Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1905-08-26

~ 10 grief in a quiet cove on a
l5,Steoa6RR summer day or be wrecked
in her home port within
a stones throw of the wharf. The
queer accidents that have happened
TO Maine vessels would fill a volume,
and many Of the stories would not be
believed by landsmen. Two old re-
tired shipmasters were talking in a
Bangor ship chandlery the other day
about peculiar disasters at sea, and one
of them recalled the mysterious wreck
ing years ago Of little schooner called
the Active down in Eggemoggan
Reach, eastern coast water of Maine.
1t was in the fall of the year, and
the Active was going through a rath-
er narrow channel between two ISL
ands. She carried only two men-the
master. Captain Ray, and his sixteen
year-Old son. When last seen under
sail the Active was all right, the boy
steering and his father below taking
nap. as IL afterward turned out.
Next day the Active was found on
the rocks with her stern stove in, the
boy dead at the wheel with a bullet
hole in his head.
This discovery caused great SEN
sntlon, and, as there appeared to be
no motive for any one to murder the
boy. and as 1t was known that the
shot must have been fred by a third
person, the whole affair was a mys-
"a 4hVxo fnV aVsc
when a man living in another State
confessed on his deathbed that 1t was
he who fred the dot that killed the
helmsman of the Active.
The man said that he had fired at n
hawk, which was circling low, and
did not see the schooner, which sud
denly came into range, owing to an
intervening clump of bushes. Then
he was Mortified to see the boy at the
schooner's wheel throw up his hands
and fall to the deck, while the schoon-
er preached to and was driven ashore
by the wind and tide. The gunner
who was after gulls and ducks, fed
without waiting to investigate the re-
suit of his unfortunate shot, fearing
that If he reported the matter to the
authorities he might, although inno-
cent of any criminal intent, be i'm
prlsoned.
There are on record instances of YES
sells having been wrecked or run down
by reason of their helmsmen being
asleep or insane, and one Maine
schooner was cut down by steamer
because the man at the wheel was
deaf and could not hear the steamers
whistle signals. The ROckport brig
Maria w. Norwood had a narrow es-
cape from collision some years ago
of the coast of Georgia under strange
circumstances. The brig was running
along under easy sail one moonlight
night and a steamer was coming up
astern. When the steamer got too
close for comfort 4 torch was burned
over the briggs stern the man at
the steamers wheel paid no atten-
ton to it. holding to his course, which
would take him right through the brig.
Finally great shouting by the briggs
Il~aEiN..ard tho firing of q gun awoke
the steamers wheelman and he put
her helm hard down just in time 10
escape a crash.
When the steamer had come close
up it was observed that the man steer
ing was hanging over the wheel as
though half asleep. When asked why
he did not keep of he growled:
what do you want? All the room
there is? Here you've been yawing
all around for an hour and me trying
to dodge you"
Then the briggs people knew that he
had been asleep. 1t was found that
the wheelman was not the only man
asleep on that steamer. Most of her
people had been taken down with the
fever and the others, from standing
double watches, had become worn out
from loss of sleep.
Old sailors say that the collision be-
tween the schooner Hannah r. Garlic
ton and one of the Boston and Savan-
nah steamers off Cape Cod was the
strangest disaster of the kind that ever
happened, and they doubt If another
such ever will occur. The Carleton,
q two-masted schooner of 1S9 tons,
then halling from JonespOrt, Me-, was
passing in by Cape Cod on clear
moonlight night, coal laden, for Bos-
ton, and Captain Falkingham was on
the quarterback. A steamer was OBJ
served coming UP astern, but no atten-
ton was paid to her at first, every
thing being clear for miles around.
tnfN In oh
every little while and presently be-
came nervous, for the steamer was
coming right for the schooner and,
without altering her course, would hit
the Carleton fair in the stern in a
few minutes.
When the schooner got little closer
Captain Falkingham began to shout
to her people, telling them to keep
away. The men on the steamers pilot
house were plainly visible, as was also
the bow lookout, but they seemed not
to see the schooner.
Captain Falkingham's shouting
awoke all hands on the schooner, and
the men came tumbling on the deck
They all joined in the shouting, but
to no purpose. The steamer came on
like q racehOrse and struck the schoon-
er's main boom fairly on the end, snap
ping the malnmast off like pipestem,
even with the jaws of the boom, and
letting It down with fearful thump
on the deck. The stump OF the mast
stove hole in the deck, and there the
stick rested, swinging back and forth
and threatening to fall at any minute,
as the rigging was made slack.
The crew of the Carleton made
rush for the boat at the stern davits,
but Captain Falklngham, seeing that
they intended to desert her, seized an
az and chopped hole in the boat, so
that she would not float. That stopped
the desertion, and the men turned to
and helped to cover up the hole In
the deck, for the sea was making over
her, and she would soon have filled