The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-13

ID the people of this village ehoio 10 a reminder of old times In the merry clangor of saw and hammer ecnoins from the ishipyard on the rlver oank' hut whiIc this renewal of activity re. calls inc days when Bucksport ship. sailed all the seas known to merchan, complains. the vessel which IS being buiIt in the old yard upon verona island is not destined for purposes oi trade. she is to force her way as far as nossible into the ice covered seat of the far North, carrying Lieutenant Commander Peary in order that ne may make another dash Tor the Poie. Nothing is to be allowed to oeIay the work of construction, if human fore- sight and ingenuity can prevent
 A house has been erected over the stocks and work upon the vessel will 20 steadily on during the coming win fer no matter how severe may be the storm sweeping down the valley or the Penobscot. ..
 When a naval architect designs a. ship fer Arctic exploration his first care is to so model the hull that when caught in the ice floes the craft will he forced upward, but the mere form of the hull is not enough to ensure safety. It must be made as strong as
 material and skill permit. To secure this result, only the toughest Of wood fs used. In the Peary ship. the stern, stern post, keels, keelson and frames are of carefully selected white oak
 The massive frames will be only two
 feet apart from centre to centre, and
 they will be enclosed in a cage Of steel
 made of diagonal straps and covering
 the inner fabric of the ship from stern
 to stern. Over the straps will be a
 double course of five-inch planking
 of yellow pine and white oak. and be-
 tween these two courses will be tarred
 hemp or tarred canvas. guard strake
 oof white oak surrounds the vessel at
 the level of the main deck, projecting
 outward for such a distance that when
 the ice presses against her sides and
 is forced upward by the resistance, the
 ship will actually rest upon the guard
 strake. More than that, should she be
 frozen in, it would be possible to break
 the grip of the ice by the use Of hy-
 draulic jacks placed under the strake.
 Naturally, SO important part Of the
 vessels protection is securely fasten-
 ed to the hull and in addition it is
 strengthened by an angle bar of steel
 on it's under side.
 Equally foreign to the method of
 constructing a vessel of ordinary mo-
 del is the system by which the hull
 Is to be further strengthened. The interior of the ship will be almost completely filled with heavy timoers. Starting at the center of the decks, these braces will extend diagonally downwards and outwards, the lower ends resting against the frames and helping them to withstand the pres sure of the ice. With hull thus fill ed with timbers. provision must be made for living quarters above decks and here there will be two houses, so constructed that they may be removed and set up on shore. For the rest, the vessel will be rigged as three masted schooner with an exception ally large spread of canvas and will also be provided with steam power. She will be of about 1900 tons and will be ready for service early next sum- mer. It Is the explorers plan to go | in the vessel to the Northern shore of Grant land. winter there and make his dash for the Pole during the following | summer.
 | Tn Rucksport and all the region round about live families whose hts- | tory is closely connected with ship ping. When American vessels car
 ried the flag to all parts of the world, this town was the site of many ship yards and the sons of the men who built and sailed these vessels are talk ing great interest in the progress of the Peary ship. It is talked about in | the stores and the ancient inn which has been made familiar to playgoers as "Jed Proutys Tavern" That the sons have inherited the skill of the fathers
 is shown by the fact that they can today build ships to sail to the North ern seas. But the ancient glories Of
 the place have departed and now ves-
 sells are built here only occasionally for the coastwise trade or adventur- ous careers in northern waters.
 l All along the northern Atlantic coast are towns of which Bucksport Is ty- picaI and the story of their vanished industry is interwoven with that of the decline of the American merchant
 marine. Comparatively few of the oldtime shipyards are in operation and these are entirely given over to the building of coasters and war ships. At Bath, on the other great Maine river. the Kennebec, 1t was demonstra- | ted that new methods of construction did not present obstacles which Amer ican ship- builders could not overcome | for in the Sewall yard, long famous for the construction of modern vessels, a number of steel ships were launched. The enterprise was finally abandoned not because the ships could not be built here as well as anywhere in the
 world, but because they could not com | nate with the subsidies, bounties and cheap wages of foreign nations. It is a matter of interest to the whole country that an attempt to revive this once great industry is likely to be | made. Congress has approached the l matter in a non n-partisan spirit and | during the coming session the re- l mission, composed of members repre- senting both political parties, will receive a large share of attention. Peary's ship is being built near the point where the first ship ever launch- ed upon the Penobscot River was put together old residents of the town tell of the days when a dozen ship yards gave employment to hundreds of men engaged in the construction
 of vessels. Bucksport was settled in
 1764 and in 1770 Colonel Jonathan
 Buck was building ships there and
 for the next hundred years shipbuild-
 ing was the leading industry of the
 place.
 A large portion of the wealth of the
 village was invested in navigation. and
 at one time besides the vessels in the
 foreign and coasting trade, about D.
 900 tons of shipping were employed in
 the Bank fisheries. On board of these
 vessels a host of young men were ed-
 ucated to make intelligent, active, sea-
 men, and many of them rose to the
 quarter deck of the best ships. After
 the Civil War, with the decline of
 the American Marine in the foreign Ghinhuildfnpr