USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 23
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When Captain Harris was three years old his father was lost at sea. With experience gained in fishing vessels the son, a master, entered the fruiting trade. A genial, sociable man, he made many friends among associates, who in 1887 tendered him a testimonial dinner in celebra- tion of thirteen years' service in the fruit trade, together with a beau- tiful gold medal engraved, 'Presented to Capt. M. F. Harris by his Charleston friends.' On raised gold it had a fine representation of the Victor Puig under full sail approaching a lighthouse, from whose tower a small diamond sent out a warning gleam over emerald-hued waves, represented by rippled green gold. Among other commands was the Leon Swift, and in 1895 Captain Harris entered South American trade in a large vessel. A bit later Millard jr. was lost with the battleship Maine in Havana. The Captain's health declined, and he died at Sail- ors' Snug Harbor in 1928, aged eighty. His son John Joseph was a naval lieutenant.
The Lewis A. Hodgdon was launched from the yard of Jacob G. Fuller for command of his son-in-law, Manley K. Hodgdon, who con- tinued in command for a few years. The schooner was 120 feet over all and cost $10,550. The vessel was lost under Captain Woodbury D. Lewis, who sailed with a full crew and two passengers. There was one survivor, and his narration of the shipwreck is embodied in the state- ment of an American consul:
Grand Turk, Turk's Islands, West Indies, Sept. 18, 1888.
That the said Samuel Holm, sailed in and with the said Lewis A. Hodg- don in the capacity of seaman from the port of Portland, Maine, laden principally with lumber and shingles and bound to the port of Grand Turk, Turk's Islands; that the vessel was then tight, staunch and strong; had her cargo well and sufficiently stowed and secured; had her hatches well caulked and covered; was well and sufficiently manned, victualled and furnished with all things needful and necessary for a vessel in the merchant
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service, and particularly for the voyage she was about to undertake; that she had generally fair weather until the evening of the first of September when she arrived at Grank Turk and cast anchor in the harbor, and at six P.M. a pilot came on board and remained there; that at five o'clock on the morning of the second of September a hurricane set in, the wind blowing heavily from the northeast; at about seven o'clock the anchor dragged off the bank and the vessel drifted out into the channel; all hands began to heave on the cable and about thirty fathoms were taken in leaving about six fathoms still out; the jib and forestaysail were then set to keep her head out of the wind; the forestaysail was blown to pieces and the crew en- deavored to haul in the rest of the chain but were unable to do so; the fore- sail was double-reefed and set and the vessel went around on the starboard tack, the wind still blowing from the northeast and the vessel drifting be- fore the wind toward the southwest; at about twelve o'clock the vessel began to heel over and the deck load went overboard; the crew tried to take in the foresail so as to ease her, but were not able to do so; at half-past twelve o'clock she went on her beam ends and all hands were holding fast in the main rigging; at one o'clock the vessel turned bottom up and all hands were washed overboard, the pilot and mate were drowned, but the captain, the steward and the two seamen clung to the wreckage; at about two o'clock the wind shifted to the southeast and this deponent was separated from the remainder of the crew; he was blown before the wind the rest of the day and during the night and until about three o'clock in the afternoon of the third of September; he found himself then about three miles off the North Caicos shore and finding he was about to drift past the land and be carried out to sea he left the wreckage and swam ashore, reaching the shore at about nine o'clock having been badly injured by the rocks; that he laid on the shore in an exhausted condition until about two o'clock on the after- noon of the fourth of September when he was rescued; that he has seen nothing of Captain Lewis or of the rest of the crew since they were sepa- rated on the day of the hurricane and this deponent verily believes they were all lost.
And the said Samuel Holm, upon his oath aforesaid, does further de- clare and say that he, together with the others of the said ship's company, used their utmost endeavors to preserve the said Lewis A. Hodgdon and cargo from all manner of loss, damage or injury.
Jos. L. Hance, U. S. consul Benj. C. Frith, consignee Samuel Holm, seaman
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The Starlight was built at Bath in 1868 either for or by Benjamin L. White. Josiah K. McIntire commanded the schooner, and off Cape Cod with wife and small son Liston encountered the short but memorable September gale of '69.
