USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 7
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SAIL AND STEAM PACKETS-SHIPBUILDING
Eastport and back to Bath in five and one-half days; stopped at Lubeck, Castine, Belfast, Owl's Head, Boothbay and Bath.' The Boston-Booth- bay fare was $6.50. From her construction, it must be inferred the Maine was unseaworthy and did not last long, but she was one of the first steamboats to churn the waters of Boothbay.
Sailing packets predominated between Portland and Boothbay until the first of July 1851, when the T. F. Secor, named after an early con- structor of marine engines in New York, began a triweekly service to Bristol and Damariscotta, touching at Boothbay. The steamboat, 210 tons, was commanded by Captain Joseph Stetson, thought to have been born in Nobleboro about 1827. She ran the next year, then the service was discontinued. Again sail power reigned, although there is mention in October 1854 of the steamboat Daniel Webster falling in with schooner Regular on a lee shore (Damariscove), passing a line and tow- ing her into Boothbay. During the 'sixties side-wheel steamer Charles Houghton ran between Portland and Waldoboro, also serving Booth- bay. A regular Portland-Boothbay service, through progressive efforts of Captain Alfred Race, was established in 1887 with the Enterprise, built in Wilmington, Delaware. With other boys in a rowboat, it was the writer's fortune to witness her first arrival at Boothbay in June, and all were puzzled at her appearance. Although a heavy roller in stormy weather, she was a successful carrier and operated under Captain Race for many years. She hailed from Portland as late as 1912.
Before the automobile so disastrously affected local steamboating, the principal route of communication to and from Boothbay was the beautiful inland Sasanoa waterway. It was named for an Indian chief who, in 1605, was thought to have traversed the way in a canoe on a visit to Weymouth's ship Archangel, then lying in the Kennebec. Champlain also, according to historians, passed through upper Hell Gate in an exploring pinnace the same year, and rounded the island now named Westport.
An old ship's account records that a sailor returning to Boothbay in 1846 paid 'for Passage from Bath 62 cents,' presumably by rowboat. Three years later a family letter related: 'The Phoenix runs twice a week from Bath to Boothbay.' Her class or rig is left to conjecture. For many years the usual mode of conveyance was by sailboat or a dory with
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sail, such as was conducted by Samuel Donnell; and to aid them against the strong current in upper Hell Gate, ringbolts were inserted in ledges along shore. Their remains may be seen to-day. Donnell was fol- lowed by Gilman A. Low, as per the following advertisement:
BATH AND BOOTHBAY! The Fast Sailing Pleasure Boat, RIVAL, CAPT. G. A. LOWE,
Having accommodations for twenty-five persons, will, until further notice, run between Bath and Boothbay, every day, touching at Georgtown, Westport and Southport, in connec- tion with the Cars and Steamboats to Boston, leaving and ar- riving, with the tides, at each of the Steamboat wharves alter- nately. Orders may be left with W. H. Mclellan, or at the Columbian House.
Passengers will be called for at any point on the route, by signalizing with a White Flag.
Bath, Sept. 1, 1865.
To Gilman A. Low belongs the credit of establishing the first regular Bath and Boothbay steam service, pioneer in the business eventually known as the Eastern Steamboat Company. The year (1866) the Star of the East was constructed, the small steamer Spray was launched at Bath, and on April 23rd made her first trip to Boothbay under Captain Low, manned by William Crooker, William Perkins and Edward Foot. Gross receipts for the season ending December 18 1866 amounted to $5292. The boat was popular from the first, and at the height of the season-August-in 1868, carried 1500 passengers and for the corre- sponding month the next year, 1416. To carry increasing traffic in the seventies Sasanoa and the smaller Samoset were constructed; the Spray was sold. At four-year intervals, beginning in 1880, the Sebenoa, Wiwurna, and Nahanada were added to the line. The largest was the Wiwurna, 101 feet in length. She was launched from the yard of Wil- liam Rogers in June 1884, to be ready for service the Fourth of July under Captain Low, and was a fast well-built steamboat with good passenger capacity. The company, whose boats were Bath-built, ap- propriately named them after Indian sagamores who roamed the forests and coast of this vicinity in bygone years.
