Schooner-3 CHARLES H. TRICKEY under sail in Portland Harbor.

Schooner-3 CHARLES H. TRICKEY under sail in Portland Harbor.

Schooner-3 CHARLES H. TRICKEY under sail in Portland Harbor."Sometime after midnight that day, (1/1/1920) the three-masted CHARLES H> TRICKEY had fetched up on the rocks in front of Goat Island Light at Cape Porpoise. The weather was thick and Capt. John M. Harford of Five Islands in Georgetown was making for the narrow harbor entrance, where he planned to sit out the storm.  The Trickey was built in Bath in 1879. It was well known from Augusta to New York City and its movements often made the papers as it sailed, or was towed, up the Kennebec River, where it was loaded with cargos including sand, coal and lumber. Homeported in Portland, the Trickey was bound for Lynn, Massachusetts, with a load of box boards the night it foundered.  A month earlier, Maine newspapers reported the Trickey had grounded in an Arrowsic mudflat while being towed from Bath to Wiscasset.  Cape Porpoise Harbor has a narrow aperture, with just 100 yards between Goat Island and Folly Island. It had a reputation for being dangerous. Just a month before the Trickey grounded, another ship had run into Folly Island. The steam-powered Coast Guard cutter USS Ossipee, stationed in Portland, rescued the captain and his four-man crews without any trouble. The sailors spent the rest of the night warming up on the Cape Porpoise fishing schooner Waltham. The next day, it was clear the vessel was not salvageable. The Trickey's crew was able to salvage most of its cargo." -- Troy Bennett  BDN  2024