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 51
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The voyage had been a rough one and on the fiftieth day out from Glasgow the Wicasset dropped anchor off Castle Garden.
In 1902 a newspaper from Maine sent to Mr. Carnegie a picture of the ship. In acknowledging the receipt of the picture, his secretary wrote from Skibo Castle, Ardgay, New Brunswick, over the date of June 3, 1902:
Mr. Carnegie thanks you sincerely for sending him a picture of the Wiscasset, which is no doubt the bark in which his parents sailed with himself and his brother in 1848. He re- members the master was Capt. Long, and there was a sailor on board who was a great favorite, called Barryman. Mr. Carnegie has often said if he could find him he would like to be of service. He became a little sailor and was sorry to leave the ship after seven weeks upon it.20
Andrew Carnegie was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, November 25, 1835. He died at Lennox, Massachusetts, August II, 1919.
Manned by a Corpse
Sailors are proverbially superstitious. Many of them believe in mermaids, flying Dutchmen, death ships, and ill-luck stalking a vessel which sails on Friday, not to stress the universally accepted belief of the death of someone on board of a ship which is followed by a shark. Which of the above auguries portended the fate of the Betsey is not known.
The schooner Betsey, I 36 tons, was built at Newcastle in 1796 and was owned by David Payson, Jr., of Wiscasset, David Murray and William Patterson. David Otis is said to have been her commander when, in the winter of 1797, she was spoken in mid-Atlantic after a terrific storm which wrecked her.
20. This letter was printed by the New York Sun, in 1902.
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The only mention found of her crew is that of a man named Perkins and a boy called Samuel.
The Alnomac, also a Wiscasset ship, under Capt. Richard Tucker, discovered, in the lull which came after the storm, a vessel sailing aimlessly about in mid- ocean. Receiving no response to her signals, the Alnomac cautiously approached this apparently abandoned vessel and when the spy-glass revealed no sign of life aboard, and the speaking trumpet failed to bring a response, a boat was lowered and manned and sent to this ominously silent vessel. A gruesome spectacle confronted the boarding party. There on the deck lay two corpses, while in the foretop lashed to his post stood a third corpse of a man who had died from exposure, a lookout frozen on duty!
A bucket of water and a bucket of pork were on the deck. In haste they re- turned to the Alnomac to report that in the foretop was a red-headed corpse in the rigging.21
The Patsy, also a Wiscasset vessel, had but a few hours before rescued the survivors of the ill-fated ship Betsey.
The red-haired corpse has not been identified, but some say that he was John Clifford of Edgecomb.
The William Thomas
The brigantine William & Thomas was built at Nobleboro in 1796 and her burthen was 153 tons. She was enrolled and owned in Wiscasset by John Anderson, Joseph Weeks and Henry Hodge. Her managing owner was John Anderson, then a prominent merchant of Wiscasset, whose offices were at the southeastern corner of Main and Water Streets where is now the Lincoln Block.
The William & Thomas, named for two members of the Anderson family, was commanded by Capt. Anthony Nutter, who before that time had been in command of the schooner Hannah, 136 tons register. Captain Nutter continued in command of the Anderson vessel until his last adventurous and fateful voyage.
In 1799, on a passage to the West Indies, the William & Thomas was seized by a French privateer and put in charge of a prize-master and crew, who had
21. Columbian Centinel, Boston, April 8, 1797. "In lat. 50° N, long. 27° W, fell in with and boarded ship Betsey of Wiscasset, waterlogged etc. a dead man having red hair was found in the fore-top, with a bucket of water and a piece of pork near him."
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orders to proceed to a French port. The Wiscasset captain and crew, however, surprised the Frenchmen and resumed their rightful charge of the vessel and cargo, which they took safely into the port of St. Thomas. There Captain Nutter's death occurred.
The vessel and proceeds of the sale of the cargo were put in charge of a navigator to bring her to her home port, but he, not knowing the way, is said to have made his landfall at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whence the captain's son, John, a lad of eighteen years, took the stage for Wiscasset, bringing the first news of the death of his father and the predicament of the vessel.
Capt. John Boynton was sent to Portsmouth to bring the vessel home.
This voyage, on which John Nutter had, for the first time, accompanied his father, was later described by him as follows:
"We set sail Sept. 2 Ist and on Oct. 2d we were overtaken by a heavy gale. Most of our deck-load of lumber had to be thrown overboard. Our brig was very badly strained. We lost some of our sails and our small boat.
