USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 22
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Good-bye John
June 12th. At noon weighed anchor; at 2 P.M. a fine breeze from the south, which gave us a fine run out of the bay of Mejillones; at 4 P.M. all clear of the land. At Mejillones forty-five days. Cargo 1900 tons of guano. We are bound to Queenstown, Ireland, for orders-hope it will be Liver- pool. May God speed us on our voyage.
On the passage to Cape Horn southeast winds and heavy head seas proved disagreeable, followed off the Cape by strong gales and a high sea. Thirty-four days out:
Saw Cape Horn bearing about N. true, twenty-eight miles distant; saw a large number of birds, albatrosses and cape pigeons, which is a good indica- tion of being near the land. Long snow squalls. (Next day.) Strong gales from southwest with continual squalls of snow and hail. Weather some cold, the ship's rigging being covered with ice and snow, things have quite a wintry aspect.
July 29th. Moderate breezes from SSW. and fine weather. We now have had steady good weather for a week, with all sail set most of the time and smooth sea.
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VESSELS AND VOYAGES OF THE EMERSONS
This pleasant part of seafaring life continued, and one day the deeply laden ship ran 194 miles in the southeast trades with a gentle rolling swell; no icy sails to be reefed or taken in and quickly furled in bitter cold squalls as off the Horn. Came fine sunshiny days ending in varicolored sunsets as evening dusk met brilliant starry nights, the con- stellation of the Southern Cross enshrined in almost cloudless sky. Many sailors were rough unfeeling men, but there were finer types among them who were brought into closer relationship with nature and God, by sudden strange contrasts of the universe and knowledge of the sea, for:
Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery. -LONGFELLOW
August 15th, North Atlantic Ocean. Latitude 2º 29' N. Brisk breezes from SE. and fine weather. At 1 P.M. crossed the Equator in longitude 27° 28' W., sixty-three days from Mejillones and twenty-nine from Cape Horn. (23rd) Calm, calm; last part a light breeze from NNE. which I sup- pose is the beginning of the 'North East Trades.' A full-rigged brig in com- pany. Fine weather, smooth sea. (24th) At noon signalized a large iron ship hailing from London. His longitude was the same as ours- 27° 05'- to a mile. (September 11th) Ninety-one days out. Moderate breezes from south and very pleasant weather. Signalized English bark Vale of Nith, from Val- paraiso for England. Saw a large American ship bound west, she looked good as we have not seen a Yankee ship for so long. (12th) Fastnet Rock 910 miles distant. Fourteen vessels in sight, all in company. (29th) First part, fine with light breezes from E; middle, breezing; last part, a moderate gale from NE. and rough sea. Took a Cork pilot from boat; ship Mary Goodell, of Searsport, in company. At noon about eight miles distant from the land near the entrance of Baltimore harbor.
Capt. J. B. Emerson
Gardiner September 5th 1871
I notice all you say in regard to your cargo being short of what you had a right to expect and which in justice belonged to you. You can take any course you deem advisable in the matter, only I should not like to get the ship into an expensive litigation in a foreign port. In regard to business for the ship you will please use your own judgement. . . . I am pleased to inform you that our friend Captain Cowell is very much pleased with your pro-
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ceedings and you know Captain Norton always is that way of thinking. Trusting you may have continued prosperity. P. G. Bradstreet
After a passage of 109 days the ship had been ordered to Liverpool. The controversy there over the cargo may be explained by stating that the guano was furnished by Henry Meiggs, a notorious swindler who fled from San Francisco to Peru where he became prominent and wealthy. In New York, D. B. Dearborn acted as the ship's agent in charter parties.
Friend Emerson
Gardiner October 23rd 1871
I am sorry to have to write you that Capt. Cowell has sold out his interest in the Valley Forge to Capt. J. Wood, late of Whitefield, who intends to go in the ship. ... I wish to say there is no dissatisfaction with you in this matter, as it is only on the condition of his buying an interest that he goes in the ship. Robert Norton
From Liverpool Captain John sailed for Tybee for orders and later relinquished command to Captain Wood. For another decade John sailed the seas in command of several tall ships; but 'the old Valley,' as he called her, always loomed large in his recollections of seafaring days.