During a storm early in 1876, the vessel was driven ashore, but soon retrieved herself through a fast run of twenty-seven hours from New York to Norfolk. Freeman K. Reed was in command, and the following year after a collision one night his vessel sank in Chesapeake Bay. He was in his cabin and narrowly escaped with his life. The water was shallow, and the Starlight was raised, repaired and in October entered Boothbay in company with the Humboldt.
A winter voyage to the West Indies followed with a cargo of lumber and potatoes, disposed of at a small town on Cape Haiti, where a new wharf was crowded daily with natives curious to see the Yankee vessel and crew. In January 1878 Captain Reed proceeded to Port Liberty to load logwood. He wrote:
It is a very fine location, but the city is in ruins having been destroyed by an earthquake in 1842, and never rebuilt. The natives come from the Eng- lish islands of the West Indies and are very lazy. There are several barks in port and I received a call from Captain Arey of Rockland, brig Annie McLoon.
After arrival in New York the Starlight went to Baracoa for fruit, and on the homeward passage the vessel lay becalmed with all sails furled, and although the sea was smooth she rolled so heavily as to en- danger the masts. The next trip was to Maryland to load timber for Bath shipyards. The losses of American vessels had been very heavy the previous winter, and the yards were having a busy year. The American in coastwise trades still clung to his wooden vessel, but it is said that early in 1885 only three of that type were on the stocks at Bath.
The close of 1878 found the Starlight in Santo Domingo city, the first permanent European settlement in America. While there the remains of Columbus were discovered, mentioned briefly in the Captain's jour- nal that: 'He was buried in a lead box with his name on a silverplate outside and inside the coffin and the remains pronounced genuine.' This is verified in an excerpt from the National Geographic Magazine
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SAFE IN BOOTHBAY
On these romantic shores of Maine, where all is so wild and still, and the blue sea lies embraced in the arms of dark, solitary forests, the sudden incoming of a ship from a distant voyage is a sort of romance .- Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Pearl of Orr's Island
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that: 'Outside and inside were found descriptions which bear alike the name and the titles of Christopher Columbus.' Where the bones of the - great discoverer actually rested had been a much mooted question.
Logwood, mahogany, lignum-vitae, sugar and coconuts composed the cargo for a northern port. Captain Reed had increased his shipping connections, and a larger vessel was necessary for increased trade. He interested a number of his friends, and in the fall of 1879 the fine three- masted schooner S. P. Hitchcock was launched at Bath for his com- mand.
The fore-and-aft sails on schooners were better adapted to the Amer- ican coast than square sails on brigs, and displaced them in all coast- wise trade. As early as 1804 a three-masted schooner named Regulator sailed from New York for the West Indies and was said 'to sail astonish- ingly well upon a wind.' In 1812 a small three-master named Hazard was built at Bath by John Bosworth. It is likely that light square top- sails were carried at the fore similar to those of topsail schooners. In time the three-masters were superseded to a certain extent by the big four- and five-posters.
The three-masted schooner James S. Lowell, named after a promi- nent citizen of Bath, was constructed there in 1883 by Adams and Hitchcock. The November day of the launching dawned pleasantly and the shiny black hull, glistening in the rays of a noonday sun, slid down the ways gracefully into the Kennebec amid the plaudits of the townsfolk. Among those present was the family of the proud com- mander, Captain Freeman K. Reed. The managing owner was George W. Johnson, of Bath, her home port; the Boothbay owners were Cap- tains Blair, Emerson, Freeman Hodgdon and the master. Built for a general freighter, the Lowell registered 735 tons, but could stow 1100 tons of coal or 1300 hogsheads of sugar. Ready for sea, the total cost of the vessel was $37,210.
