channel makes in close to the shore, shipbuilding was started in the early century by Anthony Castner and his son Gorham. Among the vessels built in this yard were the Bertha, named after Anthony's only daughter, the New World and the Globe, the latter a schooner of one hun- dred and three tons built in 1815. The other two vessels were con- structed between this year and 1812. There are still a few evidences of the old site consisting largely of eyebolts rusting in the rocks.
In those days a boardinghouse was a common appendage to a shipyard. It was run by the builder for his workmen and near by this yard on "the sand ground" in Merle Castner's field was such a house. With the suspension of building on this site the structure was taken down and the timber used in the construction of the residence of the late Earle Day.9
Considerably less is known of the ownership and operation of the yards on the west side of the river. In later years such sites extended from the yard of William Fish, located between Smouse's wharf and the bridge, all the way down the river, side by side, to below Storer's Point, with a scattering of yards farther down the river to the yard of John Stahl (1778-1857), located on the shore of the present Herbert Stahl farm on Dutch Neck.10 How many of these later yards on the west bank were the sites of shipbuilding before 1830 would be a matter of speculation. There were unques- tionably a goodly number of such, and none is more certain than the yard used later in the century by Reed and Welt. Up to 1806 this site was the property of Captain George Smouse and after 1808 came under the control of Colonel Isaac G. Reed, who mar- ried Smouse's widow, Jane Kinsell. Since the Reeds were not among the earliest builders it is probable that this site was leased to Colonel Reed's brother-in-law, Captain Charles Miller, and con- sequently may have been the site on which his fleet of vessels was built.
He was certainly the most active of the earlier shipbuilders, for the Morosco, a one hundred and ninety-six ton brig built by him in 1836 was his twenty-fourth vessel. This being the case, the major part of his fleet must have been built before 1830. It is also a strong probability that in these years vessels were built at Storer's Point and in the old yard of Captain Cornelius Turner immediately north of the old wharf where Thomas Creamer built small boats in the late century. In a word, it may be said that shipbuilding was being carried on in Waldoboro prior to 1830 in at least a dozen yards.
9Oral narrative related to Mrs. Anthony Castner by Gorham Castner.
10 Narrative of Linda Stahl Lord, daughter of John Stahl.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
The architecture and rig of these Waldoboro vessels followed the conventional types of the period. Of the known vessels con- structed locally between 1800 and 1830 there were eleven brigs, one brigantine, thirty-four schooners, five sloops, one ship and eight of unknown rig. The brig was the favored rig for deep-sea vessels, for they were more easily handled than full-rigged ships, and were less costly to fit out. In the main the vessels constructed in these years were small by comparison with later ships. Of the sixty and more known names of vessels there are tonnage records for twenty-nine. Of this number five were under one hundred tons; twenty-one under one hundred and fifty tons and only three approached the two-hundred-ton measurements. These were the brigantine Two Brothers, built in 1801, of one hundred and seventy-six tons, the brig Francis Miller, built in 1819, of one hun- dred and seventy-four tons, and the brig Calliope, built in 1822, of one hundred and ninety-one tons. Perhaps larger than any of these was the ship Adeline, built before 1824 and the only ship of which there is any record of being built at Waldoboro before 1830.
The building of a vessel in these days was a matter involving considerable time. If the structure was sizable the better part of a year was required. The lumber, spruce, pine, and oak, came from the forests of the township or from the back-country districts where trees of the proper shape and size were selected by the builder, cut in the late fall, hauled by oxen for many miles over the snows of winter, and piled up in the yards to dry and season. All these materials were fabricated by hand with the broadaxe, the whipsaw, the adze, and the pod auger. The timbers were framed much larger than those used in a vessel of similar size later in the century and were carried to their place on the shoulders of the workmen. The planking, instead of being sawed in the mill yard was all done with the whipsaw in the old-time saw pit. Iron being scarce, no more was used than required by bare necessity, and the treenail (trunnel) was the main device holding ships together. These treenails were made with the broadaxe from white-oak blocks, such work being done usually under cover on stormy days. The unescapable minimum of bolts and spikes used in shipbuilding were forged by hand in the yard blacksmith shops. Likewise the threading of all screw bolts was done by hand in the yard shops.11
In general it may be said of these early vessels that their frames were not laid down in accordance with drawings or blueprints. The master workman laid out each piece to fit its proper place in the frame. After the keel was laid, the stem and stern and stern- posts were set up first and the framing was begun amidships. The carpenters worked from sun to sun. In Waldoboro they came
11Geo. F. Dow, The Sailing Ships of New England, Series B (Salem, Mass., 1928).
