USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
Sculptors of figure-heads appear to have been few in Pownalborough. The images were purchased in other places and brought here by the coasting craft and delivered to the ship-owners. Shem Drowne, who went from Kit- tery to Pemaquid in 1735, is called "the first American sculptor," though none of his figure-heads appears to have survived until the present day. The handicraft of this skilled artificer included weather-cocks, or vanes, pump- heads and gate-post urns, all of which he carved in wood. He also worked in copper. It was Shem Drowne who made the grasshopper on Faneuil Hall in Boston, which is of hammered copper.
The father of the late Captain Drew of Farmingdale, Maine, was a sculptor of figure-heads. It is possible, however, that most of the prow or-
[ 441 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
naments used by Wiscasset ships were made by the Skillen (or Skilling) Brothers of Boston, Joseph True or William Rush of Philadelphia. Nearer to this village were Edbury Hatch of Newcastle, a well-known wood- carver and maker of figure-heads; and William Southworth of Damaris- cotta who died in 1890. He decorated most of the ships in that port and to him is attributed the carvings of stern pieces and trailing boards.
The best collection of figure-heads now extant in Maine is that made by Hon. Harold Marsh Sewall of Bath, in his museum at Small Point.
The less ornamented vessels had billet-heads-a billet-head being a piece of timber at the bow or stem of a whale-boat around which the harpoon line is run out when the whale darts off. Tradition says that the whalers belong- ing to the Quakers were never allowed to bear figure-heads, because the Friends regarded them as graven images and therefore of an idolatrous na- ture in direct defiance of the second commandment.
Sailors were highly superstitious in regard to the injury or loss of a fig- ure-head, treating any such mishap as a sign of evil portent and the fore- runner of shipwreck to the vessel.
The carving of wooden figure-heads is now numbered among extinct arts, for the sharply cut bow of whaler and liner affords no loitering place for goddess or queen, saint or potentate, Biblical character or popular hero. Therefore this branch of art has become one with the lost romance of the seas.
The Maine Shipbuilding and Navigation Company
The Maine Shipbuilding and Navigation Company was organized in February, 1890. The officers were A. H. Lennox, president; Edwin Ams- den, clerk; Richard Tucker Rundlett, general manager and treasurer; Hen- ry Ingalls, attorney; and the directors were A. H. Lennox, Henry Ingalls, R. T. Rundlett, L. W. Gibbs, R. H. T. Taylor and Gustavus Rundlett.
The shipyard was on Hobson's (formerly Holbrook's) island, just south of where Pendleton's boat-shop was. As soon as the charter was obtained they started to build two vessels. That year they launched the Sheepscot and the Mavooshen. The first, a two-masted schooner, was under command of Captain Wells. While the second, a three-masted schooner of 200 tons, was commanded by Captain Lewis. The third and last vessel built by this com- pany was the R. T. Rundlett, 272 tons, launched December 3, 1892. She was a three-masted schooner and her commander was J. W. Fountain.
[ 442 ]
Industries
At the annual meeting of the Maine Shipbuilding and Navigation Com- pany held January 16, 1896, a dividend of fourteen per cent was declared for that year, and the following officers were elected: A. H. Lennox, presi- dent; R. T. Rundlett, general manager and treasurer; directors, Henry In- galls, R. T. Rundlett, A. H. Lennox, A. M. Card, Lincoln Gibbs, Gustavus Rundlett and R. H. T. Taylor.
In the summer of 1900, the Sheepscot left Greene's Landing, Stonington, Maine, with a load of stone for the Flatiron building, then being construct- ed in New York City, at which time she was commanded by Capt. Lemuel Brown; Jean Dodge (a brother to Archie Dodge) was the mate; Fred Bean was cook; and Frank Smith was "the crew." They reached Portland harbor safely but on leaving that port when outside of Cape Elizabeth, they ran into heavy weather, and shipped seas. When the gale increased they were blown off their course. They reefed sail and hove to but the vessel sprang a leak and the cargo broke loose and shifted. The leather in the pumps had dried out, rendering the pumps useless, so they had nothing to work with. In this perilous condition they drifted about for two days, until they were picked up by a Norwegian steamer off Nantucket. The steamer was bound for Libau, a Russian seaport on the Baltic Sea, and thither went captain, mate, cook and crew where they were placed in charge of the United States consul, who, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, sent them to the Netherlands where at Amsterdam they waited for a vessel which should be homeward bound. In less than a week an English vessel, the County of York, put into Amsterdam in order to supplement her cargo with cheeses and chemical preparations, before proceeding to New Jersey, and as supercargo came the shipwrecked crew of the Sheepscot back to their homeland.