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A few incidents relating to the steamers may be mentioned. In Aug- ust 1880, the Sebenoa's first season, she struck a large shark off Mouse Island, cutting it to pieces and entangling the propeller. After running for fourteen years, the Sasanoa came to grief in July 1884, striking a reef in thick fog. After passengers were removed by the Samoset, a rough sea in the Sheepscot stove in the cabin and she filled. The boat was salvaged. Melting snow caused a flood in the Kennebec in May 1887, and the tide ran so strong in upper Hell Gate that the Sasanoa, after a vain effort to force the narrow strait, returned to Westport to await a favorable tide. She was sold in the fall. During the administra- tion of President Benjamin Harrison he visited Bath, and a feature of his welcome was a river trip on the Wiwurna to view the shipping under construction along the waterfront. The otherwise festive occa- sion was marred by a heavy rain, and the President sought shelter in the pilot house with Captain Low. The gaily bedecked steamer's flags hung limp and lifeless. On return to Boothbay that evening the Captain and pretty Jessie Heal spent hours drying numerous soppy ensigns and pennants. It is said the only serious mishap the Wiwurna encountered, while commanded by Captain Low, happened above Bath in charge of a pilot. As she neared a narrowing of the river where the current ran swiftly, the Captain became apprehensive and spoke to the pilot. Soon afterward the boat grazed a rock, the shock jarred a man sitting on the bow rail overboard. He was drowned.
Years had passed with numerous marine engine improvements when, in 1863, the Wawenock was launched at Wiscasset, 'built ex- pressly for the route between Bath, Boothbay and Wiscasset.' Although she made trips to Boothbay, towing on the Sheepscot seems to have been her principal use. From time to time other steamboats plied the pleasant waters of the Sasanoa, Sheepscot and the harbor islands of Boothbay. Among them may be mentioned the side-wheeler Belling- ham, the first to make Kennebec excursions to Boothbay-a source of wonder as she passed through Townsend Gut with shores lined with people to view the interesting sight. Another old-timer was the ninety- footer Henry Morrison, built at Williamsburg, New York, 1854, Edgar McClintock master. The handsome Islander with fine lines, built a year before the Wiwurna and rivaling her among steamboat admirers, a
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
smaller Islander constructed locally, the rebuilt Samoset, renamed Damarin, the more recent Boothbay, Southport and Westport-all · have come and gone. The Winter Harbor, last of the old-time boats to run, ploughed the waters of the Sheepscot for years until finally forced out of business by motor-car competition. While laid up at a Wiscasset wharf in 1932 she filled and sank. The Spray was reduced to the status of a herring boat, and recently revisited local waters.
About 1897 the new Bath-built steamship Lincoln was the first and only one to run directly and regularly between Boston and Boothbay. A large, fine ship, she had commodious accommodations, but the serv- ice was discontinued and the Lincoln sold to Southern parties. Since it was thought that name might prove unpopular there, it was changed, and during the winter of 1909-10 the steamer foundered in a storm off shore. All narrowly escaped with their lives.
SHIPBUILDING
The development of shipbuilding at Townsend or Boothbay arose from the necessities of its early settlers; first for fishing, secondly for freightage and packet service, and finally for growing importance of West Indian and South American trade. Numerous protected inlets provided good harborage and shipyard locations. One of the earliest settlements was at Sheepscot on the river of that name, and there about 1675 William Phips, afterward knighted and a royal governor of Mas- sachusetts, built a vessel which was utilized by settlers in escaping when the hamlet was ravaged by Indians. Many other small vessels, including the Jolly Roger, were built on the river in early days. Bluff-bowed craft they were, but stanchly built of oak from virgin forests. An English record gives the names of three sloops, from forty to fifty tons, con- structed at Townsend in 1763, and in the report of the capture of Fort Pownal in 1775, Major Edward Emerson stated that the several vessels seized there were built at Boothbay.
Before the Revolution the cost of shipbuilding was low, varying ac- cording to materials used; the expense of constructing a ship at Wis- casset in 1802, composed of yellow-barked oak, birch, maple and beech, was about forty dollars per ton ready for sea. Shipwrights' wages, then and there, were $1.33 per day. After timber had been felled in the
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forest, generally in wintertime, it was thoroughly seasoned; the heavy oak keel was laid down and steam-bent white oak ribs planked with at least three-inch oak plank. Hackmatack or white oak was used for knees and locust for treenails, called trunnels. A copper-fastened ship rated higher than one fastened with iron, although both materials were used. The vessel was thoroughly salted between ceiling and outside planking. In fact so many ships were built that by 1855, a very prosper- ous year in wooden shipbuilding, there was a scarcity of white oak in this section. Early the next year seven cargoes of timber, from extensive forests in Ohio, were sent from New York to Kennebunk for shipbuild- ing. The East Boothbay-built Gloucester fisherman Carrie W. Babson was constructed of Ohio white oak, with cabin finished in oak, ash and walnut. The expedient of building a brig of one-inch oak plank of seven thicknesses was tried about 1787 and, as she was a regular trader twenty years later, a brig named Milo was constructed on the same plan at Norwich in 1807. She was said to work well and sail fast.