Ice was loaded at Bristol, and the new schooner was towed to Booth- bay, where she was viewed and visited by the master's friends. John W. Dow was shipped as mate, and in December the Lowell sailed for New York, thence made two round trips to Cuba to load sugar. With excep- tion of a few voyages to the River Plate and West Indies, the vessel was employed in carrying ice from the Kennebec to ports in the South. On
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summer trips the Captain's family frequently accompanied him. On a passage from Baltimore the Lowell narrowly escaped foundering in a - collision with the U. S. S. Tallapoosa, Lieutenant Commander John F. Merry, inbound to Newport for use of President Arthur and cabinet at the evolutions of the North Atlantic squadron. Said Captain Reed:
I was passing through the Sound on August 21 [1884], with every inch of canvas set, bowling along at about ten knots per hour before a strong south- westerly wind blowing almost half a gale. The night was dark but perfectly clear. When about two miles away the lookout reported a light ahead. Shortly, it was seen to be a red light and I said to the man at the wheel, 'Keep her straight.' I should like to say that from the time of the first sight- ing of the light until the collision occurred, I stood by the wheel all the time and the course was not altered until the lookout sang out that the green light was visible. Then, in order to avoid a collision and seeing that the steamer made no effort to get out of the way to avoid us, I ordered the helm hard down but before it could be done so as to bring my vessel to alter her course at all, she was on us and the two vessels struck each other, their stems coming close together. Our vessel's head glanced by the Talla- poosa and struck her fairly abreast the foremast penetrating the hull. After both vessels came to the steamer swung alongside the Lowell and all her crew might have jumped aboard us, but it was not thought then that the impact was so serious. The Tallapoosa drifted away from us and in about ten minutes went down head first. The night was clear, the lights of the Lowell burning all right and perfectly visible a long distance. It is the most careless piece of work I ever saw.
Captain Reed acted gallantly and promptly in the emergency; his first thought was for his family, who were placed in the boat and low- ered away, but were recalled when an examination disclosed that the schooner was in no immediate danger, though leaking badly. The pumps were started, the boats manned and ninety rescued out of com- plement of 140. A steamer saved the remainder except three. Daylight revealed that the terrific impact had carried away jib boom and gear, port cathead, split the stem and started the butts. The wreckage was cleared away, the foremast stayed and the wood ends stuffed inside and outside with oakum and covered with canvas. The vessel then got under way for near-by Vineyard Haven, where she was anchored in
deine
SCHOONER 'TOOKOLITA'
FREEMAN K. REED AND CHILDREN: KATE, FULLERTON, AND ELIZABETH
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shallow water. Later she was towed to Portland for discharging and re- pairs, but the Lowell was not rated so highly afterward.
A newspaper commented and stated:
The sailing vessel was seen and reported on the Tallapoosa fully fifteen minutes before the collision. This vessel had the right of way. The waters and the usual crowded condition were well-known to the officers of the Tallapoosa. The ship had the reputation at the Navy Department for get- ting into trouble and her officers have long navigated her as if they believed everything on the coast would give way for them.
A naval court of inquiry was held, at which officers and men of both vessels testified. Contrary to general expectation, the decision was against the Lowell. The press of the day made merry over the incident, intimating that some of the officers and crew of the Tallapoosa were intoxicated. Captain Reed's next trip was to Washington and his ar- rival, heralded by newspapers, found the wharf lined with people eager to see the vessel that sank Uncle Sam's warship. Curiosity likewise caused five ladies to call on the master. He visited the Navy Depart- ment, hoping the Government would seize the Lowell, for then he could take the case into a civil court and probably win. The officials were too wary for that; instead they accorded him every courtesy and presented him with numerous valuable charts.
The last of the year found the schooner in Portland, 'keeping Christ- mas shoveling snow,' wrote mate John P. Perkins in the log. Early in January she sailed with a cargo of lumber for Buenos Ayres, crossed the line twenty-six days out with all sail set and the log says:
February 18, 1885 comes in with light wind and fine pleasant weather and continues throughout. A few minutes past six P.M. we passed about twenty feet clear of our port side a large white patch about three to four fathoms under water. It had the appearance of white coral with ragged edges and although somewhat irregular in shape was about twenty feet square. The sea was perfectly calm over it and no break rip or anything to denote its presence. I am certain it had no life and was perfectly white except on the edges where it was darker. We passed it so quickly and saw it so late that we could not form an opinion.
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Two days later the water was discolored, and numerous birds were seen indicating the ship was off the mouth of a large river and nearing land. On the evening of Washington's birthday the Lowell arrived in Montevideo Roads, forty-five and a half days from anchorage to anchorage. The following day one of those furious pamperos, or south- west gales, which blow with terrific violence in and off the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, sprang up. The vessel, riding with both anchors ahead, rolled and pitched in the heavy seas and sheets of water literally were blown on deck by the force of the strong wind. The Captain wrote, 'We have had more water on deck to-day than we have had since the vessel was launched.' Later the Lowell proceeded to Buenos Ayres and tied up alongside a bark.
