USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 8
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In May Captain Fullerton arrived at Bath via New York. After a few more trips, while bound for Saint Croix, the Enterprise was wrecked in January 1828, on Tobasco bar. The crew were saved, but vessel and cargo were a total loss.
Topsail schooner Katherine was constructed at Hodgdon's Mills in 1827 by Caleb Hodgdon. She was owned by the builder, his brother Tyler and Clark Linekin, her first and only master. Of goodly burden and build, the vessel not only visited West Indian waters, but early in 1830 crossed the Atlantic to Bordeaux.
In the fall the vessel was loading at New Orleans for Marseille. Yel- low fever was prevalent and Captain Linekin was not well, neverthe- less he sailed, and the fifth day out, October 1830, died of fever and was buried at sea. The mate took charge, and on Hallowe'en the Katherine struck on a reef near Dog Island in Apalachicola Bay, and with the cargo became a total loss. Nine years later a revolving light was erected on the west end of the island.
In the previous decade Captain Linekin had sailed for the Hodgdons
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as master of their pinky Defiance and topsail schooner Ruby. In the latter he arrived at Norfolk in the spring of 1825, nine days from Grenada via Turks Islands. On Thanksgiving Day the same year he was married at Boothbay to Catherine H. Lewis, a village belle of nine- teen, after whom his last command was evidently named.
A long-lived vessel was the Julia and Martha, a typical old-time coaster whose bluff bows buffeted the seas for about seventy years. The schooner was built by David R. and James Adams at their yard on Oven's Mouth waters for command of John Pinkham 2d, and was named after two of his daughters. Owned by the builders and Benja- min Pinkham, she was launched in midsummer of 1833. Rigged as a topsail schooner, she was employed as a coal and lumber carrier, al- though West Indian voyages also were made.
During her long career the J. and M. met with the usual vicissitudes of the sea, necessitating rebuilding her in 1851 and on other occasions. Several of these incidents are available. For instance, in March 1845 Captain Pinkham grounded his vessel at Edgartown, and in the fall put in at Boothbay with the schooner half full of water, having struck on Isle au Haut the day before. In June the next year she sailed from Wiscasset manned by Captain Nathaniel Pinkham, David McKown, Isaac Pinkham, George Brewer, all of Boothbay, and one other. On a summer-time passage in 1847 from Pictou with coal for Providence, southwest head winds were encountered, and during a heavy squall a man was lost overboard, also the boat and the foretopmast carried away. Another disaster occurred in the fall of 1855, when the schooner went ashore on Hog Island Ledge below Portland, leaving her in bad position on rough rocks. She came off the next night at high tide, but was found somewhat hogged and the keel badly chafed. Again the vessel was rebuilt. Late in 1888 the J. and M. arrived at Grand Manan water-logged. It was thought that her sailing days were over and that she was ready to give up the ghost. Not so. The old vessel was repaired and in commission at Calais as late as 1901.
For almost forty years the coaster plied in and out of Boothbay, owned and captained by local mariners. In the early 'sixties Andrew McFarland was the owner and master. Later in the decade Jacob
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THE TOPSAIL SCHOONERS
Toothaker was managing owner. He had her rebuilt; and a few years afterward a change of ownership took the vessel to Calais for a home port.
The topsail schooner Texas, named after the then Republic of Texas, was built at Nobleboro in 1839 for Thomas Hodgdon of West- port and Allen Lewis of Boothbay, and was commanded first by Charles Reed. One of her early voyages was to Mobile in January 1840. Dur- ing the summer Captain Reed made two trips to Georgia for timber for Bath shipyards. Then he took command of brig Abigail.
In the fall Captain William S. Emerson bought into the Texas for a coaster, and sailed from Boothbay for New Orleans with hay, lime and lumber. The crew consisted of Samuel M. Reed, mate and brother-in- law of the master; Alexander Wylie Reed, a brother of Samuel; An- drew Emerson, George Giles, Charles and Chandler Ayer. It is thought that Joseph Reed also was on board. A run of 116 miles was made the first day, followed by one of 176. The Hole in the Wall and the Double Headed Shot Key were sighted, and a few days after clearing the Bahama Banks the voyagers were abeam of the numerous mound-like ridges of white sand, swept up by the influence of wind and tide, com- prising the several islets called the Dry Tortugas, which lie some sixty miles to the westward of Key West. 'Tortuga' is Spanish for tortoise or turtle, as numerous sea turtles frequent adjacent waters. The sand- mounds are called 'Dry' in distinction from reefs awash at low water. Twenty-five days brought them to the mouth of the Mississippi, which they ascended slowly in November.
