Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-24
THE CARRYING BUSINESS.
How 1t Has Changed by Sea and Land
in Recent Years.

How It Has Changed by Sea and Land
in Recent Years.
Bangor. Me-, May 23.-(SpeciaD-
Standing on the draw pier of the Ken
duskeag steam railroad bridge one day
last fall Capt. Gil" Pickett, the vet
Gran draw tender, viewed the fleet of
shipping in the main river and re-
marked that there was the greatest
amount Of tonnage in the river then
that had ever been seen there. This
statment was published. Instantly
there arose storm of protest. Men
who had been connected with things
maritime all their lives, and those
who had been more or less connected
with it, said Captain Pickett was
wrong. But was he? AS a matter Of
fact he was very much in the right, as
those who stopped to give due consider
alton to his words readily saw. He did
not saw that there were more sail of
vessel in the harDor than ever before.
Oh. no, not he. Such statement
would have been incorrect, and he well
knew 1t. for he is a practical man and
IS tnOIOuSHly dtluhhieNo WIN ehih6o
pertaining to ships and shipping.
But those who criticized his remark
who pooh poohed at it as being silly
and absurd, didn't stop to think. Had
they. they might not have said what
they did. Instead they began to tell of
what they had seen in Bangor's port.
They had seen tier after tier of lum-
Der loading schOoners at City Point;
had seen three to four of them mOored
TO the bridge piers, the Brewer shores
lined with coasters loading either lum-
Der or brick. or both; had seen the ia
nous ships Red Jacket, Flying Cloud
and a number of others here at one
time. They had seen the river filled,
as they put it, with schOOners, conse-
uucntly Gill must be wrong.
And all the time they were talking
about one thing, the veteran about
another. He was talking about ton
mage, they about numbers of vessels.
And there is much difference. AS is
very generally known the vessels of
today are much different than they
were score and half years ago-yes.
of a score years ago. One vessel of
today, that is of modern build, will
thing, as would Il fleet of four to 20 of
the oldtimers. That was where the
veteran had the bulge on the others
He took into consideration the great
size of modern carrying bottoms, they
only of the numbers. In order to bet
ter illustrate this point the following
figures and facts will serve better than
anything else.
In the year 1868 there was built. at
one of the Brewer yards, the schooner
July Fourth. She was 1913 feet long,
2G2 feet wide and feet deep. Her
gross tonnage was 100 tons, while her
net tonnage was ia tons. Compare her
with the first of the five masters,
which was the Governor Ames, built at
WaldoDoro in 1888, just % years later.
The Ames is 2i5.6 feet long, 1916 feet
wide and 21.2 feet deep. Her gross
tonnage is IFS and her net 1891. 1t
would require Il fleet of IA schoonerS
the same size as July Fourth to equal
the Ames' tonnage, or to carry her load.
Captain Pickett in making his foolish
(?l statement, as some characterized il,
took this into consideration. At the
time he was talking there was Il big
fleet. of coalcrs, steam and sailing ana
bargcs at the railroad coal docks here
and each one of them carried much
bigger cargo than the Amcs. In addl-
ton to this there was quite a fleet OF
Italian banks and ships, tramp steam
crs here for shocks and spool bars, as
well as good sized fleet of thrcemast-
cd lumber carriers. all of them much
larger than the oldtime coaster. 1t
r,br1irpd 0f tho old
time SchooncrS and ships than there
would have been room for in the har-
hor to have equaled the tonnage then
present here. Hence Captain Pickett
was right.