Before abandoning the Sheepscot they had taken the precaution to set her afire in order to prevent her from being a menace to navigation.
The Mavooshen was lost about the year 1900. Frank Brown, a brother to Lemuel Brown, who commanded the Sheepscot, was her captain. After load- ing coal at Philadelphia, where she had been filled to capacity, she started down Delaware Bay in a strong wind. A severe storm broke which lasted for three days during which time the Mavooshen anchored off Delaware Breakwater. When the gale had somewhat abated, she weighed anchor and proceeded on "her last long voyage." Encrusted with ice, she rounded Cape May and headed for Nantucket. Nothing more has ever been heard of her, but it is quite certain that she went down with all on board.
[ 443 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
Captain Freese, who was at that time bringing a steamer north from Demerara, stated that he, too, was out in that storm and that no small vessel could live in such a sea. It has always been believed that she filled with ice and foundered shortly after leaving Cape May.
The R. T. Rundlett was sold to W. J. Stanton of Salisbury, Maryland, in May, 1902, and with the sale of this vessel, the last of the fleet, the Maine Shipbuilding Company closed its books and its shipyard.
The Earl of Aberdeen
A romantic and tragic story is connected with the shipyard of a Wiscasset man, Thomas Jefferson Southard, although the yard was on the Kennebec River at Richmond due west of Swan Island. One day a mysterious stranger who gave his name as George H. Osborne, came to the shipyard and applied for work. He was given employment in the Southard yard. The story runs thus :22
Although a certain innate reticence precluded intimacies, his genial kindly manner could not fail to make friends, one of whom was Melvin O. Randall, a man of his own age with whom he went hunting and to whom he gave a gun of Scotch manufacture, than which there was no finer rifle in the village. Here also he became the favorite of several of the children of the town among whom was little Abbie, the seven-year-old daughter of Small, and the Call children whose father was a local barber. For them he wrote out Longfellow's Rainy Day, the chosen poem of his mother to whom he wrote often, but as he withheld his address from her, she was unable to send him any letters in return. These together with several visits to the bootmaker and the nomadic popula- tion of the ship-yard where he knew Jesse Green, the carpenter, were the only contacts he was known to have made during that brief summer sojourn on the banks of the Kennebec, following which he was appointed mate of the schooner Walton, and took the vessel to New York. Later he was made captain of this vessel. He ran the Walton for a year, making voyages to Galveston, Pensacola and other ports, carrying various kinds of cargo.
Osborne made his last voyage on a new three-masted schooner, the Hera. On his way from Boston to Melbourne, six days out, George H. Osborne was swept into the sea from the top-gallant forecastle and was soon lost to view. No one then knew on the night of January 27, 1870, the Right Honorable Sir George Gordon, Sixth Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount of Formartine, Lord Haddo, Methlic, Tarves and Kellie, in the Peerage of Scotland and a member of the House of Lords in virtue of his title of Vis- count Gordon, who was born in Holyrood Palace on January 10, 1841, son of the Fifth Earl of Aberdeen by his wife, Mary Baillie, had been borne by a wave to an unmarked grave in the Great Western Ocean.
22. Taken in part from The Gay Gordons by J. M. Bullock.
[ 444 ]
Industries
In the meantime nothing could be done to notify his relatives until Australia was reached four months later; and when the Captain, for the purpose of identification, searched Osborne's chest, he found only the address of one Jesse Green, the carpenter living in Richmond, Maine, and Green did not know who Osborne was. Nor did Ran- dall know aught of Osborne's former state.
During all of this time the family of the Earl of Aberdeen were in great anxiety, for they had not heard from him since April, 1869. In November they had dispatched his old tutor to look for him, but the quest was too great for Mr. Alexander, for Osborne's assumed name and his reticence as to his past life had proved to be a too effectual dis- guise for the tutor to unfrock. Moreover he had made no reference to any ship or in- dividual lest his mother attempt to trace his whereabouts and put an end to his adven- turous career caused by his early and lasting love for the sea. Mr. Alexander went to Molino, Florida, from which place the last letter from "George" had been mailed, but no trace of him could be found there. Five months of futile search ensued. At last, rely- ing on a sentence in a letter written early in 1867, he got in touch with Captain John P. Wilbur, who had taken Osborne to Galveston as a passenger on the William Mallory, and who was then living in Mystic, Conn. Finally he ran Osborne's name to earth only to find that he was dead.