"The night was very dark, and in the darkness something struck me and hurt me terribly. I did not like to make any complaint, so I crept away below and said not a word to any one.'Seeing the world' did not appear very desirable then. I wished I had been content to stay at home and take care of the farm and of my mother.
"When everything was secured on deck, and the violence of the gale had somewhat abated, my father began to ask after me. No one had seen me, and he came to the conclusion that I had been lost overboard. I heard him crying out in great distress, 'My son is lost! What will his poor mother say? O, my son, my dear, dear son!' I was so weak from pain and loss of blood that I could not get to him nor make him hear me, and it was some time before I was found. As you may suppose, my father was overjoyed to see me again. He said, with tears of gratitude, 'My son was lost, but he is found; was dead, but is alive again.'
"On October 23, at about 12 o'clock M., we saw a sail to leeward, standing toward the north. At I o'clock she hove about and stood for us. We did not like her looks; suspected she was a French privateer, which she prove to be. By 4 o'clock, P.M., she was within hailing distance, and ordered us to heave to, which order we were obliged to obey. The Frenchmen then boarded and made a prize of us, and took from us all they wanted. They took our mate, Benjamin Holbrook, a first-rate man, and two of our crew, and put in place of them nine Frenchmen, ordering them to take us to Guadeloupe. They then left us.
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"So there we were, my father, myself and two seamen, in the hands of the enemy and being taken to a place where we knew the yellow fever to be raging, especially in the prisons, to which we were sure to be consigned. The prospect was dark.
"My father asked us if we were willing to make an effort to retake the brig. We knew it would be a desperate undertaking, perhaps a matter of life and death, as we were three unarmed men and a boy against nine armed men. But, in any event, we resolved to make the attempt.
"October 26th the wind blew heavily, and the French reefed the topsails. The next morning was very pleasant and calm, and the prize master ordered the reefs taken out of the topsails. Two men went aloft to obey this order; two were below, and five upon the deck. Two of the men detailed by the French to take charge of us were negroes, one of whom was a man of gigantic size and strength. He was a great favorite with his companions, who allowed him, as much as possible, his own way. It was with him that we apprehended most difficulty. Had my father been willing to attempt the slaughter of all our captors at some unguarded moment, it would have been comparatively easy to obtain our freedom. But this he could by no means resolve to do. To make them prisoners and keep them such till our arrival in port was our hazardous plan. A stamp on the deck was the signal agreed upon between father and the rest of us.
"He was on deck when the two men went aloft. The large negro was below, busy about breakfast. The prize master laid down his cutlass to let go the reef- tackles, buntlines, etc. It was a woeful mistake for him. With a sudden spring father seized the weapon, and, stamping furiously, he called us to the struggle. The huge negro, hearing the stamps, leaped for the deck; but father dealt him a blow with the cutlass which caused him to fall back. Then my father, leaving me with my iron club to keep the negroes below, jumped from the quarter-deck to the main deck, among the five Frenchmen and pursued them so closely over the deck and around the long-boat that they had no time to secure their weapons, which had all been left in the long-boat. They took to the rigging to save themselves from the sweep of that terrific cutlass swung by a strong and desperate man.
"Father had now seven men to manage. They made several attempts to come out of the rigging, but seeing that stern, resolute figure, cutlass in hand, they as often retreated. He then told them that if they would surrender he would spare their lives and they should be well treated.
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"At last they consented to his terms, and the prize master was ordered to come down. Father then bade him call his men down, one by one, and lash their hands behind them and send them below. In this way all were secured, and the gangway fastened down upon them.
"The two seamen, one with the axe and the other with an iron bar, were both on the quarter-deck during the retaking of the brig.
"The ship was now again in command of its own captain, and all sail set for St. Thomas.
"Though thankful that our enterprise had been a success thus far, we still had great occasion to mingle our thanksgiving for the past with anxiety for the future. If there had been no other care but to manage the vessel, it would have been a matter of some concern; for, in case of rough weather, we might have been, with our small company, greatly straitened to manage her, thus affording a good chance for our prisoners to rise upon us; and adding also the possibility that we might be again overhauled by other enemies seaward and the necessity of a constant lockout to escape, if possible, such a catastrophe, we saw at once the need of dismissing the thought of sleep or rest till our arrival at a friendly port. This, we trusted, would be in two or three days.