The ship continued in the Far East trade until the 'eighties, when she was sold to San Francisco parties and hailed from there in coastwise trade. Bark-rigged in 1890, she put in at San Francisco in distress, hav- ing been partially dismasted in a wintry squall. The master and part owner, a Scotchman named James Davidson, placed his mate, J. J. Ben- nett (a Maine man), in charge until the end of 1891. Then in poor con- dition she was laid up in San Francisco Bay, and continued to deterio- rate until the tide ebbed and flowed through the hull. Patched up, she was towed across the harbor to Sausalito and broken up for the metal in her. Thus ended the Valley Forge, unhonored even by an ocean grave.
CHAPTER XVI
THE FORE-AND-AFTERS
A MONG seafarers the general acceptance of the term fore-and-aft rig is a two-masted schooner, but this chapter ends with an account of a larger type of the same rig, a three-master. Of the former class may be mentioned the Dancing Wave, constructed in 1858 at Hodgdon's Mills, and a few others.
In February 1862 the schooner, commanded by Alfred R. Bennett, sailed from Portland for Havana, and when nearing her destination a waterspout was seen approaching close aboard. It passed with a rush and roar, overwhelmed the vessel and left her a dismasted helpless wreck. The mate, Daniel Bennett, twenty-five and a brother of the master, was knocked or lost overboard and was seen drifting away on a spar from wreckage. The boats were gone, and nothing could be done to rescue the unfortunate sailor.
The hot sun of the tropics created a thirst, which soon exhausted a scanty water supply, and the four survivors suffered extremely. After eight days of a wretched existence, they were taken off in mid-March by the brig Francis Jane and landed at San Juan, Puerto Rico, thence took passage home in schooner Minnesota.
Later a bark passed the wreck near enough to read 'Dancing Wave' on her stern and reported both masts gone, bulwarks stove and the vessel full of water. Probably she carried lumber; for in June, although fired to destroy her, the water-logged derelict was still afloat.
The Julia Baker was constructed at Hodgdon's Mills by Charles Murray for Nehemiah Baker of Georgetown, the principal owner and master. The schooner was named after his wife. Two years later he died (1862), and the command devolved on his son-in-law, Francis Low of Georgetown. Later it was learned that his vessel had been captured while gathering oysters off the Virginia Capes, and that Captain Low was in Libby prison. He was transferred to Andersonville, and in 1865 died in prison. It is said the schooner was used for a time as a blockade runner. She was either recaptured or restored, for from 1865 to 1877 Byron Baker commanded her.
In 1881 the Julia Baker was rebuilt, and became noted for the mys-
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
terious death of Captain John O. Lewis and the piratical act of the mate afterward. The schooner now hailed from Boothbay with Cap- · tain Lewis, one of the local owners. During the winter of 1883-84 he sailed for the firm of Warner, Merritt and Company, a Philadelphia firm interested in fruit trade. In the spring business was dull, so the vessel was chartered at New York to carry flour and other cargo under deck and pine lumber on deck to a West Indian port. The crew was composed of Henry Walker, the mate; Theodore Karlson, a Swede; one or more colored men and a small, dark-featured Portuguese named Peter Gomez. He was shipped on Walker's recommendation as a for- mer shipmate and a good cook and steward. While loading, the Mary E. Webber, Captain Gilman Hodgdon, lay near by and the masters met frequently to talk over old times at home. He had a poor opinion of Walker and so informed Captain Lewis. Both agreed that the best and safest way was to have a known and reliable man as second in com- mand, but Walker was allowed to retain his berth. As the ties were cast off, Captain Hodgdon bade his friend farewell, apparently in good health and spirits. Captain Lewis was thirty-eight, with a rugged consti- tution and the courage which a seafaring life develops. After going to sea, that was the last heard of the vessel for a month. Meantime Captain Hodgdon had sailed and returned. He said:
I sailed a day behind the Baker and went to Baracoa, Cuba, in ballast for a load of fruit. We loaded bananas and coconuts and started back with a good breeze across the Old Bahama Channel to Crooked Island passage. At the entrance of the passage, near Castle Island, I saw a schooner running on the course for Baracoa. As soon as I saw her I said that if the Baker had not gone to Guadeloupe, I should call her that, sure. As we got nearer I saw that it was the Baker. We were beating up the channel and she was run- ning free, so I did not get a chance to speak her, and I proceeded, greatly mystified. I knew John had no business that would call him so far out of his course, and I could not understand why he should pass the Webber, which he would know on sight, without trying to signal us. When I got to New York I reported the matter.
