LB2007.1.72066

LB2007.1.72066

Three Six Masted Schooners - 155, S-52, Right-"George W. Wells', Middle "Eleanor A. Percy", Left ? GEORGE W. WELLS (on right) She was a beautiful sight. At 325 feet long (302 feet at the keel), 48 feet at the beam, and weighing 2,970 tons, the six-masted coastal schooner, George W. Wells, was one of the largest wooden sailing ships ever built. Her frame was entirely of white oak; her six inch planking, hard pine. Her garboards (the first strake of planks laid next to the keel) were eight inches thick. According to a contemporary account, "the six lower masts are splendid sticks of Oregon Pine, each 119 feet long.... The cabins and staterooms are finished in ash, sycamore and cherry, and supplied with steam heat, baths, hot and cold water, electric bells and a telephone line to the galley and engine house." The Wells, built for John S. Crowley's Coastwise Transportation Company at the Holly M. Bean shipyard in Camden, Maine, at a cost of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, slid down the ways and into the harbor on August 14, 1900 as ten thousand people looked on. The schooner was named for a fifty-four year old entrepreneur/investor who was born on a farm in Southbridge, Connecticut. At the age of eighteen he had secured a job in the Robert H. Cole & Co. optical shop where he quickly distinguished himself as a mechanical genius. By 1869 he had advanced to partner. In that year he became one of the incorporators of the newly organized American Optical Company. Three years later he became General Supervisor; then Treasurer in 1879. In 1891 he was elected President of the corporation.* The ship's christening ceremony was performed by George W. Wells' daughter, Miss Mary Elizabeth, who "scattered white roses upon the bow of the vessel as she started down the ways, and at the same time let loose a flock of white pigeons." After the ceremony the young society women of Camden sponsored a dance in the Opera House. Reports of the day indicate that "every arrangement aboard ship…[was] on an improved plan." Both the captain's cabin and the crews' quarters were "models of neatness and comfort." The Wells was constructed, as so many other coastal schooners, for hauling lumber, coal, and other merchandise. Sailors aboard employed modern steam machinery to hoist her cargo between ship and dock. Before her commissioning, word spread among the sailing community that the traditional designations for the names of her masts would be replaced by numbers or days of the week. Her skipper, Captain Arthur Crowley, the owner's brother, would have none of that. The Wells' masts, he made clear, would be foremast, mainmast, mizzenmast, spankermast, jiggermast, and drivermast. Old salts who had heard of the plans to build such a large vessel shook their heads and declared that she was doomed to failure. Too large and cumbersome, they thought, the Wells would be unwieldy in port and difficult to control at sea. They were largely mistaken. Nearly as fast as a coastal steamer, but considerably less expensive to operate, the George W. Wells, with twenty-eight sails, proved to be a formidable and economical vessel. One writer noted that "while she is a large vessel, she is also a handsome craft being much the best looking of all the large schooners afloat. Her great length takes away every appearance of bulkiness, and so she looks like an immense yacht, with her sharp bows, clean run aft and graceful lines all over...." Ironically, in June of 1901 the Wells collided with the Eleanor A. Percy (launched October 10, 1900 in Bath, Maine), at the time the only other six-masted coastal schooner. Neither vessel was seriously damaged. WRECK - September 3, 1913 For thirteen years the George W. Wells plied the Atlantic Ocean between ports as far north as New England and as far south as Cuba. On September 3, 1913, en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Fernadina Beach, Florida, the Wells was driven into the breakers on Ocracoke Island by hurricane force winds. The storm struck the island just after daylight, roaring in from the southeast at 90 - 100 mph. Small boats, steamers, and sailing vessels were no match for the hurricane. The British steam ship, Glenaen, grounded in the breakers near Ocracoke's south point. For two hours the crew of the Ocracoke Life Saving Station battled wind and tide to approach the Glenaen. After being forced to abandon rescue attempts by surfboat, Keeper Williams ordered horses hitched to the beach cart. Tide water swirled under the cart up to the axle. By 10:30 a.m. the tide receded, leaving the Glenaen "high up on the beach" and out of