"We had, as I have said, bound our men by tying their hands; but this was intended only as a temporary expedient, in order to remove them from the rigging and the hold to the cabin, as there would have been a risk, or, rather, a certainty, of their making a rush upon us if we had attempted to do it without such a precaution.
"But we knew they could unbind each other, which they did as soon as they were left by themselves. We had no doubt as to their intentions. Escape in the rear of the cabin seemed to be impossible. To rush to the companion-way would be difficult, as there was room for but one at a time. If they had fully known the construction of the vessel, they would have burst into the steerage; and of this we had some fear.
"Our provisions were all in the cabin where the prisoners were; but we had no time nor inclination to eat. Two or three times we were greatly alarmed, being chased by a strange sail; but kind Providence favored us, and the third day after retaking the brig we made the island of St. Thomas.
"It was then under British government, and was a neutral port. We entered the harbor at 4 A.M. with colors set in distress. We ran past a Swedish man-of- war, hailed her, and asked for assistance. It was promptly granted.
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"We came to under the stern of an American vessel. Our decks were at once crowded with men, most of them our countrymen, who were loudly rejoicing at our victory.
"We sold our cargo at a very great price, and then gave ourselves up to rest and refreshment. The French in port, not pleased with our proceedings, twice attempted to cut us out in the night; but we kept such a sharp lookout that they failed to accomplish their purpose.
"One day, I think it was Nov. 23d, my father complained of feeling very unwell, and before night it was a clear case of yellow fever. For the first twenty-four hours I attended him; but was then obliged to take to my berth. Yellow fever was upon me also.
"My father died the next day and was buried, and I was taken on shore. I was consigned to the care of a black nurse, and the American captains supplied my necessities.
"Just as soon as I was able I wanted to sail for home. No officer was left on board of the William & Thomas, and my father's friends took me to the gov- ernor and explained my case to him. I, also, spoke of my circumstances and my loss, and added that I was anxious to reach home, and try to comfort my poor mother. The heart of the governor was touched. His eyes filled with tears as he listened. He said to the American captains who were with me, 'If a captain can be found to take charge of the William & Thomas, there need be no delay.' But no suitable captain could be found. At last a man by the name of Holding consented to take the brig to Wiscasset.
"The governor took charge of the money for which the cargo was sold. He paid the expenses of getting the vessel ready, and gave about seven hundred dollars to Holding in case of accident.
"As there was war between France and England, Americans sailed under convoy. The convoy came down and lay at the mouth of the harbor, and fired a gun as a signal for all to come down and get under way, but our captain was ashore, drunk, and could not be found. He made his appearance at sunrise, next morning; but was unfit to take command of a mud scow. We had lost our convoy and had not sailed far before we were taken by another Frenchman. They, however, seeing a large armed ship, flying the English flag, bearing down upon us, hastily made off.
"At noon on December 10th, we saw another ship after us, and became terri- fied; but this time it was a friend. We were boarded by her officers, who had
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heard of our exploit, and heartily commended us for what we had done. When the lieutenant heard of my father's death, he bowed his head in silence. They sailed with us until midnight.
"This happened during the winter season and we encountered heavy gales. This circumstance, together with the condition of the captain, who, half of the time was not sober enough to take the sun at noon for the reckoning, kept the voyage fraught with danger.
"About midnight, December 28th, we heard the roar of breakers. We were near Long Island. The captain was in his usual condition. As the ship rolled heavily, there was a great deal of noise, but I knew that nothing would waken the captain, so I took from Holding's pocket the key of the stateroom where he kept his rum and set it all adrift, with the stopper out of the keg. Then I replaced the key. The poor steward got the abuse when Holding wanted his morning dram and no rum could be found. I thought that he mistrusted me, but he said nothing. He would not go to Wiscasset, for he had seven hundred dollars belonging to the owners to make way with. At various ports he squandered it, acting like a madman and an idiot; part of the time stupid, and part of the time raving and dangerous from strong drink.
"I took the stage at Portsmouth, N. H. for Wiscasset, and in four days saw again mother and my home.