The population of New Orleans at that time was 102,000, including 23,000 slaves. A chronicler, writing in 1838, stated:
New Orleans has been rated as the third city of the Union; but she is in reality the third only in population, and second in a commercial point of view. Her imports are exceeded now only by New York and Boston, and her exports are nearly triple any port of the United States, except New York, which New Orleans exceeds one-third.
While the Texas was in the Crescent City harbor in December Joseph Reed, either on the schooner or some other vessel in port, died in his twenty-second year. He was a grandson of Captain Joseph Reed.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
The port was crowded with shipping, and not obtaining a cargo, the Texas took her departure in ballast, leaving the river by the southwest pass which came in vogue in 1837, when the northeast pass shoaled up, and was used until 1850, when its sixteen-foot depth became too shal- low. Captain Emerson proceeded westward along the low-lying coast of Louisiana to Atchafalaya Bay for freight. The homeward passage started in January 1841 from Raccoon Point, the western extremity of Isle Dernière. Thirty days out Boston Light was passed, and a week later she sailed for Boothbay, welcomed home after an absence of four months.
Alexander Wylie Reed continued in the Texas and on a Saturday in December 1842, sail was made in the harbor of Boothbay and she stood out to sea bound for Rhode Island with lumber and firewood. Strong west breezes and cold weather were encountered the first night out, and spray froze on the deck load. The light sails were taken in the fore part of the night, the foretopsail reefed and mainsail double reefed.
Cape Cod was sighted at nine o'clock Sunday morning, and as the wind hauled to the north the schooner fetched up to the land between Nauset and Chatham late in the afternoon. A severe nor'west squall struck the vessel and the mainsail was taken in. The schooner was kept before the wind, with an experienced sailor named Kent at the helm. It was blowing very hard, and Captain Emerson decided to run out the southern channel. He shaped the course to clear the shoals, and scud- ded for an hour under reefed topsail, foresail and jib.
As the gale and sea increased the master thought it advisable to lower the foresail and reef it. Accordingly he ordered Alexander to aid him, and the latter hastened below for a reef plat. They went for- ward and lowered away, the sail blowing hard against the fore-rigging. As Alexander got hold of the peak downhaul, a heavy sea swung the vessel off her course. The wind took the foresail aback, and instantly the heavy boom jibed over, sweeping the lad overboard. Captain Emer- son ran aft and hove over some wood to aid him. The vessel, reeling off eight or nine knots, left the unfortunate sailor far astern, seen mo- mentarily on a rising sea. Kent put the helm down, but before she could be brought to with nothing but head sail on, they lost sight of him in the gathering darkness of a wintry night. Nothing more could be done,
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THE TOPSAIL SCHOONERS
and they sadly filled away on the course. The sailor, aged twenty-one, was the youngest child of Alexander Reed.
A girl, Nancy Boyd, wrote:
It is just such a day as it was that poor Alexander was lost, it is very cold and blustering. The last time I saw him he was down to the schoolhouse to a spelling school and I went up to Mrs. Emerson's and he went home, and the next morning he sailed and the next afternoon he was lost and we did not hear of it 'til three weeks after that. I hope the poor fellow is better off than he was in this wicked world.
On board at the time was Thomas B. Farmer, lost in the memorable April gale of 1851. Other seamen of the Texas lost at sea were James Love and John Ellingwood Lewis, Andrew Emerson, and John Q. A. Kennedy, drowned in the harbor of Boothbay, aged seventeen. The mate, S. M. Reed, after a colorful career as master, was lost with the Dresden.
The various mates of the schooner, brave mariners all, had spellings of their own and their entries in the log book run thus: 'Drifted on the Beech with boath Anchors Ahead,' and at New York 'a schooner car- ried away the four yard by Axident.' Merrimac is spelled Marymack and a laconic entry at Savannah reads: 'Capt. and crue gon to church,' followed on arrival in Boston on Sunday, February 25 1844: 'All gone to Mr. Taylor church.' Taylor was the famous sailor-preacher of whom much has been written. Times were different then, and our grand- fathers were more religious than the present generation.
