The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-01-21
"a YEARS A sEAFARER.
Cam. John H. Bennett of brewer. Me Aged
~, Still an Active skipper.

Can, John II. Bennett OF brewer, We aged
IL, Still an Active Skipper.
One of the oldest shippers actively
ed in seafaring life is Capt. John
Henry Bennett, commander of the two
masted coasting schooner Irving Leslie.
He is Y years of age and has been 60
ing to sea for IS years:
Capt. Bennett was born in Hancock,
Me-. where so years ago resided many
of the ablest shipmasters in New Eng
land. among whom were the Abbotts,
Balls, Berrys, Posses, Dows, Clarks,
Crabtrees, Grants, Moores. JellersOns,
Pettingills, Lancasters, STATIONS,
Woosters and others, who commanded
ships of the Liverpool packet lines and
vessels in the cotton trade, while others
commanded barks, briggs and schooners
in the West India and European trade.
1t was with such men as these that
Capt. Bennett, when a mere BOY, COM
menced his seafaring career, making
voyages to the West Indies and in the
southern and eastern coastlng trade.
At an early age he was master OF a
good sized schooner, and since then he
has commanded II vessels, among them
the Alice r. Eagle, Diamond, William
Pickering, William H. Archer, Pinta,
Laurel and Ann. The last named YES
sci he sailed eight years for the late
John S. Emery of Boston. -Four years
ago, when the Ann had been doing ser
vice for IS years, Capt. Archer sailed
her to Bermuda, with his son as his only
assistant on the voyage. This vessel
was sold to parties in Bermuda, where
she is still in service, supplying steam
ers calling at the island with bunker
oonl Tho nnccaua fo Rarnl6a xpoc
complished in seven days.
Capt Bennett has never lost vessel,
but before his promotion to captain he
was twice shipwrecked and his expert
ence on those occasions he will never
forget. He was member of the crew
of the brig l.. Copeland when that YES
sci was dismasted and abandoned at
sea, all hands being saved and landed
at New York by another vessel.
The captain says the closest call in his
long career was in May, 1855, while a
member of the crew of the schooner
Warrenton, Capt. Isaiah Wooster,
bound from Hancock, Me-, to Boston
with load of railroad ties. She had as
passengers eight young women, who
were on their way from their homes in
Maine to accept positions in the mills
at Lowell and Lawrence, most of the
operatives at that time being Ameri-
cans, whose homes were in Maine, New
Hampshire and Vermont.
The vessel encountered a terrific east
erly gale in Massachusetts bay, and,
while hove to, she was run into by the
ship Miss Mag, Capt. Hinckley, inward
bound from New Orleans, with cargo
of cotton for Boston The schooner's
malnmaSt was cut away and her side
crushed in so that she filled with water,
but her cargo kept her af1oat. Bennett
distinguished himself by remaining on
board the waterlogged craft in order to
| assist the young women to a place of
safety on the other vessel By means
of ropes tied around their waists they
were pulled on board the ship, and as
the vessels separated in the darkness
Bennett saved himself by grasping the
martingale of the ship. All hands sue
ceeded in reaching the deck of the Miss
Mag, with the exception of two daugh-
tiers of Capt. Wooster, who were miss
ing. 1t TRANSFERRED that Bennett secured
a rope around one of the girls, but she
removed it when she heard the voice of
her sister. who was underneath the
mainsail in the wreckage, and was
overlooked by the young sailor.
The Miss Mag stood by until daylight,
when she ran down close to the wreck,
but as no one could be seen on boa rd
she continued on her way to Boston.
Subsequently the wreck of the Warren
ton drifted ashore at Scituate, where
the life-savers boarded her, and discov-
cred the young women clad only in
their night robes, nearly exhaused from
cold and hunger
In May, 1868, Capt. Bennett enlisted
in the navy, and was attached to the
receiving ships Wabash and Ohio at the
Charlestown navy yard. Then he was
transferred to the monitor Shawnee
and was in the blockading squadron off
Charleston until the close of the war;
Receiving his discharge, he returned to
his home, where he married. He has
five children, two daughters and three
sons. The boys took naturally to the
sea, and at present one is master of the
schooner William II. Archer, which his
father formerly commanded; another is
an officer on one of the Mallory line
steamers plying between New York
and Galveston, and the third is an Of
ficer of the big tug Powerful, stationed
at Bermuda.
Capt. Bennett owns farm at Brew
er, Me-, where he spends portion of
each year, but his innate fondness for
the sea prevents his retiring altogether
from TIE fascination of seafaring life.
Boston Globe.