"I informed the owner of the brig of the conduct of the captain, and the next day he sent on Capt. John Boynton to take charge of her. He boarded the vessel and was recognized by two of the crew to their great joy; but he signed them to keep silence, and requested the mate to say to the captain that a gen- tleman wished to see him. Admitted to the cabin, he asked Holding if he was bound to Wiscasset, and said he would like to take passage for that place.
"Capt. Holding said he should sail when the weather was fair. Capt. Boynton said he thought it could scarcely be fairer than it was then. But Capt. Holding objected; he did not like the looks of it, and concluded he should not start at present. Some of the seven hundred dollars still remained.
" 'Are your papers all on board, sir?' asked Capt. Boynton in a peculiar tone. " 'Yes,' said Holding, with a stare; 'but what's that to you?'
"They were on deck now.
" 'If you cannot trust the weather, I can,' was the reply; and, turning to the crew, Capt. Boynton ordered them to man the windlass and heave out.
"Holding then burst out into abusive language, and ordered the crew not to stir.
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" 'We shall obey the new captain,' said the men in delight.
"Holding then hailed a boat from the shore, shouting that there was mutiny on board, and they must come and get him.
" 'There is no mutiny-keep clear!' commanded Capt. Boynton, and the boat returned to the shore.
"By this time the William & Thomas was standing out of the harbor with a fair wind, and before the sun set in the west she was made fast to the wharf in Wiscasset." 22
The America
Such a series of disasters as befell the brigantine America at her home port in the summer season has never been equalled here. The America, of 142 tons, built at Pownalborough in 1797, was owned by Franklin Tinkham and Abiel Wood, Jr. She was commanded by Joseph Decker when she sailed from Wis- casset on July 15, 1802, bound for Leith, Scotland, with a cargo of timber, staves and other lumber.
On July seventeenth she went ashore on Fowle's Point and bilged; on the eighteenth she attempted to return to Wiscasset and went ashore on Herren- ton's Rocks. She arrived at Wiscasset on the twentieth for repairs, and on the twenty-fourth (the vessel being then unladen) by reason of a violent squall and gale of wind, causing an uncommonly high tide, broke and carried away her fasts, went adrift and struck ashore on Birch Point rocks.
A survey held by Peter Brayson, merchant, John Boyinton, Jr., master mariner, and Jacob Woodman, master ship-carpenter, all of Wiscasset, on September ninth, reported the vessel as being worthless.
The Screw Steamer Alpha
In 1836 patents were obtained by F. P. Smith and Captain John Ericsson for a screw propeller driven by steam (for the principle itself is as old as the windmill) and to them the successful application of that means of propulsion has since been attributed by writers on the subject.23
There was, however, a steamboat using a screw propeller constructed on the Sheepscot River, in 1816, at or near Wiscasset, by Mr. Jonathan Mor-
22. Account taken from Seaside Oracle, May 1, 1871, and the Youth's Companion.
23. Seaside Oracle, March 7, 1874.
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gan,24 a lawyer doing business in Wiscasset, and residing in its suburbs. He claimed for the late John Gordon of Westbrook the honor of having applied the principle of a screw propeller to a boat, working it by hand, as early as dur- ing the first decade of the past century and that he himself built a boat on this principle, using steam power as a motor. Her machinery was a joint produc- tion of an ingenious Alna blacksmith and a Wiscasset tin plate worker named Dudley Ladd, who finally had the steamer Alpha, as she was called, seized and sold to satisfy his claims.
Ladd's shop was located at Wiscasset on Dole's Wharf at the foot of Main Street, and there the steamer was fitted with her machinery, and from there the Alpha sailed on her first successful voyage to Brunswick, and thence up the Kennebec to Augusta at the speed of four or five miles an hour.
Mr. Morgan became financially embarrassed and on the second day of June, 1818, the steamboat having been attached on an account of one Dudley Ladd, was sold by public auction at Wiscasset for eighty-seven dollars. The sale was made by John C. Felker, constable (the grandfather of the editor of the Sea- side Oracle), and one of the purchasers was William Greenleaf of Wiscasset, whose son, Charles T. Greenleaf, Esq., of Bath, furnishes us with the follow- ing documentary evidence:
The Bill of Sale
Wiscasset, June 2nd, 1818.
This day sold at Vendue to William Greenleaf and Thomas Brintnall, a boat about 15 tons. It being the same that I attached from Jonathan Morgan, Esq., on Dudley Ladd's account for $87.00.
Received Payment in full JOHN C. FELKER,
-
Constable of Wiscasset.
