The Portland daily press., 1896-02-28


of other States.
Wherever upou our coast, on the banks
of NEWFOUNDLAND, or Labador, men fin
ished for cod, mnokerel or herring, or
chased and captured whales between the
equator and the ice barriers of the poles
or in whatever part of the globe shi ps
displayed the stars and stripes that flag
foated over hardly mariners from the
State of Maine.
1t is said to have been for refusing rs
sistanoe to Maine fishing vessel, that
'Old Flod Ireson, with his hard heart,
was tHrred and feathered and hauled in
a cart,
BY the women of Marbehead.''
In the palmy days of our merchant
marine, the white sails of Maine ships
dotted every sea of the commercial world,
and Maine shipmasters, and for their
sklli as navlgators, and for their skill
as naVigators, and for their common
sense and shrewdness in business affairs.
But alas a mighty change has taken
place in our merchant marine! Its glory
has departed and Ichabod should beTrit
ten In its place. No longer are it's white
sails seen on every sea. Instead. now Is
to be seen the black smoke of the steamer
disfiguring the horizon with the trail of
the serpent, with which the old time
sh1pmaster can get up no enthusiasm.
1t is, however, of the past we are now
treating. That is secure of that we can
speak and point with pride, for then our
ships lead the fieets of the world.
In that lead Maine shipmasters bore Il
conspicuous part to many, but to no par
tioular one was that part assigned, nor
can any. claim the sole honor Many of
those who took part in that glorious era
have passed away; a few vet remain
with us, and the memory of their achieve
,nents appropriately forms ons of the
themes OF this centennial observance.
Commodore Edward Preble. native
of Portland, born in 1861 and who diod
here in 1907, Is an illustration of what
Maine has done for the United States
Navy. He entered the Massachusetts navy
in 1779; was captured off the Penobscot
and sent to the prison ship Jersey, at
New York.
On being liberated he Joined the naval
ship Winthrop of Massachusetts and led a
boarding party which captured an Eng
lish armed brig of fourteen guns, off
Castine and carried her out from under
the fire Of an English battery at that
place.
He was made lieutenant in the Unit
ed States navy in 1790, and in the same
year was promoted to captaincy, and
was placed in command of tine Picker
ing, under Commodore Barry of the West
India squadron.
and sailed in her to Batavia and con-
yoyed home IA sail of merchantmen. In
1903 he commanded in the frigate Consti-
tuition the squadron sent to Tripoli and
the Barbary states to teach them that
the American flag and American ships
could not be insulted and molested with
impunlty. Under him were officers who
then and later by deeds of bravery and
daring made the American navy illustri-
ous-Batnbridge, Barrow, Decatur. Hull,
Smith, Sa,ners, Stewart and others
whose names still shed lustre upon the
pages of our naval history.
A Maine boy, Joseph Limeburner Of
Brooksville, rose from being cook Of a
fisherman to the command Of the New
York clipper ship Samuel Russell in the
China trade then to the command Of
the Great Republic, and still later to the
command of the steamship Alabama.
1t was Maine boy, born in my native
town of Blue Hill. that started in o
whaling ship from New Bedford; rose to
command in the ship Bowditch in !849,
was the first to pass into the BehriDg
Sea in pursuits of the 1eyiathan of the
deep.
Captain Mitchell of Freeport, who COM
manded various ships and won distinc-
ton as shipn;aster; he had wonderful
experience as master of the clipper ship
Hornet, burnedi the Pacific while UNI
der his command, and the story of the
sufferings of himself and crew for forty
days in an open boat until they landed
upon one of the Sandwich Islands, is
more or less familiar to you.
There are the achievements, experiences
and successes of many other Maine sea
captains which crowd my memory with
the desire to narrate them to you, but
tie will not permit me to do SO. Therefore
the best Dan do Is to select one to repre-
sent the class Of Maine shipmasters
There are several Of that class, mem pers
of this society, q sketch of whom would
fairly represent the aim In view, and
prove of marked interest on this occasion.
But as type of the Maine merchant
sea captain let me present a sketch of my
friend, Captain James Hall. He was on
on the Kenebee, in the town OF Pittston.
July 4, 1911, The anniversary of our ma
tion's Independence; his mother yielding
her life or his.
Upon the banks Of the Kennebeo he
grew and developed handy, toughfbred
beyhood, qualities destined at later
period, and in other fields of action to
lead him on to fame and fortune.
The Law-The basis of civil order, and
the guide and safety of a free people.
May the aim of Bar and Court alike be
Justice tempered with mercy.
Response by Judge J. W. Symonds.
JUDGE SYMONDS'S REMARKS.
Mr.. President and Gentlemen
| suppose r. man may indulge reason
able pride in his profession, reasonable
preference for it, without at the same
time being required or disposed to claim
that the millennium has come in 1t,
more than in other departments of hui
man activity. That happy period of q
thousand years, when evil shall have dis
appeared and the reign of perfeotpess
and peace shall have overspread the
earth, unfortunately seems still to lie as
far in the future as the golden age of the
poets and of the early dreaming Of the
race lies behind us in the past.
Cicero once expressed the hope that the
time might come when there should NJ
longer be one law at Athens, fanother a
Rome, Zone now, another hereaf ter, bu
among all nations and in all time on,
and the same law should prevail; mean
ing by one and the same law, suppose
the perfection of human reason which
Lord Coke included in his definition.
The age of Cicero is already far in the
past, we have come long way from it
but, whatever progress we may have
made, vast and Unreasonable as it is
We clearly have not reached the goal IL
which this vision aspired.
The profession of medicine, theology
and law have hitherto been regarded per