This information interested the Philadelphia agents, who had won- dered what had happened to the vessel, and a strong suspicion of foul play and piracy was aroused. Doubt increased with the arrival of the
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THE FORE-AND-AFTERS
Annie D. Merritt, Captain Kelley having heard that the Baker had been boarded off Baracoa by a pilot who inquired for Captain Lewis; that the mate pretended to be the master, but that the pilot was not deceived.
In August the mystery was clarified somewhat by the unexpected arrival of the missing vessel at Key West. Walker was arrested and the crew detained. The crew, questioned by port authorities, stated their belief that the master had been poisoned by the mate and Gomez, the principal in the affair, who thereafter kept the mate intoxicated. At one of the islands Gomez had deserted. Karlson testified that the sea- men had no part in the piracy, and that the steward pretended to be the owner of the vessel. He continued:
One day I saw the old man at the wheel. He appeared to be suffering and said he felt sick. I offered to take the wheel, but the captain said he could hold on a little longer. The same day, through a window of the cabin, I saw Gomez give him something out of a black bottle. When he came out the steward said, 'He won't live long now.' In half an hour the captain tumbled off the chair and died. We afterwards hunted for the black bottle, but could not find it. It must have been thrown overboard.
The steersman related that he saw Captain Lewis and heard the conversation through the open cabin window aft. The 'old man' had not been well for several days, but had been about his duties as usual. After drinking something the mate or steward gave him, he fell while attempting to go on deck. Lewis groaned, and asked for something to relieve him, and they gave him a reddish fluid. The master immedi- ately put his hand to his stomach and cried out, 'Oh, my God, give me something to drink!' A flask containing a whitish liquid was placed to his lips, and he died in less than five minutes without speaking.
The death occurred in the forenoon, about four days out and off Bermuda; in the afternoon the body was inclosed in a canvas bag and, seemingly without ceremony, thrown overboard. The mate main- tained he was motivated in this unseemly handling by several of the crew, who feared sickness from putrefaction. It seems that an innocent man would have touched at Bermuda to inter the remains, but perhaps the mate feared meeting the port officials.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
Meantime Gomez had made his way to Nassau, where he lived in more or less concealment among negroes under an assumed name. He · spent money like a drunken sailor, and in this way disclosed his iden- tity. Then he took steerage passage on the Ward liner Cienfuegos to New York, where he was arrested. Although his face blanched, he acted quietly and related his account of the happenings on the Julia Baker.
Captain Lewis had been taken ill the evening his vessel left port, and the mate gave him some medicine. During his four-day sickness Lewis called for brandy, complaining of pain in the chest. The mate supplied it, and the steward attended to his wants, so he said. After the master died, the mate took charge and steered for Long Key, disposing of part of the lumber there. Other islands, barren Orange Key, Inagua and Fortune, were visited and more cargo sold. Gomez asserted he suspected something was wrong and decided to desert, and in fact did so in a fishing smack. In reality his narrative was worded to place all blame and responsibility on the mate, whereas the crew stated under oath that Gomez sold the cargo and made away with the proceeds. De- spite suspicious circumstances and probable poisoning of Captain Lewis, there was no direct evidence, and neither was tried on a murder charge. For conniving at unlawful disposal of cargo, however, the mate was indicted, convicted and served a prison term; likewise one of the crew, undoubtedly Gomez, who died in jail.
On account of a bottom foul with barnacles and marine growth the Julia Baker had a long passage to Philadelphia, where Captain Dennis S. Wylie was waiting to take her to Boothbay (October 1884). On board was a negro boy who had been with Captain Lewis and thereby at- tracted attention at the harbor. The schooner was sold to Bath parties, and later hailed from Bucksport in coastwise trade.
John Orrett Lewis was born at North Boothbay in 1846, and lived with his unmarried sister Caroline in a little white farmhouse by the road to Wiscasset. He too never married.
The Victor Puig was constructed in 1875 by James McDougall for command of Benjamin E. Pinkham, and was named after a Spanish merchant of Baracoa, the oldest seaport town in Cuba. The schooner was ninety-four feet in length and carried a mainsail of goodly size, hoisted from a mainboom nearly fifty feet long. Captain Pinkham was
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THE FORE-AND-AFTERS
thirty, and then married Abbie, a daughter of Captain Westbrook Lewis. After the wedding the Victor, as if in honor of the bride, ap- peared in the harbor in a new suit of snowy sails and resplendent in white paint. The bridal pair boarded the vessel and sailed away to load for the West Indies. The return cargo was fruit, and for many years the schooner was employed in West Indian trade, part of the time between New York and Puerto Rico. Occasionally she touched at historic Porto- bello, visited by Columbus and twice captured by the English. In the seventeenth century it was the great mart whence Spanish galleons sailed with the rich commerce of Chili and Peru, frequently to become the booty of valiant Englishmen.