For four years Captain Emerson employed the Texas in freighting hither and thither along the coast from Maine to Texas. Numerous Boothbay lads received their maritime training on board. On a passage from Boothbay for Richmond, Virginia, with lime loaded at Lubec, the crew list contains the names of J. W. Pratt, mate; William J. Emer- son, William Kelley and John Jackson. Five days out (March 31 1844) the log book records:
This [day] begins with Light Variable winds, thick weather & heavy sea. Course WSW., wind ENE. At 12 Noon set the Maine Saill; 2 Reeft; at 11 P.M. took in Maine Saile, the wind Blowing a Compleet gail & the sea make- ing a fair Breech over us & setled the Top sail down; saw a Number of saile Lying too. So ends these 24 hours.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
A safe arrival followed, and the next year found Captain Emerson in command of brig Olive Branch.
About Christmas 1850 the Texas lay at anchor in Portland, riding out a severe nor'easter. That night brig Hudson drifted against her, stove in the schooner's bow, and she foundered. The crew reached the brig. The hull was an impediment to navigation, and to clear the harbor channel it was raised. In 1868 the Texas was sold in Portland for $2700. Rebuilt on two occasions, she remained in service for many years.
The Westport, eighty-five feet in length, was built at Boothbay in 1845. Because of her size and topsail rig, the schooner at times was listed as a brig. First the ownership was vested largely in Andrew Adams who, with his brother William, probably constructed the vessel at Hodgdon's Mills.
The schooner, during a life span of ten years, had a number of masters, including John Kent, John Reed 3d and James A. McCobb. Captain Reed succeeded Captain Kent in January of 1847 and voyaged from Wiscasset to Matanzas with Samuel Wylie, mate; Robert Welsh, Joseph Lewis, Marshall Reed and Benjamin Reed, boy. Marshall, a light-complexioned youth, was lost at sea the following year.
Captain McCobb was the last master. On a winter trip from Wil- mington for Maine the vessel encountered such heavy weather and head winds that she was blown off the coast thrice, suffered loss of boat, part of deck load and split her mainsail. Finally he put in at Boothbay in January 1855. The following March the Westport sailed from Boothbay for Georgetown, South Carolina, and was reported seen with loss of foretopmast. Captain McCobb made Norfolk in distress, re- paired and on arrival at Georgetown loaded lumber. Soon after sailing in April the vessel sprang a leak, and despite all efforts at the pumps it became necessary to abandon her. The schooner Z. Secor saw their plight, took off all hands and carried them to New York.
The derelict was reported by two vessels, one the Annapolis, as hav- ing been on fire. The last of July the Westport was sighted again and reported without masts, water-logged and stripped. She was described as having a white streak around her, a billet-head and a high quarter- deck.
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The Oregon was constructed at Boothbay in 1850. Of full model, the schooner was seventy-eight feet in length. The name had been a popu- lar one for vessels on account of the agitation in Congress of the 'Ore- gon Question' regarding our northwestern boundary. The topsail schooner was employed in coastwise trade with occasional southern voyages by Captains Lewis, Greenleaf and John E. Race.
A few incidents reveal that she was an unfortunate vessel. In 1853 while bound from Gonaïves with logwood for New York a part of the deck load was lost in a severe January gale off Cape Lookout. The fol- lowing winter she again lost part of her deck load of lumber, boat and galley in a severe storm. Bound for Bath, she put in at Holmes's Hole with sails split and otherwise damaged. On leaving Bath she had to make Newburyport on account of a collision. On a summer passage with coal the Oregon encountered a heavy nor'wester thirty miles off Montauk Point, and in the twinkling of an eye gusts of wind carried away jib and foresail. The vessel labored heavily, sprang a leak, and to prevent foundering twenty tons of coal were thrown overboard.
Early in January of 1859 the Oregon, commanded by John E. Race, sailed from Boston for Boothbay in ballast, and a few hours later ran into a heavy snowstorm, a wintry blizzard. Captain Race, after con- sulting with his crew as to the advisability of remaining out in a light vessel, decided to put back, a decision in which the crew fully con- curred. The darkness of a winter night fell upon the waters, however, before they could make the harbor, and in blinding snow the Oregon went on the rocks at Cohasset, and soon went to pieces. The bowsprit, projecting over the beach, offered a chance of escape as the heavy waves receded. One by one the sailors crawled out to the end of the jib boom and dropped or jumped as each receding wave bared the beach. In this way all were saved except a Boothbay boy named Gilman Farnham, who was lame and hesitated in making the jump. He was caught by an incoming sea and drowned.
