The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1917-05-03
Springs Renews Its
Youth.
Personal and Sentimental Aspects of the
Shipbuilding Revival There.
Especial to The Bangor Daily News

STOCKTON SPRINGS, April "a. George
S. Wardwell, widely known veteran in
shlpbullding circles, who at one time
gained much unsougnu Newspaper fame
from MS successes while superintendent
with the noted yacht building firm of
George Lawley & Sons, Boston, has been
In town some weeks, quietly designing a
model, getting out the moulds and pre-
pairing the historic Croker shipyard for
the vessel which local triumvirate con-
slsting of Lincoln A. Gardner, William
II. Morrison and Herbert l.. Hopkins will
build for their own account.
1t is understood that the craft is to be
four masted schooner of about 700 tons,
l65 feet keel, 1877 feet overall, 81 feet
beam, and ID feet depth of hold. The
frame will come from northern Maine
and the planking will be of hard pine
The model for the schooner, displayed for
the past few days in the window of
Irundy's store, shows vessel of 'strik-
lngy handsome design, combining es-
peclally fine lines with a good carrying
capacity. Under existing conditions, it
is not to be doubted that this vessel will
be sold long before she is ready t. go
overheard and that others will immed-
lately follow.
In these days of gigantic enterprises,
involving tremendous aggregations of
capital, the building of a little OGDEN
schooner more or less in long deserted
shlpyard at placid cove on Penobscot
bay is not an event readily calculated to
make any considerable dent in the aver
age ewspaper-reading, consciousness
But all that has been printed in the mag
aznes and newspapers concerning the
atroclous war, forced upon an incredu-
lous and appalled, world by the Prussan
m lltary autocracy to say nothing at all
OF the dlsquletIng increase In cost of all
things essential to modern complexities
OF the simple life in the country-has
not served to impress upon the minds of
this community the far-reaching effect
OF the tremendous economic upheavai
produced by the titanic struggle, as has
this comparatively insignificant spectacle
of crew of men actually at work again
IN the famous old yard, where not even
the ghost of long-decayed timber re-
NAMED to haunt the scene of many ship
building trlumphs.
Time was when Stockton was distinct
ly on the map as ship building port. But
that was long, long ago. The pioneer
builders one after another came to grief
IN the decade following the close of the
Civil war. and the several yards were
overgrown with weeds and forgotten
many years before the magnificent ships
Bath, and Carleton, Norwood & Co.,
Rockport. established record in marine
! architecture for all time
1t was in the autumn of 1875 that the
industry in this town gave one expiring
gasp when the kremeburg was launch
ed. the last of nearly two hundred sea-
going craft.
To the task of rehabiitating the old
Crooker yard, Mr.. WardWell brings
something besides broad experience and
perfect command of his art, 1t is but
the truth to say that he feels an enthus-
Iasm born OF sentiment, for it was around
these old yards where his father acted
an import ant role as designer, draughts-
man, and master builder, that Mr. Ward
well played as youngster; and it may
be noted that his older brother, John J.
! Wardwell, long successful superintend
ent for Cobb, Butler & Co., holds the
honor of having built the last ship in
Stockton, when very young man.
| The old timer Stocktoner, now trans
planted in nearly every State of the
Union, will find in the news of this little
-erterprise something TO warm the cookies
of his heart, however slight he may have
! reckoned his sentiment for his old home
town. And the prospect of even a tenn
porary revival of the traditional industry
means whole lot to a town which, by
the beguiling and hectic activities of the
Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company,
some years ago, unfortunately acquired,
tguratively speaking, a wel-developed
champagne appetite, only to discover
that the exigencies of railroad economics
and other factors wholly Incompetent
sibe to the common mind developed a
situation which left nothing for the sak :
lug of the aforesaid ambitious thirst but
stale beer
To the man on the street it appears
that Lincoln A. Gardner is entitled to the
privilege of laying claim to such honor
as may reside in seeing vision trans
lated into verify.
Though endowed with sufficiency of
"pep," his regular business is that of
hardware, plumbing and heating; and he
comes no nearer seafaring traditions than
those which might naturally befall the
stepson of daughter of a sometime
builder of distinction, Master Albion P.
Gooohue. and the granddaughter of
Stockton s most noted pioneer master
workman, SeDra CroOker.
Whereby may the writer resort un-
censured to the Gallo phrase: "Cher-
chez la Femme" Of certainty, search
for the woman-and find in Mrs. Caro-
line Goodhue Gardner the one who in
trigued the interest of her girlhood
friend, Mr.. Wardwell. Mr.. Morrison,
who had previously joined with Mr..
Gardner in a successful attempt to in
duce E. W. Lawrence to seriously con.
slider this town as location for sardine
cannery, has been a resident of this VII.
lage some seven years, removing here
from Cutler. He is at the head of q
company successfully engaged in the
business of taking herring for the can.
neres. HIS competitors grudgingly ad.
nit that he knows something about sar.
dines and can recognize them upon very
slight inspection-tut none have ever
accused him OF being one.
Mr.. Hopkins, the last of the trio to be-
come convinced of the feasibility of the
project. and to wear the inscrutable Mona
Lisa smile, has long been active as &
shipper of wood, hay and most anything
else. He is apparently man of much
leisure these days. but it is known that
he has enough irons in the fire to brane
most anyone else into crisp. Within
the triangular area loosely defined by
Bar Harbor, Rockland and Bangor he