But the fatality could not end thus. The question of the identity of George H. Os- borne had to be proved. If he were George Hamilton Gordon, Sixth Earl of Aber- deen, then his death must be established before his brother John could succeed to the title.
Late in the year 1870, four agents of the Earl of Aberdeen came to this country to make an exhaustive investigation. Their names were Lindsay, Haldane, Jameson and McLaren, and they went to Richmond, Maine. Arrived there they interviewed ship- holders, captains, seamen, a fisherman, a carpenter, and the bootmaker (whose last bore witness to the size of Osborne's feet). In the inquiry as to Osborne's identity held at Richmond on December 7, 1870, Mr. Southard, one of the owners of the Walton, declined to be put on oath or to give evidence without a promise being given that he would be paid 5% of the value of the estate; which was very naturally refused. But even when he appeared on subpæna, he did not bring the necessary ship's books with him, though Osborne had served him well and faithfully. The most valuable testi- mony was furnished by M. O. Randall, friend and hunting companion of Osborne, who had the gun made in Edinburgh by Alexander Henry, the famous gunsmith. This weapon and the boot-last were to prove the identity of George Hamilton Gordon. Reluctantly Randall parted with the gun, the only keepsake he possessed of his well- loved friend.
With these meage tangible proofs and descriptions furnished by those who had known Osborne, the four Scotchmen departed for home. It was May 6th, 1872 before the House of Lords decided that John, his brother, might take his seat.
Months passed by and then one day came a letter to Mr. Randall to whom another gun had been promised in lieu of the one which he had re-
[ 445 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
linquished to the four Scotchmen. It is now in the possession of his son, Melvin M. Randall of Dresden Mills (formerly a part of Pownalborough), through whose courtesy copies of the letters in his custody are here given as documents in evidence of the above story.
Dear Sir :
66 Queen Street, Edinburgh. 25 May 1871
I regret very much to find, on my return from America, that your rifle has not yet been ordered. This has inadvertently been omitted, but I have now by the instructions of Lady Aberdeen, ordered one from Mr. Henry of the kind described in your evidence.
It is to be of the best workmanship and material and made to order. It will be ready I expect within ten days and will then be sent out to you. I regret very much the long delay. I hope you have not been losing confidence in us all. I see you want a single barreled rifle which has been ordered.
We are all enjoying the recollection of our American visit very much; and only hope we have left as favorable impressions behind as we have taken with us.
Hoping you will have much enjoyment of your new rifle and continued health to use it,
I remain, Yours very truly, S. G. McLAREN.
Three months later the rifle came in a case whose fittings would delight the heart of any sportsman and would have given greater joy to Randall had it not been overcast by the memory of a vanished friend. With the gun case came the other letter:
M. O. Randall, Esq.
Edinburgh, 17 August 1871
Richmond, Maine, U. S. A.
Sir: - By instructions received from the Agents of the Right Honorble The Earl of Aberdeen, I have built for you a single muzzle loading Match Rifle of the same length bore as the double rifle belonging to the late Earl, and which I furnished him.
ALEXANDER HENRY.
Osborne cherished a devotion to his mother bordering on idolatry. It seems singular that in a letter written to her towards the end of the year 1869, just before the tragedy occurred, he said:
A sort of vague dread fills my mind and I seem to feel that I had rather go on in doubt than to learn what would kill me, or drive me to worse-I mean were I to re- turn and not find you. How many times has this thought come to me in the dark and cheerless night watches! But I have to drive it from me as too dreadful to think of.
The tradition on the Kennebec is that the adventure of the Earl of Aber- deen, who came incognito as George H. Osborne, was to demonstrate the fact that a man of worth could prove himself such in any sphere of life, no matter where his lot was cast.
[ 446 ]
XVIII Ships of the Sheepscot
I T has been said that sailors and poets believe that ships have souls, and when the ships of the Sheepscot River, all fresh from sail-maker and rigger, spread their canvas and glided away through the Narrows to meet on distant waters, even the most prosaic would admit that, if not endowed with a soul, they at least responded to the breath of life.
Their builders and masters knew that each vessel had an individual na- ture, and to them were known her shortcomings, her tendencies and ca- prices; but Fate alone knew her history, her perilous undertakings, her fate- ful voyages and ending, and whether she would succumb to shipwreck or mutiny, pirate or privateer, or to Mr. Jefferson!