Since the topsail schooner rig is obsolete it may be explained: Each mast was made up of two spars, the lower foremast somewhat shorter than the lower mainmast with their extreme heights equalized by a longer foretopmast. Like the later type of schooner the foremast had a fore-and-aft foresail with the essential difference that it also had square
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sails. Aloft were three yards which carried a foretopsail and topgallant- sail with no sail bent on the lower or foreyard, identical with the main- mast rig of a brigantine; but a topsail schooner's mainmast was fore- and-aft rigged.
CHAPTER VII
THE ARGONAUT VESSELS
In the brave old years Of the pioneers, When the Golden West was born, They spread their sails And fought the gales Around the frozen Horn.
And when at last The storm was passed And the Cape behind them lay, They headed straight For the Golden Gate And San Francisco Bay. -D. N. LEHMER.
T HE Mary Ellen was a small full-rigged brig constructed at Boothbay in 1849 for the fast-developing California trade. Although of full model, her draft of thirteen feet enabled her to sail fairly well on the wind, but under a hermaphrodite rig later she did even better. Her most noteworthy voyage was to San Francisco, one of numerous Argo- naut vessels in the eventful days of the Forty-niners.
A shipmaster in 1848 wrote in part:
In running for the harbour of San Francisco, it is best to make the Far- ralone Islands and from there steer ENE. by compass for four or five leagues. .. . The entrance in spring and summer is very much obscured by dense fogs - a dangerous approach. From the southwest point to the old Mexican fort is about three miles, then opens up a deep and spacious bay. .. . The best anchorage is at a place called Yerba Buena.
On arrival in the summer of 1850 the natural and beautiful harbor was crowded with sail, old and new; of the former class were the Anne, once a privateer of 1812, and ship Merchant, Captain Emerson, from New Orleans. Later the Mary Ellen voyaged to the Sandwich Islands, returned to San Francisco and later still sailed for Australia, thence made for the North Atlantic. In 1857 the brig was owned by Thomas Freeman, and was in commission a decade later.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
In the days of the Forty-niners a small group of Argonauts from Lincoln County, nineteen all told, formed a company. to make their fortunes in the new El Dorado of far-away California. Enthusiastic and hopeful for the future and little realizing the suffering and danger of a Cape Horn voyage, they embarked in December 1849 in a stanchly built schooner of 102 tons, built that year at Damariscotta by Abner Stetson. The vessel had been named Damariscove after the historic isle at the entrance of Boothbay.
The schooner was commanded by Captain Talbot, and his mates ranked in the order named, Thomas Hall, Charles Berry and William Curtis. Other members of the company were Josiah and Daniel Mal- lice, John Little, Joseph and Harvey Hiscock, Lyman Chapman, Wil- liam Hatch, Alexander Weeks, William Fullerton, Lewis Tuck, Reu- ben Hall and William Kenniston. The last was a native of Boothbay, aged forty-three. In a long letter to his wife he has left to posterity an account of a voyage now of much interest. William Curtis was a native of Pemaquid, and as a boy witnessed the Enterprise-Boxer naval action. He followed the sea, and had been shipwrecked on the California coast previously. Lyman Chapman was born at Nobleboro in 1816. Sixteen of the company were formed into four watches of four men each, and each watch served four hours on deck. Of the rest one acted as cook and two as stewards.
The Damariscove sailed from Nobleboro, and after picking up a few of the prospectors elsewhere the long voyage began. A wintry gale was encountered and all feared the vessel would founder in the heavy seas, so it became necessary for them to put in at Saint Catherine's, in south- ern Brazil. There Kenniston was taken ill, but was well cared for by his shipmates and especially by the Mallice boys. In the course of ten days the sick man recovered and the vivid story of the voyage is now told in his words:
We had to lay six days on quarantine at St. Catherine's and used the time to make repairs on our vessel; set up the rigging and take out the bow- sprit, so we did not lose much time. We had to stow our cargo all over, which used up all our spare time. Besides we had to get our water on board and when we believed we were ready for sea were obliged to go twelve miles to the city to enter our vessel. Were not allowed to go there in our boat but
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THE ARGONAUT VESSELS
must go in the vessel. We lay under their fort and were obliged to comply. It was a very bad place to get aground but we got off with fifty dollars expenses · for entering and clearing the vessel. It took us four days to get to the city and back; the winds and strong tides delaying us. They take every ad- vantage of American vessels that call for supplies.