One of the pleasant features of a sea-captain's life in the old sailing- ship days while in foreign ports was meeting shipmasters from home and elsewhere. They visited back and forth on the vessels, dined on board or ashore, strolled about the port and paid their respects to the American consul, who frequently returned the call. When one of the fraternity met with an accident or was ill he was always sure to be well cared for by the others. While his pine and spruce lumber was being discharged, Captain Reed had the pleasure of meeting Captains Dodge, Albert and Lincoln Tibbetts, John Adams, Benjamin E. Pink- ham and Eugene A. Reed.
After forty-two days in port the Lowell sailed, and later spoke the American ship Chandos from San Francisco for New York. Captain Reed asked to be reported 'All well.' On May fifth, twenty-three and a half days out, the equator was crossed, the good ship having logged 3431 miles. In the North Atlantic the northeast trade wind blew stead- ily and strongly, and she bowled along on the 'Largest day's work the Terror ever done-264 miles,' wrote the mate. He found her hard to steer, hence a terror. The ocean is a vast open space, and for over a week no object whatever, with exception of birds, flying fish and por- poises, was seen. A log entry, 'Passed a small piece of board,' illustrates how a small unimportant thing attracts attention when nothing except sea and sky have been visible for some time. Finally the mountains of Martinique and Saint Lucia were sighted, and the course lay between the former island and Dominica, for the ship was to touch at Saint
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Thomas. There a diver examined the bottom for a leak, but it devel- oped later that it was in the centerboard casing. On arrival at Turks Islands for salt the mate records: 'A royal salute was fired in honor of Queen Vic's birth.' The passage to New York was uneventful.
In August the Lowell was in another collision, but not serious, and the master of schooner Jacob M. Haskell admitted being at fault. Ice was loaded in the Kennebec, and while discharging in Philadelphia Mate Perkins died suddenly. During the winter of 1888-89 Captain Reed made another South American voyage and comments interest- ingly:
This going to Buenos Ayres is a long tedious and, as a general thing, a very hot passage with a smooth sea and many calms. There are rainy dis- agreeable doldrums north of the equator, or between the northeast and southeast trade winds, where there seems to be a place or space of three hundred miles of latitude with heavy rains and calms and puffs of wind from all points of the compass which is about the same as a dead calm where one's vessel lies perfectly helpless at the mercy of the sea like a sick man. These calm days are very long and trying but we have to take the bitter with the sweet. I lead a lonely life at sea so far away from my children and home society and yet, of course, there are some things enjoyable about it at times. We have our narrow escapes and exposure to bad weather but we make new friends in foreign lands. I have enjoyed many afternoons and evenings with them and their families at their homes. Some speak Spanish, others French and German and most of them also speak English. Thus I learn many things which I never would know in my own country.
We also see the different habits and customs of other nations but for my choice give me those of our dear old New England, for I never have seen anything abroad that would induce me to change our mode of living. There is no port I have visited where men and women are so free and comfortable and can make so respectable a living with ease and freedom as in our old New England. Oh how good the name of New England sounds to me so far away from home and I think it does to all nativies who ever enjoyed a pleasant home with a good New England Sunday dinner of hot baked beans, brown bread and a home-made mince or pumpkin pie!