In a winter trip from Miragoâne to New York the schooner, under a Captain Sherman, was twenty-seven days north of Hatteras with off- shore winds and heavy weather, during which the deck load of logwood was lost (1879). Captain Pinkham rejoined his vessel, and on sailing from Baracoa in June 1880 made the run to New York within ten days.
Millard F. Harris, previously in the Carrie Bonnell with T. J. Blos- som as chief mate, succeeded Captain Pinkham and entered the Victor in the Baracoa-Charleston fruit trade with Mr. Blossom as second in command. He continued with the vessel for a number of years as first officer and relieving captain. After five days' passage from Baracoa to Charleston in 1880, Mr. Blossom wrote:
We left Portland October 2d with a head wind, the third day out of port had a gale of wind from southwest which lasted two days, then it hauled to southeast and then to northeast and there it stayed for seven days. We never had mainsail set and for five days all the sail we carried was a two-reef fore- sail. I have seen some sea and wind in the short time I have followed the sea but never have I seen such weather as we had. The captain said it was the roughest passage he ever made. We had thirteen days from Portland to Baracoa and in that time we only saw the sun long enough to get three observations. Our crew when we left Portland consisted of three down- easters, one from Ohio, two Englishmen, a Pinafore cat and a ring-tail Seymour dog. The last named we discharged in Baracoa. While there the schooner Cayenne of Salem, Captain Gilman Hodgdon, Almon Dunton, mate, arrived. Our cargo consists of 45,000 coconuts, 1,000 bunches bananas and 10,000 oranges. We shall remain here ten or fifteen days. Captain Harris and wife are well.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
In the Boothbay Register (fall of 1881) 'W. T. G.' states that between Baracoa and Charleston the Victor Puig averaged eleven knots on a run in three days and fourteen hours. An interesting account of a south- bound passage also appeared in the Register, written by Alice Ballard Crosby, a passenger with her husband, Mr. Otis Crosby.
On board schooner Victor Puig, Lat. 23° 30', long. 72° 40', Atlantic Ocean, March 16, 1882.
We have a fine wind and are making splendid progress. The sun is warm, almost hot when it shines down unclouded, and the air is as balmy as June. Otis took a bath by standing in his bathing suit at one side of the deck and having the steward throw bucketfulls of salt water over him. I shall try it to-morrow. This all sounds very pleasant, but alas it hasn't been so all the way. We left New York Tuesday afternoon, March 7th, and as there was a fair wind and the day mild and bright, we got a fine send off and she sped along like a bird. The crew consists of seven men, of whom three are cap- tain, mate and steward; the others common sailors. Such vessels carry no passengers as a rule, but the captain let us have his room which is twice as large and four times as well-lighted and aired as any stateroom on an ocean steamer. The cabin is finished with hardwood, has oilcloth on the floor and is very neat. A nice pantry opens off from it besides several alcoves with berths and the captain's room. The sailors eat and sleep in the forecastle. Being the only passengers we are quite distinguished; and I, you see, am the only feminine aboard.
A heavy wind set in Thursday morning and lasted until Friday night. The Captain said he had not been in such a storm for over a year, and he runs all the time. Nearly all sail was taken in and we made almost no prog- ress. The vessel wallowed from side to side and pitched from end to end, it bounced and thumped and creaked and groaned. We shipped great waves that swashed about on the decks like a lake. Friday night the wind subsided in a big rain and Saturday morning we were again on our course with a fair wind and the waves subsiding. Saturday I began to eat at the table and be somebody, and to spend most of the time on deck. Sunday was a quiet day and we had a fine time reading. Monday another heavy south wind set in as bad as the first. It seemed as if old Neptune had a spite against us, but the storm subsided with heavy rain in the night, and such a night I hope never to pass again. The waves had a peculiar quality which they call choppy, a word which will give the nightmare whenever I hear it to the end
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THE FORE-AND-AFTERS
of my days. The sails snapped and slatted incessantly, and the tins and dishes in the pantry -just next our room-slam-banged against the wall and danced fiendishly in their cuddy-holes. In the morning we were lame, and every bone and muscle was sore from the mere exertion of keeping in our berths. But the storm couldn't upset our stomachs, and we were pro- nounced good sailors.