We stayed there over Sunday and expected to go to meeting in the after- noon, but they were all over when we got ashore. There are about twelve thousand inhabitants, all Roman Catholics, and pay no regard to the Sab- bath. The stores are all open and teams going through the streets the same as any other day of the week. About five hundred soldiers were called out and marched through the city. They do this every day to keep the slaves from rising against the whites. The buildings are covered with cement in- stead of shingles. They have bricks about two feet long and eight inches wide. There were but few of the inhabitants who could understand any more than wild geese. Here we were advised to go through the Straits of Magellan instead of attempting to go around Cape Horn. There was a ship from Boston and a schooner from Belfast lying here repairing damages which had tried the Horn. The schooner's name was the Mary Reed, Cap- tain Kedar. She had been trying for a long time to get around the cape, but could not as the current and wind were both ahead, as at that season of the year westerly winds prevail and they are dead ahead. It is about two thou- sand miles from St. Catherine's to Cape Horn, but being the nearest port vessels have to come here for repairs. They can go to Rio Janeiro which is about three hundred miles farther.
We left St. Catherine's on the 27th day of February for the Straits of Magellan and when we got outside we took a violent gale of wind ahead and as we were not clear of the land had to put back for a harbour. We had to lie there two days before we could get out. We started again but when three days out we took another heavy gale which lasted five days. This was not a common gale; it blew like a hurricane; it blew so we could not carry sail as it would blow them away. The wind was southwest and with the tre- mendous seas running drove us back about four hundred miles and off our course. We were blown off the land and this made it very bad for us to fetch the strait. We made every exertion, however, to gain the land once more, as soon as the gale abated. The prevailing wind here is southwest and ahead of us. We tried for a number of days and when within three days' sail of the strait and expecting to make the land, we were blown off again. The gale was so hard we expected to go down.
We now thought we would go around the cape and the wind favoring we
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made the land on the twenty-sixth day after leaving St. Catherine's and notwithstanding being advised at that port to go through the strait, we would have gone around the Horn had it not been we were so long getting to the strait that we should not have wood and water to last us to San Francisco. Therefore we dared not risk it.
The first land we made proved to be Cape Fairweather at the mouth of the Gallegos River. This cape is often taken for Cape Virgin at the mouth of the strait. We could not get an observation the day before we got in, as it was cloudy, or we should have known the difference. We made the land soon after daylight and judged it about fifty miles off and ran for it. The wind being fair we got in with the land about ten o'clock; sounded and got fifty- five fathoms of water, kept the lead going until we got into the river, taking it to be the strait. The water grew shoal very fast and the current was from ten to twelve miles an hour. The water kept getting shoaler until we had but ten to twelve fathoms. Daniel and Joseph Mallice told the captain and pilot that this could not be the strait as the coast pilot gave deeper water in the Strait of Magellan. Still they persisted in running until we were ashore in two fathoms of water and the current setting us onto the breakers. We tried to get into deeper water but the current pushed us on. We filled her off and wore round with only two feet of water under her keel. The wind favored us and in ten minutes we had thirty fathoms of water. As soon as the lead could be hauled in and thrown again, we had but two fathoms. At that moment we discovered a large ship ashore about a mile from us. This made us more concerned still. But fortune favored us as it was about high water and the slack tide gave us an advantage so we were able to work into deep water. The ship looked as though she had recently gone ashore, but we could not see anyone moving about or we should have tried to take them off. We saw tents and sails on the shore. No doubt we could have taken con- siderable value from her had we dared to run the risk of going to her. We were glad to get out of this place at twelve o'clock. It was now evident we had made a mistake in the land, the same as the ship had made. The tide rises and falls very much and makes such a current that it makes it very dangerous getting in or out.
At about two o'clock in the afternoon we started for the mouth of the strait. The wind sprang up and blew very heavy from the southwest, dead ahead, and we had to reef down snug; but we made out to get under Cape Virgin the next morning about eight o'clock, where we anchored in fifteen fathons of water about a half-mile from shore. The banks of Cape Virgin are from three to five hundred feet high. The gale increased until it became
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