Various expedients for sheathing wooden vessels' bottoms have been tried, but nothing has ever equaled copper. Leather sheathing was first tried on a schooner named Eliza, but was found impracticable in 1824, as barnacles adhered to it to an astonishing degree. In 1829 a ship- of-the-line was put on the stocks at Van Dieman's Land, to be sheathed with india rubber. Zinc also was used on an English vessel. New Maine- built brigs, for West Indian trade, were often sheathed with light boards which, after a few voyages, were stripped off and replaced with copper. It was expensive but worth while. When in 1861 bark Windward was coppered to the bends in Bristol, England, 1150 sheets were required. The process was to apply a layer of coarse linen or felt to the planking; then copper sheets, usually measuring forty-eight by fourteen inches, were nailed down upon it. Lloyd's always rated a copper-bottomed ship higher. The process came into general use during the last half of the eighteenth century; the Bounty, famous for the mutiny in 1789, was coppered.
Ships of the period of 1800 had yellow sides, red bottoms and white figureheads; a derelict in 1834 was reported with nine painted ports on each side and a fore-and-aft yellow streak divided by a black one. The figurehead was an officer's bust with cocked hat and epaulets. The deck
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was painted red. A derelict topsail schooner the same year had a twenty-foot quarter-deck, high waist and a white arch molded on the stern. Within the writer's recollection old coasters with ornamented sterns, some with Masonic emblems, put in at Boothbay. As a rule the older the vessel the more elaborate the carvings. For instance, the fol- lowing is an account of a wreck in Florida in 1843:
About twenty miles south of Indian River bar, a portion of the stern of a large vessel was found a short time since on the beach, with several planks and some spars, all badly charred by fire. The carved work in part was entire, consisting of a half-size Indian figure occupying its centre, to the left of which was a deer, standing upright, a tree, from which was suspended a quiver and three birds, wigwam, canoe reversed, paddle, tomahawk, spear, bow and arrow. The dress of the figure was red and gold, the ground work of the ornaments white and gilded. ... The carved work of the billet head was also found, consisting of leaves, in the midst of which was an Eagle ready to take wing.
In 1786 Wiscasset citizens petitioned that it be made a port of entry, on the plea that it was the largest shipping centre in Lincoln County and that it was inconvenient for masters to go to Boothbay by water or difficult wood roads to enter and clear their vessels. Later the request was granted, with Boothbay part of the marine district. In 1800 nearly thirty square-rigged vessels, totaling about ten thousand tons, were owned at Wiscasset. The marine district tonnage increased to 14,538 in 1806, and to 17,672 in 1811; but fell off during the War of 1812, then increased greatly. In comparison with later built vessels these were of small tonnage, and the largest merchantman afloat at New York in 1823 was the ship Splendid, of between six and seven hundred tons. When, in 1832, Clapp and Boynton launched the copper-fastened ship Sarah, 476 tons, she was the largest vessel built at Bath since 1815. The method of determining a ship's tonnage at that period was the Colonial mode, called old measurement, which continued until the close of Civil War days.
In 1832 the average life of American-built vessels was estimated at thirteen years. A noteworthy exception was the True Love, built at Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1764; a privateer, appearing in 1851 as an Arc- tic whaleship owned at Hull, England, also in 1873. In this connection
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the Boothbay schooners Brilliant and True Republican, constructed in 1835 and 1849 respectively, each had a life of about sixty-five years.
Most of the early Boothbay vessels were built at Bristol and else- where; of those constructed in town, the locations and builders are now unknown. In a French Spoliation claim John Murray McFarland de- posed that he 'was well acquainted with the value of vessels having built and been the owner of many.' They perhaps were constructed on the site of the marine railway, for he was the owner of that and adjoin- ing property before 1800, with his fishing stand and wharf on the shore inside Harbor Island.