immediate danger. As the life savers struggled to help the Glenaen they watched a water logged six-masted schooner being blown down the beach with distress signals flying. All of the George W. Wells' sails had been torn away, and she was leaking badly where seams in her hull had opened. Captain Taylor of the Glenaen decided that he and his crew of 23 would remain on their vessel, so Keeper Wiliams and his crew turned their attention to the Wells, and followed the schooner for eight miles. As the schooner approached the shore Captain Joseph H. York ordered her anchors lowered, but the chains parted, and the Wells was driven onto the beach near the present day pony pen. Surfman Roscoe Burrus at the Hatteras Inlet station had also spied the Wells. Well aware of the difficulty of attempting a rescue in hurricane force winds, Keeper Barnett requested assistance from Durant's Station on Hatteras Island. Crews from all three stations arrived at the wreck between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Reports indicate that they participated in one of the most daring and courageous rescue operations ever recorded. Surfmen from the Hatteras Inlet station had harnessed ponies to their beach apparatus cart which was heavily loaded with breeches buoy, pulleys, sand anchor, various sizes of hemp line, brass Lyle gun, and other equipment. The sea tide was rushing over the beach, inundating the cart as every wave passed by. After two miles the ponies balked and refused to continue. Without hesitation the surfmen hitched themselves to the cart and pulled their equipment the remaining six miles, often in water up their waists and through quicksand, to the site of the wreck. Keeper Barnett's first two shots from the Lyle gun fell short of the Wells. He fired five more shots, but none succeeded in getting the breeches buoy to the schooner. The last line parted as it was being hauled to the vessel. Finally Captain York tied a line to an empty oil barrel and sent it adrift. After an hour the life savers were able to reach the barrel by wading into the sea up to their necks. Soon afterwards they were successful in sending the breeches buoy out to the stranded schooner. Captain York secured the hawser high up on one of the masts, and signaled that he and his crew and passengers were ready to abandon ship. By 11 o'clock that night all 26 people (20 crew members, three women, and three children) and a large Saint Bernard dog were brought safely to shore. One of the passengers was barely able to keep his two year old child's head above water as they were pulled to safety. Captain York was the last to leave his crippled ship. He carried the Saint Bernard and a red lantern, the latter of which he dropped into the ocean just before landing on shore. Just over a week later the once grand George W. Wells was sold at auction for a mere $800. Shortly thereafter the Wells was set on fire and burned. For years, remnants of the George W. Wells were visible on the beach at Ocracoke. In recent times a section of a long ago shipwreck, more than 75 feet long and more than 15 feet wide, is sometimes exposed north of the pony pen. No one knows for sure, but many believe it is the last of the George W. Wells, a silent reminder of the days of sailors and sailing ships, and the brave and courageous life savers who watched over our shores ELEANOR A. PERCY (center) Percy & Small's business in 1900 exceeded the capacity of their yard in Bath. They expected to deliver three five-masted schooner. The crowning work of the firm that year was the six-masted schooner Eleanor A. Percy. She would be 301.5 feet in length at the keel, 323'5" LOA with a 50 foot beam and 24 feet depth of hold with tonnage: 3401 GRT and 3062 NRT. This was the largest schooner-rigged wooden vessel ever built at the time. . Captain L.W. Jewett was given command of the vessel. The launching of the Eleanor A. Percy occurred a little past noon on October 10, 1900. Crowds of workmen swarmed about her much like bees around a hive and all were busy getting everything in readiness for the big beauty's slide down the ways. Remembering the sticking on the ways of the five-master William C. Carnegie, during Old Home Week, the launching crew had applied a liberal amount of flaxseed to the ways and there was little danger of her failure to launch. On board were a number of friends of the builders and the owners, the central figure being Miss Eleanor A. Percy, for whom the boat was named and who was to christen the craft. The crowd hadn't long to wait after the hour set for the launching arrived. for, suddenly the click, clack, clack of the big mauls and sledges announced