LB2007.1.70160

LB2007.1.70160

"Laura M. Lunt" Ship Notable in Law For Rights of Seaman The three-masted schooner Laura M. Lunt tied up adjacent to the Eastern Steamship Wharf in Belfast, Maine. HISTORY: Dec. 11, 1913 By Associated Press. ROCKLAND. Me. Battered Schooner Is Towed to Port .-The schooner Laura M. Lunt, which was sighted in distress off the Maine coast Tuesday night, was towed into port today. The Lunt had lost all its sails and nearly a third of a cargo of lumber shipped at Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and. there was several feet of water in its hold. March 4, 1914, the Laura M. Lunt, on voyage from New York to Jacksonville with a cargo of coal, was abandoned in the North Atlantic. (see news article at the time). New York, March 18, 1914 Seven men, a woman and a baby were brought to this port today after being saved from a sinking ship during a heavy gale by the crew of another vessel that was also on the point of sinking. The recued were the crew of the schooner Laura M. Lunt, Oscar Johnson, Mrs. Johnson and their four-year-old daughter Helmar. They were saved by the British Windemere, which took them to Kingston Jamaica, whence they came to New York on the liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich. For several days the Lunt was blown about, her three masts snapped off, her deckhouse gone and the vessel rapidly filling. In this time two steamers stood by her for a long time waiting for the wind to die out, and finally left her to her fate. Finally the British tramp steamer Windemere appeared. She also was almost helpless, and was being kept afloat only by the constant efforts of the crew. All but two of her two lifeboats had been swept away. The Laura M. Lunt had none left. Captain savage of the Windemere, put down one of his boats, and it immediately capsized. the other was lowered and after his own sailors had been rescued, those of the Lunt were taken off. The Windemere made her way with difficulty to Kingston Harbor. Runs Into Cyclone The Lunt left Norfolk February 14 with coal for Jacksonville, and ran into the center of a cyclonic storm that took away her masts and shifted her cargo so that the deck stood at an angle of 45 degrees. Seams opened in the bottom, and the vessel filled at the rate of twelve inches of water an hour. Even Mrs. Johnson, the captain's wife, had to take her turn at the pumps, because the men became so exhausted. She tied the baby to a life preserver and fastened that to the woodwork of the cabin. While the woman was working at the pumps, the boat lurched and the water rose in the cabin so that, when went to rescue her baby the little one was floating the preserver unharmed. New York. -- Helma Jensen, a five-year old girl of Viking stock arrived here with her father and mother and assisted in reporting to the agents the wreck of the American three-masted schooner Laura M. Lunt, of which her father, Capt. Oscar Jensen, an Americanized Dane, was the skipper. Helma and her mother have shared nearly all the of Captain Jensen since the birth of the little girl. The mother spent six weeks ashore just before and after the birth of Helma and thereafter the child spent nearly all of her life afloat. The story of the wreck of the Lunt has been partly told, but not the yarn of Helma's indifference to the tempests that smashed the sturdy Lunt. The Lunt was driven several times across the gulf stream in her efforts to weather a series of storms, the first of which hit her a few days after she sailed from Norfolk on Feb. 14 with a cargo of coal for Jacksonville. She was nearly dismasted and her seams opened. All hands went to the pumps. Helma was in the cabin when the water began to rise there and her mother, who was bailing out with a bucket, put the girl on a table and went on bailing. Helma looked on the proceeding as a natural part of seagoing and was entirely undisturbed by the smashing of the roaring combers over the schooner. Her utter unconsciousness of danger and her chatter inspired the mother to bail harder and think less of the probability of foundering that seemed impending. When the water was gaining 12 inches an hour on the pumps and Helma's table was drifting around the cabin, much to her delight, the British steamship Windermere came along and save everybody. The Windermere had lost boats in the storms and had only one big one fit to use in rescue work. The boat made two trips to the wreck, taking off the mother and the little girl in the first boat. The skipper observed the tradition of the sea and was the last to leave his ship, which foundered a few hours later. Roll played in defining American seaman without regard to nationality: The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 275: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States and the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, November, 1921-January, 1922 According to a number of federal Maritime Law cases (see above) which included the Laura M. Lunt (D. C.) 170 Fed. 204 are cited as the controlling cases: These cases hold that service on an American vessel makes the person so serving, whatever his nationality, for the time being an "American Seaman," and as such entitled to the protection and subject to the obligations of the laws passed by Congress on behalf of American seamen. Counsel for the petitioner at the time urged with considerable force and plausibility that, if due effect be given to this doctrine, the crews of American vessels, wherever their allegiance may be, are eliminated from the provisions of the act; for, they say, a person may not be an American seaman and an alien seaman at one and the same time. EASTERN STEAMSHIP WHARF In June, 1856, the new steamboat wharf which had been built by Captain James Miller, and which has since been purchased and enlarged by the Sanford owners, was first used for their steamers. In 1867, during this season, the "Sanford" owners purchased Miller's Wharf, which they enlarged, and added passenger and freight depots. In 1882 the name of the Sanford Steamship Company was changed to the Boston and Bangor Steamship Company. In 1888 an outlay of $10,000 was made on steamboat wharf and buildings. The wharf is 460 feet in length, and 165' wide across the outer end. Note: At first there was Simpson's wharf, closer to town. It burned in the 1873 fire and was closed to public use in 1880. This left Millers/Sanford's/Boston and Bangor wharf as the only steamboat connection. The Eastern Steamship Company was founded in 1901 by the Wall Street financier C. W. Morse by consolidating six small New England coastwise lines. The Eastern Steamship Lines wharf was located at the foot of Commercial Street and accommodated the various steam ships which serviced coastal Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. The "steamer" tied up at the pier in this view appears to be either the Belfast or the Camden. These two ships provided overnight service between Boston and ports on Penobscot Bay from 1909 to 1935. This photo was likely from the 1920s judging from the automobiles on the pier. Leo Lucky refurbished and opened the building on the pier as a dance hall and roller skating rink in 1949. Due to its deteriorating condition, it was intentionally burned in 1959.