The happy days have come now. Yesterday we lay for a long time looking over the bow into the water. Just where it parts around the keel it is the most beautiful blue I ever saw, and is fringed with lace-like foam. Last night we were enjoying the starlight and noticed how the positions of the stars differed from what we see at home, we found, by looking in the wake of our vessel, a beautiful starlight in the water, caused by phosphorescent little creatures which we do not see by daylight at all. Nearly all the fore- noon we occupied ourselves examining the Captain's sextant, navigation book and nautical almanac. He explained a good deal to us and it was most interesting. Both Captain and mate are pleasant gentlemen.
At anchor in Baracoa harbor, March 19th.
We arrived here last evening at about seven o'clock. Were in sight of land as early as nine A.M. The coast is high and mountainous, and can be seen at a great distance. As we drew near it presented a most picturesque appearance. The mountains come down to the sea, and Baracoa is a red- roofed little town at their base, on the water's edge. My first glimpse of tropical vegetation was a row of coconut trees distinctly outlined at the top of a hill. Soon we saw the whole side of the hill was covered with coconut and banana trees, with the fruit hanging on them. The first sight of the green gave me a delightful sense of summer. The harbor is a little horse- shoe-shaped pocket. There are about eight vessels at anchor in it, mostly fruiters. One of them near us is taking on its cargo of bananas. I can see the great red bunches being handed over the side, and hear a man counting in Spanish with a sort of chanting drawl. This seems to me exactly like the Fourth of July. Everything has such a holiday aspect, bugle sounding martial calls from a fort on shore adds to the delusion, and the morning is as like a bright breezy 'Fourth' as possible. But, you see, it is Sunday instead, in the middle of March. The last four days of our voyage were days of idyllic peace and beauty. The water smooth and deeply blue, the sky bright, and the vessel skimming along under full sail with that quiet motion that is indescribably beautiful. A. B. C.
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الصـ
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
The following July Captain Harris returned home after a long absence, but in October rejoined his vessel at New York with Mr. · Tibbetts as chief officer. In December they sailed from Charleston with lumber for Kingston, and after a fine run of eight days arrived to find the city in ruins from a conflagration, consequently the cargo was in de- mand. Crossing to San Antonio bananas and forty tons of coconuts were carried to Charleston. Illustrative of this trade, Mate 'Jeff' Blos- som, who had rejoined the Victor, informs us that the vessel sailed from Baracoa in January 1884 with 106,300 coconuts, 2272 bunches of bananas; that on the seven days' run to Charleston a norther carried away the bobstay and fore hatch, broke the mainboom and stove the boat. After delivering a cargo of fruit for Christmas trade in Charles- ton, a pleasant passage to Baracoa followed, 'Jeff' writing home the ves- sel was 'to make two more trips and then go North.'
The following August the schooner lay in the harbor of Boothbay (1885). The Victor Puig now was painted black, as will be remembered by those who recall her spotless holystoned decks, varnished bitts and bright work. With fine lines and a trim jaunty appearance, she re- sembled a yacht more than a merchant vessel. And this recalls from boyhood days an incident connected with the vessel. Millard jr., son of Captain Harris, was the proud possessor of an Indian canoe obtained in a West Indian or Caribbean port. It was fashioned from a hollowed mahogany log and was long and narrow. On boarding the Victor from this ticklish craft his schoolmates would amuse themselves swinging to and fro on loose lines or halliards. Finally Millard went aloft to the foremast-head, and throwing a leg over the spring stay, head down- ward, went hand over hand to the mainmast-head, a feat that 'stumped' every boy on board.
In the fall of 1887 Captain Blossom took the schooner and followed the example set by the first master, for he married and sailed with his bride from Boothbay to load for Baracoa. As befitted a honeymoon, a pleasant trip with favorable winds and fine weather followed. Thence he made two round trips to Charleston with fruit. Captain Harris again took charge, and on a passage from Roatan Island the vessel was be- calmed in the Gulf of Mexico for ten days under a tropical sun. With exception of coconuts, the cargo of fruit was a total loss. The Victor
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THE FORE-AND-AFTERS
Puig was known among sailors as a lucky vessel, and since crews were well fed, seamen frequently reshipped. She sailed well and had no - major accidents or men lost overboard under Captain Harris, but in 1905 the once fine vessel ended her career in the ignominious character of a New York harbor barge.
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