It was the hated Embargo of 1807 which caused the first collective check- mate to shipping in these rivers, dismantled every American ship and dealt a death blow to many a ship and her owner. It came in the wake of great prosperity here, when the tonnage of square-rigged vessels in this port ag- gregated 8,405 tons, among which were counted at least thirty-two full- rigged ships.
Vessels of varying size, rig and draft were built all along this river, as far inland as Head-of-the-Tide at the old saw-pit at Puddle Dock; at Sheep- scot Falls and Newcastle; at the Eddy in Edgecomb; at Folly Island and Jeremy Squam; at Wiscasset Point, Birch Point and Holbrook's Island; in Back River at Phip's Point; and in a cove west of that peninsula Elias Brookings built vessels in Brookings' Bay. As far out at sea as Seguin a ves- sel was built in June, 1798, by John Polereczky and Francis Goud, mariner (both residents of that island), and Benjamin Emmons, merchant, of Georgetown. This was the schooner Nancy. James Goud was her master, and she was built for the cod-fishery.
Their voyages were far flung and their profits brought wealth and satis- faction to the towns along the Sheepscot; but the Embargo and the War of 1812 completely ruined them, and Wiscasset's ship "Prosperity" is now long overdue.
We have seen that the Virginia, a pinnace of 30 tons, the first ship made in America, was built almost within gunshot of the mouth of the Sheepscot River; that an early ship of the Sheepscot, built by Sir William Phips, bore
[ 447 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
to safety the terrified settlers at the outbreak of the first Indian War; and that Clarke and Lake made vessels at their settlement on Arrowsic near Jones' Eddy. But the first vessel of which we have a record at Wiscasset Point is found in the deposition of Michael Sevey made in 1797, when he stated that "he came to Wiscasset in 1737, to help build a ship."
The next vessel of which we have a record in these waters was that men- tioned by Mr. Crooker of Pemaquid in his diary which is in the Maine His- torical Society.
"March 1750 .- I came to Boston & let myself to Capt. Nickels, to help load a Spanish 24 gunship then lying at Wiscasset Point, Sheepsgut River."
The earliest notice we have of trade from these parts to Europe is in 1623, Captain Witherage from Pemaquid to Barnstable, England.
About the middle of the eighteenth century exports began and a salt and spar trade was built up with Europe. Vessels from all the naval powers of Europe were in this harbor, and Wiscasset soon became the most important seaport east of Boston. By maritime exchange with the Spanish colonies Spanish coinage came into use here, and Spanish milled dollars otherwise known as pieces of eight were frequently named as a consideration in deeds and contracts. From the French colonies came five franc pieces and one still here bearing the effigy of the ill-fated Louis XVI may have been brought to Wiscasset in his day.
The late Loring Dow stated that when his father worked for Major Carlton he had the responsibility of taking kegs of specie in a wheelbarrow from Carlton's Wharf, now occupied by the Wiscasset Grain Co., to the Carlton house on High Street. From that and like sources must have come quantities of specie required to replenish the vaults of the Wiscasset bank where many unusual coins came to light, among them silver pistareens and ducatoons, golden angels,1 Spanish doubloons and pistoles along with Por- tuguese moidores. Spoons were sometimes made by the local silversmiths of the left over silver coins, and jewelry from the gold money. One American silver dollar bearing the date 1804 appeared in town, given, so tradition says, to a midwife for her services during an accouchement, but it soon fell into the hands of a collector.
In 1786, David Sylvester's name appears with that of Daniel Cony, as a committee of the Senate of the Massachusetts General Court of this date,
1. A gold coin, English value about 10 shillings; struck in the reign of Edward IV and imposed with the figure of the archangel Michael.
[ 448 ]
R
Wiscasset in 1878. Taken from map drawn in 1878 and now owned by Wiscasset Public Library.
Franklin, owned by William P. and Alfred Lennox. Capt. William Colby, master.
.. .. ... ==
Schooner R. T. Rundlett, launched in 1892. J. W. Fountain, master.
-
Ships of the Sheepscot
which Committee made a report on the resources of Maine, drawn up by William Bingham, an extensive landholder in this district, and in which it is asserted that, at the date thereof, there was but one topsail schooner be- longing to the Kennebec River. In 1793 there were twelve ships, besides brigs and other vessels on the stocks.
Wiscasset was then one of the chief of the ten ports of entry, and this port with its sea approaches was at great expense to the British government surveyed with soundings and all accurately projected and delineated on charts, under the direction of the Admiralty of that nation. In 1729 two considerable cities were planned by the Crown authorities to be built up, one at Pemaquid, near the ocean, and the other at and around Boothbay Harbor.
