The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-12-27


ed States. When her builders landed on Stage
| Island the settlers of Jamestown Va, had not
| been quite three months on shore and some of
the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth may yet
have been boys at school. 1t was perhaps the
same ship Mary and John that is of historic
interest of later date, for vessel of the same
name was the first to arrive of Winthrops
fleet, in 1880, for the settlement of Massachu-
sets Bay. Forty-three years after the Stage
Island experience history repeated itself with
in the same Bath district. Other settlers had
arrived and located on the Kennebec at Wool
witch, which is on the side of the river oppo-
site to the present city of Bath At Wool
witch, as the record says, Sir William Phipps
built ship in 1914 for Boston company. This
appears to bave been the second vessel con-
structed in the Bath district. When it was
finished the Inhabitants took refuge on board
in consequence of the hostility OF the Indians
and Sir William carried them to Boston
These YES els and those of later date, were
small affairs, and can be called ships only by
courtesy and in conformity to the phraseologv
of the early colonial days. The first ship
strictly so called, built at Bath, was in 1862
She was called the Earl of Butte, and was con-
structed for Scotch merchant by Captain
William Swanton. The record says that the
captain continued to build a ship every year
until the Revolutionary war.
HISTORICAL VIEW.
1t was inevitable that Maine should be a
ship-building province from the earliest dates
In 1872 Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason
received charter from authorities in England
granting them all the land between the rivers
Merrimac and the Kennebec, then called the
Saeadahock river, and extending back to the
st. Lawrence and the lakes. Later they
severed their interests and Gorges took that
part lying between the Piscataqua and Kene-
bee rivers. For this he got new charter in
1886, calling the land therein the Province of
Maine. Political troubles at home prevented
his taking possession. From the year 1856 the
Plymouth colonsts held certain claims to the
territory of the Kennebec for trading purposes.
Later the Massachusetts colony got claim
which was eventually sanctioned by vote of
the inhabitants OF the Maine province. In
1868 grandson of Gorges set up a claim by in
heritance and the Massachusetts colony
bought him off for e1250. Finally, in 1892
SirsWiliam Phipps got a new charter from
England, which united the colonies of Ply
mouth and Massachusetts and the Province of
Maine under one government. By this it ap-
pears that in all these years and until 1919,
when Maine became a separate State, the
people regarded Massachusetts as both the il
political and business centre, with which COM
munication must be kept up. Nor doubtless
were sentimental considerations wholly absent,
as may be inferred from the celebration had in
Bath in 1920, a commemor9tion, not of the
landing of Popham and his party at Stage Is
land, but of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth.
The celebration included an Grafton. g. military
parade and a dinner of parched corn and
CLANS. In 1771, the minister of Bath, the Rev.
Francis Winter, and his wife iourneyed to
Boston on horseback. On returning the lady
became so fatigued that chaise was purchased
on the way fol- her. Mr.. Winter hired two ne
groes to accompany them to Swamp a road
for the carriage "Several times they had to
take the carriage to pieces to get it over the
windfalls or logs" This was the first carriage
in Bath. Until 1900 the mail was conveyed to
and from Boston on horseback When La
fayette visited Portland in 1924 the citizens of
that place sent to Phippsburg, which is at the
mouth OF the Kennebec, to borrow barouche,
which was "the only vehicle of the kind in
these regions" Under such circumstances
communication, either local or with the centre,
could not be kept up conveniently by land.