to the expectant gathering that the work of launching had really begun. With clock-like regularity the blows resounded and then came a cry followed by the snapping and crackling , so well known at the launching of all big vessels, then with one convulsive shiver the boat started down the slope; the smoke arose from the ways, the fair christener played well her part, the crowd cheered, there was a splash and the Eleanor A. Percy, shooting stern first toward the Woolwich shore, was afloat. Her keel of oak was laid last March, and with the exception of a few weeks during the summer, when work upon her had to be suspended on account of a lack of hard pine, she has been hustled along very rapidly. A feature in this craft which will add greatly to her strength is a sheet of steel thirty feet long and an inch thick, which runs through her seven tier keelson. This will do much to keep her backbone from breaking or straining. Here frames, and there are 101 of them, are of hackmatack and oak. Her ceiling and planking are of yellow pine, her decks of hard pine with white pine tops. Her rigging is all of wire, set up with turnbuckles, her mast are of Oregon pine, handsome sticks, 123 feet long, and her top masts half that length. Her ship machinery is all from the Hyde Windlass plant and her steering gear the heavies made. Her cabins, elegant apartments, are polished mahogany and quartered oak. Her anchors, a wood stock and a stockless, weigh 8,500 pounds each and are attached to 100 fathoms of 2½ inch chain each. The number of men employed at Percy & Small average 200. DEFINITIONS: LOA: Length overall is usually measured on the hull alone. For sailing ships, this may exclude the bowsprit and other fittings added to the hull. This is how some racing boats and tall ships use the term LOA. GRT: Gross register tonnage represents the total internal volume of a vessel, where one register ton is equal to a volume of 100 cubic feet NRT: Net register tonnage is the volume of cargo the vessel can carry-that is, the gross register tonnage less the volume of spaces that do not hold cargo (e.g., engine compartment, helm station, and crew spaces. It represents the volume of the ship available for transporting freight or passengers. HACKMATACK: commonly known as tamarack or larch. Hackmatack is probably from Western Abenaki (Algonquian language of New Hampshire and Vermont), with a first known use in 1792,. The word tamarack is the Algonquian name for the species and means "wood used for snowshoes." ANCHORS: The stockless anchor which was patented in England in 1821, came into wide use principally because of its ease of handling and stowing. The crown, arms, and flukes of a stockless anchor are cast in one piece and can pivot slightly from side to side on the shank. The flukes are long and heavy, and have projecting shoulders at their base that catch on the seabed. As more drag is exerted, the shoulders force the flukes downward into the bottom. Stockless anchors have replaced the older stock anchor on most of the large ships of the world. The stock anchor was a major improvement with the addition of a stock, or horizontal arm that is set at right angles to the arms and flukes of the lower part of the anchor. The stock ensures that the arms rest vertically on the seabed, and thus one fluke will dig itself in, providing maximum holding power. In a wood stock anchor, the stock was made of wood. On June 29th, 1901, ELEANOR A. PERCY, collided with, ironically, the only other existing six-masted schooner at the time, the GEORGE W. WELLS off Cape Cod. Neither ship was seriously damaged, but the repairs lasted for 35 days at Percy & Small's shipyard. In 1903 she sailed from Boston to Newport News and back with 5500 tons of coal in 13 days. She was sold to New York owners in 1915 and was chartered to take a cargo of case oil to Montevideo. She was then sold to Theo B. Heistein & Sønner, Christiansand in 1916 for $ 800.000 together with three other schooners, including Monott's four-masted schooner Ada F. Brown (1901). She left Rio de Janeiro for Copenhagen with a cargo of wheat on November 11, 1919 and on December 25th she sprang a leak and foundered 350 miles off the Irish coast. Five of her crew got away in a motorboat which broke down, but they were picked up by the Swansea trawler WALWYN CASTLE, 150 miles West of Lundy. The other twelve men went down with the ship. Two years later, her logbook washed ashore on Scilly Islands and quite amazing, the entries were still readable. The second mate N.P. Austrin's last entry was: "Sprung a leak, sinking, lat 48°N, long 19°W, bound for Copenhagen". UNKNOWN SCHOONER (on left)