Early in the nineteenth century a determined and successful effort to build locally was made by David R. and James Adams, brothers, who established a shipyard on protected waters at the southern head of Oven's Mouth. The firm built a number of fishing vessels, topsail schooners and in 1838 brig Tecumseh. Several years later John Mc- Dougall, a native of Nova Scotia, took over this yard and built a bark, several brigs and smaller craft. The launching of brig Onward in the fall of 1852 marked the passing of this yard, for the water was too shallow for the ships he planned. Therefore McDougall removed his scene of operations to Hodgdon's Mills, now East Boothbay, where he built ship Wanderer and other vessels. His larger undertaking was un- successful, however, and he failed with an unfinished ship on the stocks and timbers ready for another one. The latter were used in construct- ing bark Gan-Eden on the eastern side of Boothbay harbor, near where the byroad from Sprucewold meets Atlantic Street. The incompleted ship was purchased, finished and launched at Hodgdon's Mills by the Pattens of Bath. Named Ivanhoe, she was the last square-rigged vessel Boothbay yards produced. James McDougall, later partner of William Seavey, succeeded to his brother's business. They were experienced shipbuilders.
The McDougall yard was used by the shipbuilding firm of Andrew and William Adams, who before had built near by. The brothers were nephews of D. R. and J. Adams. A. and W. Adams's first vessel seems to have been the big pinky Only Son, in 1831. The firm's career covered a score or more years, and they built numerous fine vessels. William Adams and Son, also descendants, continued the business. All in all the
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Adams family played a very prominent part in local shipbuilding. The Lincoln County map, 1857, lists the shipyards at Hodgdon's Mills, following the shore southward, as Caleb Hodgdon's, the McDougall yard, William and James Seavey's spar yard and that of William Mur- ray. The Hodgdon yard had then existed for nearly thirty years, and the business he founded was carried on by descendants with credit to themselves and the community. Others who built on the river were Benjamin Reed, whose name was borne by one of his vessels, Levi Reed, Samuel and Charles Murray. Jacob G. Fuller had a yard in the vicinity at the head of Linekin's Bay. There, before the Civil War, he built the Foaming Billow and continued the business into the 'eighties. Toward the close of the century Rice Brothers built a number of yachts; and the old shipyards, whence lofty ships slid down the ways into their native element, are now used for boatbuilding.
In the 1850's the principal shipyards at the Harbor were those of Stephen Sargent and John W. Weymouth. The former was on the small point of land northerly from the later location of the Eastern Steam- boat Company's wharf, built out from part of the site of the Weymouth yard. As boys Stephen and Charles learned their trade in the yard of their father, Edward B. Sargent, on the eastern side of the Harbor. After constructing numerous fine vessels Stephen Sargent moved to the en- virons of Portland to build the well-known barks of the Lewis fleet. To a certain extent at the local yard Moses R. White was associated with him.
Weymouth was noted as the constructor of the fast-sailing ship John G. Richardson. In the summer of 1857 Captain John B. Emerson bar- gained for the construction of a vessel with approximate dimensions of the bark Gan-Eden, constructed that fall but not at the Weymouth yard. In part the shipbuilder wrote:
John W. Weymouth has agreed to build . . . the hull and spars of a Barque of the following dimensions: Length, one hundred and seventeen feet; Breadth, twenty-eight feet six inches; Depth, eleven feet six inches, for the sum of thirty-eight dollars per ton. Measurements computed on the above specified dimensions. To be built in a good and workmanlike manner and of good materials of the kind following:
Floor Hard wood or Oak, toptimbers one-half White Oak and one half hackmatack, or the whole white oak and no hard wood to come above light
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water mark, the stem and stern to be of White Oak. Floor to be planked to light water with hard wood and from light water to the wales Oak. Wales to be white oak. Beams and ceiling hard pine. Ceiling on the floor to be yellow birch or hard pine three inches thick. Ceiling from the floor heads to the deck, hard pine from eight to five inches thick and to be square fast- encd. Deck plank to be three inches thick merchantable pine. Said Vessel to have hanging Knees and Breasthooks, both forward and aft and to be butts and bilge bolted with copper and to be copper spiked. After and for- ward house to be suitable for a Vessel of that size and to be in every way satisfactory.
Locally the construction of square-rigged vessels reached high water mark in 1854: two ships, a bark and two brigs totaled about 3000 tons. While no square-riggers seem to have been built in the 'sixties, many fine schooners were launched, including the E. K. Dresser at the abandoned Sargent yard.