24. On the morning of November 6, 1871, the venerable Jonathan Morgan, aged ninety-three years, was found dead in bed in his room at the old Advertiser building on Cross Street, Portland, where he had lived alone for several preceding years. Mr. Morgan was born in Brimfield, Massa- chusetts, March 1778, and was the son of Jonathan Morgan, whose grandfather, David Morgan, was one of the founders of that town. He entered Brown University in 1799, but changed to Union College, graduating from the latter in 1803. He studied law with William Teler of Schenectady, removed to Waterford, New York, thence to Brimfield, Massachusetts, and from there to Cincinnati, studying with Ethan Allen Stone, and was admitted to the bar. He soon returned to Massachusetts, practising at Shrewsbury in 1812. He removed to Alna, Lincoln County in the state of Maine, and later went to Portland, where he lived for over half a century. Though a lawyer by profession, Mr. Morgan was of a speculative turn of mind, and his life was passed in making inventions, engaging in manufactures, and writing philosophical treatises, in all of which he was unsuccessful. Although possessing an excep- tional mind he spent much time in endeavoring to solve the hopeless problem of perpetual motion. His room was fitted up with curious machinery. He compiled a lengthy manuscript, which would make a book of five hundred octavo pages, opposing the Newtonian system of philosophy, also a manuscript on disease, an English grammar and a commentary on the Bible.
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And below is the memorandum in pencil:
Mr. Morgan's steamboat experiments.
In his letter enclosing the above bill, Mr. Greenleaf says he remembers the boat very well. She was named the Alpha, her machinery was taken out in 1818, and she was converted into a fishing vessel.
The following facts seem to be fairly well established: first, that the Alpha, the first screw steamer ever built, was constructed in Wiscasset in 1816; sec- ond, that she was the first steamboat that ever ran on the Kennebec River and made her first trip from Wiscasset to Brunswick the same year; third, that on that successful voyage she was commanded by her owner and builder, Jona- than Morgan.
History informs us that in 1786, Jonas Fitch substituted for paddle wheels, vertical oars worked by means of cranks, and with these he fitted a small skiff which was propelled by them, but there is no evidence that a steam engine was used to move the "propellers," and moreover, vertical oars driven by cranks and turned by hand do not constitute a screw propeller.
Morgan's steamboat had a screw propeller affixed to the rudder instead of being attached to the stern and inside of the rudder as now. An endless chain ran around its axis and around the wheel projecting over the stern of the vessel, and this in turn was connected by another endless chain with the main drum or wheel turned by the engine. The great noise made by this system of chains and pulleys gained for the craft the sobriquet of "Morgan's Rattler."
The boiler was constructed of plank and hooped with iron; it had wooden heads and into one of these an iron, watertight fire-box was set, in which the fire, needed to generate the steam, was made.
When the machinery was taken out of the boat it was stored in an old building back of Hobart's Bakery on Water Street, and there remained for many years.
All of these facts are attested by documents and statements of our oldest and most reliable citizens, although Jonathan Morgan and his screw steamer Alpha have never been accorded their proper place in the beginning of the his- tory of steam navigation in America.
The first steaming vessel to cross the Atlantic was the Savannah in 1819. The screw was first used on ocean vessels in 1839, and as the screw propeller is less affected by the rolling of the ship than are paddles, and acts on a relatively greater volume of water in a given time, the screw soon displaced the old paddle wheels.
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The Mary T. Rundlett
The bark Mary T. Rundlett, 286.07 tons, was built at Sheepscot. Jotham Donnell is believed to have been the master builder. The bark was owned by Oakes Rundlett, Esq., and named for his daughter-in-law, Mary Tucker Rundlett, the wife of Oakes Rundlett, Jr.
This vessel was sold in 1848 to Patrick Lennox, William Wood and Wil- liam McNear. Captain Osgood who was in command of the bark, had a daughter who was a missionary in China, a fact which may have influenced him to have two pictures made of the Mary T. Rundlett in that country. One of the pictures was purchased by the late Edgar Oakes Achorn, whose mother, Clara Rundlett, was a daughter of Oakes Rundlett, Esq. The other picture, painted on glass and here reproduced, is owned by Mrs. Nina Rundlett Len- nox, whose father, Gustavus Rundlett, was the youngest child of the original owner of the vessel.
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