Most vessels have a hard, if not tragic ending, and the Lowell was no exception to the general rule. It is a coincidence that she sailed from Boothbay on her first and also on her last ill-fated voyage, loaded with
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ice on both occasions. It was in September of 1889 that Captain Reed bade his family, whom he never more was to see, a fond farewell, and sailed out past the Cuckolds and Damariscove, little thinking he was viewing the familiar scene for the last time. He was bound to Phila- delphia, and on the second day out his position was about twenty miles to the eastward of the Nantucket South Shoal lightship. The weather had been easterly with fog since leaving the harbor and it settled into a severe nor'easter. On passing the dangerous shoal the foresail and mainsail were double-reefed and the vessel put before the wind. Day- light of the tenth broke upon an angry sea and a heavy wave washed away the boat from the stern davits. The gale increased to a hurricane. The old mainsail in use carried away in an unsuccessful attempt to heave to, and the vessel scudded under double-reefed foresail and jib. The Captain, not in his usual health, came on deck about nine o'clock in the morning and was holding on to the after part of the cabin when he saw a heavy following sea rushing upon them and about to poop the stern. He shouted to the mate, W. H. Merritt, who was steering, 'Look out! It's coming.' With a quick glance astern the mate observed the im- mense wave come tumbling down upon them and instantly entwined his arms between the spokes of the wheel and hung on for dear life for what seemed an interminable time. The heavy sea made a clean breach over the cabin onto the main deck. When the wave which submerged him ran off through the scuppers the mate found himself alive and looked for the Captain, who was neither in sight on deck nor in the raging sea. He had been washed overboard, probably at the mizzen shrouds where a fragment of his oilcoat was found caught in the rig- ging. Thus perished a gallant and God-fearing shipmaster. A sailor also was carried to his doom by the same deadly sea.
With the wheel smashed and steering gear rendered useless, the schooner was now unmanageable. She rolled heavily in the turbulent sea and to ease her the mate cut away one or more masts. The crew sought shelter on the quarter-deck and found some flour in the lazaret, which fortunately had escaped wetting. Thus they sustained life for two days, during which ten vessels were seen at a distance and after- ward the mate made the improbable statement that: 'One bore down upon us and set signals "short of provisions" and then went on her
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course.' The hours passed drearily, and under pounding seas the ship began to break up and when the upper deck beams washed away the - cargo of ice floated out of the hold. With the boats gone all seemed lost, when the wreck was sighted by the bark Havana which rescued seven survivors. The Lowell was abandoned about ninety miles off Cape Henry, and according to governmental hydrographic reports of wrecks and derelicts the schooner was reported twelve times, drifting hither and thither, but generally following the course of the Gulf Stream. In forty-seven days she drifted 1.310 miles, and was last reported October 30 1889 near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
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CHAPTER XVII
MARITIME ANNALS OF BOOTHBAY
A® BOUT May in the year 1622 Edward Winslow, in quest of aid for the Plymouth Colony, visited Damariscove and there found 'the fish- ing ship Swallow of London, England,' he wrote, 'which made her voyage at a place called Damarin's cove, near Munhiggen, some forty leagues from us north-eastward; about which place there fished about thirty sail of ships.' He was received kindly and, with the usual gener- osity of sailors, given without pay what provisions they could spare.
'[Daggett's Castle] is a perpendicular cliff, on the Westport shore, rising more than a hundred feet above the surface of the water. Here, as early as 1676, one Daggett, an Indian trader, used to moor his sloop beneath the precipitous wall, and carry on trade with the Indians on its summit; they lowering down their furs to him in his boat, and hoisting up his goods in return. Protected from sudden assault by this towering cliff-side, he called it his castle and painted high up on its surface a hand as a sign of amity.'*
From 1714 to 1720 fifty-four vessels landed Scotch-Irish emigrants in Boston, and in 1719 Philip Bass arrived in the Kennebec with 200 passengers from Londonderry. In July 1738 prospective colonists with familiar Boothbay names embarked at Port Rush, North Ireland, in the leaky ship Lime which put back repeatedly, fourteen refusing to proceed. Finally she arrived at Boston in November. Years later, in July 1793, the new Woolwich-built ship Commerce, Captain John Sav- age, arrived at Wiscasset with forty to sixty emigrants, mostly me- chanics who brought various kinds of machinery with them.
In December of 1741 a severe northeast storm occurred, and several vessels were lost on the coast. One, the Grand Design, with North Ireland emigrants for Pennsylvania, was cast away on an island to the eastward of Townsend, and many perished. It was an unusually severe winter, and of a large party that crossed to the mainland many died of privation and exhaustion in the uninhabited wilderness. The wretched survivors were discovered by Indians and later brought in by rescue parties from Pemaquid and Damariscove. Thus Warren, Damariscotta
* Maine Historical Society, 1879.
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and Sheepscot were settled in part; and a petition for a chaplain for Fort Frederick, dated at Pemaquid in 1742, was signed by Andrew Reed, Robert Wylie, William Fullerton, John McFarland, Robert Montgomery, William Moore and others.
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