The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-02-20


What the Captain of the Steamer Dim
rock Saw a Dark Night at Sea
Three Ellsworth Young Men the Vic
Tins.
Yesterday three gentlemen of New
Hampshire came to this city on mission
which has connected with it one of the
saddest and strangest of the many trag
edies of the sea. They are Hon. Daniel
Hall and Hon. B. Frank Nealley of Dow
er. and Hon, John Sise of Portsmouth.
They were sent here by Judge Aldrich
of the United States District Court of
New Hampshire, to appraise the value
of the schooner Robert Graham Dunn,
now at the Eastern Forge Company's
wharf, as she was on the goth of last
September.
This appraisal is one of the steps in
series of law suits which involve a story
of great interest.
The schooner Robert Graham Dunn is
owned chiefly in New York, and is man.
aged by Peter H. Crowell of Boston. On
the morning of the Goth of last Septem-
Der she sailed from this port under COM
mand of Capt. George o. Pierce, Mass
acllusetts man. and bound for Newport
News.
On the same morning little Maine
schooner of 81 tons, the Captain John, of
Ellsworth, left the harbor of Hyannis,
Mass. where she had put in on her way
from Rondout, n. Y, with cement to
Boston. Three young men of Ellsworth
composed the crew of the Captain John.
They were Capt. Edward L. Milliken,
aged u, who had young wife and baby
in Ellsworth; Mate Bertrand B. Belts,
also with a wife and child in Ellsworth,
and Harry Milliken, the captains young
brother During the day of September
2oth the Captain John was beating up
the shores of Cape Cod, in company
with the schooner Lena Whitney. At3
o'clock in the afternoon both vessels
were about five miles east of Chatham
lights. At this time the Lena Whitney
went onto the shoals and anchored, leav-
ing the Captain John to proceed alone.
About I O. clock in the evening, the
schooner Nellie Grant, which was in
those waters, spoke the Captain John.
This is the last definitely heard from her
or her crew.
Meanwhile the Robert Graham Dunn,
having come out of Portland, was hur-
rying southwark, and approaching the
waters where the Captain John was
beating northward. At 10 o'clock in the
evening, when off Chatham, the Dunn
came into collision with two-masted
schooner. The owners of the Captain
John claim that this two-master was
their own vessel. But there is conflict
of testimony as to how the collision oc-
Cured, the owners of the Captain John
claiming that their vessel was struck on
the starboard bow, while the owners of
the Robert Graham Dunn claim that
their vessel struck the other in the star
board quarter, but deny that the other
was the Captain John. At the time OF
the collision, the Robert Graham Dunn
was sailing before the wind at about
eight knots an hour.
Immediately after the vessels came to-
gether the crew of the Dunn heard calls
for boat from the other vessel, and the
captain claims that they at once wore
their schooner and came back near the
place. But they never saw or heard
more of the ill-fated craft or her crew.
The owners of the Captain John, on
the other hand, claim that
No Effort Was Made
on the part of the Dunn to rescue the
drowning men.
The evidence upon this point involves
some facts which are interesting.
1t should be borne in mind that the
hour fixed for the collision is about 10
o'clock in the evening. That evening,
the steamer III. F. Dimock, Captain A. B.
Coleman, one of the Metropolitan line,
LETT Boston about 6 o'clock, for New
York. Captain Coleman says that at II
o'clock that night she was passing Chat
ham. He was asleep on couch in the
pilot house. The engineer was on deck
to shift the ventilator, when the crew
were suddenly startled by cries of
''Help! Help! For Gods sake, help us1'
The cries awakened the captain, also
Colonel Thomas Matthews, a Boston
merchant, who was passenger. and
Colonel Matthew's wife. The cries
came from the surface of the water,
close under the steamers side, where
some men were seen clinging to some
wreckage. The steamer was going at
rapid rate. and it took some time to put
her about and lower the life boat. The
crew of this boat found the wreckage