The projected plans for city building at Pemaquid and Boothbay were, however, rendered abortive by the influence of General Waldo and other Massachusetts land proprietors and speculators in the lands of Maine, which caused the removal of Dunbar from Maine to the government of New Hampshire. By this act the settlers were left to the rapacity and mercy of claimants, and the progress of the region, in thrift and population, was delayed.
In the days before the railroad spoiled the shore line, ships were built along the banks and launched straight into the deep waters of Wiscasset Bay. The leaden keel was run in the spring so that the vessel could be launched in the summer directly after the harvesting of the hay crop, which formed the cargo carried to southern ports. At Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans it was unloaded and replaced by a shipment of cotton or naval stores to Liverpool, England. There the hull was coppered by British work- men whose work was better and cheaper than that available in this country. The return voyage would bring a freight of railroad iron, salt or woolens, or a mixed cargo from the mother country.
One such cargo appears in a letter book kept toward the close of the eighteenth century by Abiel Wood, Wiscasset's largest shipowner, in which he directs his captain, Spencer Tinkham, of the ship Astrea, to bring a return cargo from England, of salt, common and blown, and to "fill in with a mixed cargo" consisting of the articles named below:
lead, nails,2 paint, nautical instruments, such as compasses-wood and brass-quadrants, spyglasses, boat hooks, ship scrapers, screws, shovels, bunting for colors, locks and thumb
2. Nails were imported and furnished by Whitney & Sewall for building purposes. There is no record of a slitting mill in these parts, and early blacksmiths manufactured them in small quanti- ties in the kitchen stove.
[ 449 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
latches, knives, spoons, iron coffee mills, bed screws and brass caps for same, brass warming pans, bellows, elastic, book muslin, Welsh flannel, blankets, "printed linnen called Chints", calicoes, printed shawls, broadcloth, blue, black, drab and brown; pins, handkerchiefs, dimity striped and corded, black silk handkerchiefs, fine cotton cambric for Gentlemens' neckcloths, mens' fashionable white and green hats, "Coarse Mens black Hats" Durants or tammy, plain and striped Wildbores, sewing silk, carpeting, pocket knives, Dutch Quills and Bibles.
One wonders where they put the salt. The Captain was likewise cautioned against extravagance, that was, "not to run away with the Whale in charge." The above-listed articles give a fair example of the European imports of that day.
The exports of the country valued for commercial purposes besides fish and fur were wood for fuel, lumber for ships and houses, tar and turpentine for shipbuilding, and potash for the English industry of woolen manufac- ture.
The Coasters
The early coasting vessels which made Wiscasset their home port were engaged in commerce principally between Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Portsmouth and this town, as well as to the southern ports of Charleston and Savannah. One of the early packets was the Superior which sailed from Union Wharf. Another was the Clio, a schooner commanded by Capt. Thomas Lennox, which plied between Boston and Wiscasset. Upon her arrival she headed for Carlton's Wharf and was run up the dock on the flats. A plank from the main boom to the wharf made a gangway over which the passengers were handed out, and as soon as "Capt. Tom," as he was familiarly called, had escorted his passengers up the wharf, he would go to hunt up the customs officer to enter his vessel. Then the post was distributed. The table drawer gave up its contents of letters to be delivered to Capt. William M. Boyd, Silas Payson, Nathan Clark and others.
A trip to Boston in a coaster was a great event in a boy's life. Arrange- ments were made far in advance. A new suit was made by Zibe Thayer; Greenleaf made the beaver; John Brooks the furs; McKenney made the boots; Asa Wilkins repaired the watches; and Hatch overhauled the seal- skin-covered trunk dotted all over with large brass-headed tacks, and then after weeks of preparation if the "man on the meeting-house" pointed the right way, the merchants and travelers started for Boston. Portland, Ports- mouth, Salem and Cape Ann were made as the weather permitted.
[ 450 ]
Ships of the Sheepscot
Later on Alfred Lennox generally owned the controlling share in the coasters, and among them were the Franklin, Capt. William Colby (later lost in Ipswich Bay by Captain Greenleaf) and the Catherine nicknamed the "Old Kate." She was commanded by Capt. John McNear. On the night of Tuesday, August 31, 1875, she was totally destroyed by fire while lying near the Johnson and Palmer mill at Brewer. The fire was thought to have been of incendiary origin, and by this time the Old Kate was a craft of little value, save in the memories of the boys who had coasted to the Hub.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.