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The Beginnings of the Great Days
from the village area and a few from the deep back-districts, going into the yards before breakfast on the long summer days and knocking off at sunset for a late supper. Each workman received his grog, or a portion of rum, at eleven in the morning and again at four in the afternoon. Some of these carpenters were boarded by their employers12 and in periods of great activity a dollar a day was the standard wage. In slack times men would work at repair and odd jobs for half this amount.
The launching of a vessel was a community event. The en- tire countryside would turn out for the spectacle, or perhaps for the rum which was commonly served by the builders. The chris- tening was crude and unique. A man would set astride the tip of the bowsprit and as the vessel moved along the ways he would call out the ship's name and usually take a deep draught from a bottle of rum before dashing it on the bowsprit.
The names of these early Waldoboro shipbuilders are clouded in a good deal of obscurity. Probably the leading figure among them was Captain Charles Miller, the son of the immigrants, Frank and Anna Miller. He was born in Waldoboro on November 5, 1772, and died in the same town on November 26, 1846. Reared on the home farm he moved to the village and in 1806 bought a part interest in the northeast of "the four corners," where he en- gaged in business with Henry Flagg in a general store. Achieving success and accumulating capital he began shipbuilding, probably in the old Reed and Welt yard. Here by the early 1830's he had built a fleet of twenty-five vessels and retained sole ownership in a large part of them. Among the vessels known to have been built by him were the Francis Miller, the Susan Miller, the Fannie Miller (named after his second wife), the Charles Miller, and the Morosco.
Among other early shipbuilders were Frederick Castner, William Sproul, John Kaler, Jr., Samuel Nash, Reuben Miller, William and James Groton, B. and J. Eugley, and William Matthews. These were some of the men who did the spadework in the yards along the river, and who proved by experimenting with ever larger and larger vessels that mighty ships could find their way down the contemptible little guzzles to the channel of the Medomak and thence on to the far-flung oceans of the globe.
These were the days when American sailing ships were mov- ing on to supremacy on the seas, and the pioneer spirit was still rife in cabin and forecastle. Life on these vessels was crude and hard. Hardtack, corned beef, scurvy, iron discipline, "the cat," reefing and furling aloft in utter darkness in the worst of weather, were all a part of the life and trade of "the gang before the mast," and they went from Waldoboro by the scores and hundreds.