The Cyrus Mckown yard occupied the space a bit south of and in- cluding the present site of Charles Kenniston's store and easterly to the water. A diary item dated June 4 1867 reads: 'Pleasant and warm. The vessel called Old Chad launched to-day across the road, a great number out to see it-had a clambake. Vessel went off nice.' Constructed of ex- cellent materials and workmanship by John Holton, master builder for McKown, she was a beautiful schooner with fine lines and propor- tions. His brother William and Jeremiah C. Holton also were ship- wrights.
Returning to Oven's Mouth, Washington Reed had a small yard on the eastern shore where he rebuilt the pinky Two Brothers and con- structed the Arrow, Edith or Maggie May, and the Wild Rose. The Arrow and the May were hauled on rollers by oxen from his home to the shore. Fishing craft were built also on Hodgdon's Island.
Sails for the square-riggers of the 'fifties were made at Joseph W. Taggart's sail loft at Wiscasset. About 1858 A. J. Plummer and Daniel W. Sawyer began sailmaking at Boothbay. The firm of Sawyer and Plummer did a good business with fishermen for a decade, then sold out to an experienced sailmaker named James C. Poole, who was fol- lowed by his brother Eben.
CHAPTER VI
THE TOPSAIL SCHOONERS
T HE Diamond was a topsail schooner of ninety-odd tons owned by Jacob Auld, Joseph McCobb, James and John Fullerton and James Holton, mariners, all of Boothbay. Built there in 1818, the vessel was commanded first by James Fullerton, who employed her in West Indian trade. His last voyage in her was from Port of Spain, Trinidad, to Norfolk, thence in April of 1825 to Montego Bay, on the northwest side of Jamaica. He returned to Boston in June, and then took com- mand of schooner Hannah and Jane.
Thereafter the Diamond was engaged in coasting, with an occasional southern voyage, until she was lost off Boothbay under command of a Captain Holton, probably James. The schooner left Owl's Head on a midsummer morning in 1829, bound for Cape Cod. The weather was rough and foggy, and after twice misstaying while attempting to wear, she ran on the ledges of Pumpkin Rock and remained fast. The crew of two men and a boy hung to the rigging for two hours, and when the tide ebbed all were able to reach the rock. Later they were taken off and landed at Boothbay. Captain Holton had been in the coasting trade for twelve years, and this was his first disaster. The vessel, a total loss, was stripped and the anchors, sails and rigging auctioned off by John McClintock at the store of Colonel Jacob Auld.
The Enterprise, constructed at Alna in 1825, was owned at Booth- bay by David R. Adams, N. T. Knight and William Reed. The schooner hailed from Wiscasset, captained by James Fullerton. A brief account of one of his voyages soon after taking command in 1826, found in an old shipping protest, follows:
After a voyage to Jamaica the Enterprise sailed from Boston in No- vember for Pointe de Fer, near Barataria, Louisiana, the old-time haunt of pirate Jean Lafitte, where Fullerton arrived after a forty-day pass- age, without incident except the loss of a boat in a gale. With him were the brothers Augustus and John Auld and Daniel Durant, Boothbay sailor lads. Augustus, then about twenty-three, was lost at sea in 1851.
On anchoring eighteen miles off shore they found two other vessels, brig Union and schooner Prudence, also bound for the same destina-
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tion. The next day a pilot appeared and took the vessels within five or six miles from the point, where they anchored in two fathoms of water. The master and John Auld used the small boat to sound out a nearer passage to the land, but found the water too shallow. On landing at the point, a bottle enclosing a letter from the collector of customs at New Iberia was found addressed to one Gill, to whom the cargo was con- signed. The cargoes of the other vessels seemingly were consigned to him also, but since he neither appeared nor could be found the three masters offered their cargoes to two men associated with Gill. They, however, did not feel empowered to act, and refused acceptance.
Christmas came and found the vessels idle and waiting. At midnight of the following day a heavy off-shore gale sprang up which blew the water out so far that at low tide the vessels were left careened on the flats. After waiting ten days in vain for the consignee to appear, the captains consulted on board the brig and decided that it would not be feasible to land their cargoes without lighters. Therefore, on New Year's Day of 1827, the Enterprise sailed for Mobile, where Captain Fullerton entered a protest. How the affair ended is unknown, but it illustrates the trials and tribulations of a shipmaster in port.
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