Water-craft of various sizes were the horse-car
and railway train of that period, the universal
vehicles, and erybody was in some degree,
however humble, shipwright and ship-owner
| Besides this the woods were full of material
for the construction of vessels for which, W b en-
built, market at some figure could doubt less
always be found.
| But there was no popularity about the woods
| of the Kennehec region. How then did it hap
| pen that the district of Bath got so firm grip
on this business of shipbuilding? The reply is
not wanting at the present day, that the supe-
residents there will account for it.. While it
may be admitted for the purposes of this arti-
| Gle that there are good men elsewhere, and al
| SO in Bath, it is true that history does lend
some color to this theory; for the local historic
| an records that 1.-THE men of Bath born in the
| seventeenth century were reckoned half
| head taller than the men Of any other commu-
nty in the country. There were no small men
among them, and but very few medium sized
ones. They might well be called race of gi-
| ants in size and strength. There were but a
very few men that weighed less than $50
| pounds" sufficient suggestion on this point
will be that in every line of business there is a
| normal tendency to concentrate at some one or
few points, and that men of resources and of
| courage to deal in business on large scale
naturally gravitate for a more effectual cooper
| alton. In the early years of shipbuilding at
| Bath the nearness of the primal forest growth
| undoubtedly had some Influence in fixing the
| destinies OF the place, but now the frames for
| the most important class of vessels are brought
from Virginia and Maryland, the planking
and ceiling stuff from Georgia and the Caroli-
| mas, the knees and other knurly pieces from
Canada, the great spars from Oregon, and the
standing rigging of wire from Europe. All Of
local production that goes into the ship is, hap
ly, cargo of ice from the upper Kennebec
The ultimate solution of the problem is, prob
ably. TO be found in the topography of the
place Bath is situated ten miles from the
mouth of the Kennebec, which pours its great
volume of water from the upper confines OF
the city into the sea, at depth ranging from
fifty to eighty feet at low tide The tide has a
rise and fall of about ten feet. The inflow
makes the water so salt that 1t does not readi-
| ly freeze, and the current at half tide is so
swift and powerful that any Swimming over
produced at slack water, is quickly broken up.
The movements of the ferry boats to and from
Woolwich contributes also in the maintenance
of good harbor facilities in the winter time
The city fronts upon a bold shore of three or
four miles extent, and greets the rising sun
and the irregularly sloping hills that stretch
westward and northward, subdue the derees
wintry blasts. The shore has solid substra
tum and the launching ways can always be de
pended upon, and resident expert says thai
any failure to launch is always owing to an I'M
due economy in the matter of grease. The
caution which must always be observed, is tC
launch at slack water, for should the deep and
stealthy current OF the river catch upon tht
broad side of the advancing keel it would bt
sure to give an uncaDny twist to the vessel
further progress upon the ways.
THE PRE-EMINENcE OF BATH.
Bath is not only the greatest woodenship
building place in the United States, but the
greatest in the world. The value of the ship
ping built there within a century past is est
mated to be upwards of $50,000,0O0. The larg
est annual production was in 1854, when Ga,
327 tons we're built, or 81 vessels. OF this
Number SO we're ships. In the 10 years ending
1910 the building amounted to 60 500 tons. TIT
| next decade showed gain OF about 70 Pc
eent., the total being 1882 TONS Between
1850 and 1860 the product nearly trebled anC
reached 324, 1888 tons. The war period brought
the yield of the next term down to 1853, 539, bu
between 1870 and 1880 there was gain of 81.
per cent, giving total for that period o
225, GAG tons. In 1880 the population was 3773
in 1910 it was 5141; in 1850 it was 1920; in 1861
it was SOTO; in 1870 it was 1871; in 1880 it wai
1874 It's estimated that upwards of 1OOt
men GU the average are employed at Bath il
ship building aud imm diately related indus
tries, such as the work of smiths, painters
riggers, teamsters hauling timber, etc. TAX
all the materials at Cost delivered at the SHIP
yard it is estimated that one-third of the COS
OF ship is the labor of constructing it. Taking
Ing the value of the timber in the forest ant
the iron one at the mine, ETC., as is sometimes
done, the ratio of labor cost is much greater
The va lue of a completed ship or other new
vessel is estimated at present from $50 to WI
per ton. The total deposits and profits of tn
two savings banks in tue city is about 1000
| 900. A Lar q share of the woTkmen in tn