12 At least in the Castner, Clark, and Stahl yards.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Waldoboro skippers captained Waldoboro ships and Waldoboro seamen manned them. Such labors called for the courage of the earlier frontier days, and Waldoboro men still possessed it. The thrills, the daring, the danger, the wrecks, the deaths at sea, the courage of widows and children carrying on somehow at home when the long-awaited family breadwinner failed to return, are now a part of old forgotten sagas. Only here and there in the columns of ancient newspapers is there the briefest reference to these tales of suffering and loss. A few such notices follow:
Arrived. Captain Burns of the schooner Longammon of Waldo- boro fell overboard last night about 10:30. He was about 45 and owned the vessel.13
The brig, Flora - Farnsworth, from Truxello for New York went ashore near Great Egg Harbor Inlet, the morning of the 24th, of Oc- tober, and would be lost. The crew was taken off by a passing schooner and landed at harbor same evening. It was thought the cargo would be saved. The Flora has since bilged and been stripped.14
Port of Thomaston - schooner Waldoboro from this port bound to Mobile with lime, put into Darien the 4 inst., having been on fire nine days, put in to repair damages.15
On Sunday last Captain Beth picked up the longboat with master and crew of schooner, Garland. Capt. Winchenbach of and for Waldo- boro. He was upset in a squall at 8:00 P.M. the preceding evening, Seguin about 18 miles distant. They saved themselves by taking to the boat. The next day at 4:00 P.M. they spoke the schooner Fair Trader, of Waldoboro bound for Boston, the Captain of which was requested to go in pursuit of the Garland. On Sunday P.M. they overtook the Garland, cleared her and towed her into port, - rigging and sails saved. The Garland was a new vessel launched about four weeks since and cost about $4,000.00 - no insurance. Captain J. Winchenbach and crew returned thanks to Captain Beth and crew of the schooner Carpenter of Bath, for their humane generous and gentlemanly conduct to them while on board said schooner, and for saving them while in their distressed and perilous situation.16
Prior to 1830, Waldoboro vessels in the main were not sail- ing the seven seas, but they were most active in the coastal trade and were frequenting every port of the North Atlantic, West Indian, and European waters. The long trips around the Horn and to the Orient were first essayed by the larger ships of the following decades. Here again in these earlier years we catch glimpses of the restless comings and goings of the little Waldoboro vessels from the columns of the early newspapers. These furnish suggestions of ships battling through the heavy surges of the North Atlantic, or white sails on the lazy and more quiet waters of south- ern seas. A few excerpts follow:
13The Northern Border, Bangor, Maine, May 10, 1813 (Capt. Alfred Burns). 14Christian Intelligencer, Wiscasset, Me., Nov. 6, 1829. 15The Recorder, Thomaston, Me., Oct. 25, 1838. 16Maine Inquirer, Bath, Aug. 12, 1825.
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The Beginnings of the Great Days
At New York. Brig Charles Miller - Davis of Waldoboro. Forty days from Bordeaux.17
Cleared Gibraltar - 20th Sept. Brig Charles Miller, Davis of Waldo- boro for New Orleans.18
At New Orleans - Pandora, Elwell of Waldoboro for New York.19
Arrived at Cowes Sept. 29th. Brig Montano, Creamer of Waldo- boro for Santo Domingo.20
At Pensacola. Brig Charles Miller - Gay of Waldoboro sailed for New Orleans.21
Arrived at Boston, July 22, Ship Charles Kaler, McIntire of Waldo- boro from New London.22
Coasting craft arrived at Boston, Fair Lady, Waldoboro, Resolution, Waldoboro, Nancy, Waldoboro, Ex Bashaw, Waldoboro.23
This latter report from the year 1808 provides us with a glimpse of the Waldoboro-Boston trade, the products of the town and back-country being poured into the metropolis to be ex- changed for goods for the growing town itself, and for it as the trading center of the back-country, a trade which grew steadily in volume so long as the back-country had an exportable surplus, and thereafter a trade which fed the great and growing industry on the Medomak. Of the lucrativeness of this early trade an in- sight is furnished by two trips of the sloop Independence, William Farnsworth, master. Two trips were made to Boston, November 1st and December 4, 1815. The sloop carried 1511/2 cords good wood, 485/8 cords of cordwood and bark, which netted the owners $403.56. At such a rate of profit the sloop would easily have paid for herself several times in a single year. This case, however, may not be taken as entirely typical, since these trips occurred at the end of the War of 1812, when export stocks would have accumu- lated in considerable mass by reason of the long blockade.
The most famous of the Waldoboro vessels of these early days was the hermaphrodite brig Roxanna, and the most famous Waldoboro captain was perhaps her skipper, Joseph Miller. He was an indefatigable seaman, a shrewd businessman, and his ven- tures from the sea such as to secure him financial independence while still a comparatively young man. He was born at Waldoboro in 1786 or 1787 and was of the second generation from the line of the immigrant, Peter Mueller. He came up the hard way and as a lad of sixteen took to the sea. The papers of the schooner Bartholamy, one of Captain George D. Smouse's vessels, contain this entry: "Joseph Miller enter'd on Bord schooner the 30th day
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