Waldoboro-Built Ships

by Brian Swartz

They met different fates at sea

Waldoboro shipbuilder George L. Welt was so well known that a Boston shipping merchant hired him to build several ships early in the 20th century.

In his heyday, William F. Palmer had 15 ships built to haul coal to New England seaports, and Waldoboro yards turned out six. Welt went on a spree in the early 20th century, building for Palmer the 2,075-ton Fannie Palmer in 1901; the 1,763-ton Paul Palmer in 1902; the 2,315-ton Dorothy Palmer in 1903; and the 2,357-ton Singleton Palmer and 2,400-ton Harwood Palmer in 1904.

At least three of these schooners met their fates at sea.

The Paul Palmer had a close call while docked at Baltimore in 1908. A fire sweeping that city’s coal docks torched the schooner’s foremast, but swift repairs soon put the ship out to sea again.

With Captain Howard B. Allen in charge, the Paul Palmer unloaded coal at Bangor in June 1913 and stopped briefly in Rockport. Allen had aboard 11 people, including his wife and daughter.

He sailed from Rockport on June 13 to load coal at Newport News, Virginia. Not far off Cape Cod on June 15, the Paul Palmer caught fire; crewmen took to the pumps to fight the advancing flames, but Allen finally ordered his vessel abandoned.

Everyone took to the ship’s boats. The Rose Dorothea, a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, rescued all the crew and passengers and took them to Provincetown. The Paul Palmer sank.

Early in the 21st century, the ship’s remains were found on the ocean floor at Stellwagen Bank, now a national marine sanctuary between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. The Paul Palmer has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Welt laid the keel for the five-masted Singleton Palmer in June 1903. When completed, she would be 269 feet long and 45.6 feet wide. Virginia

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oak reinforced with iron straps formed the ship’s frame, and the outer planking was 5½ inches thick. Made from Oregon pine, each mast was 118 feet long.

The schooner had four cabins. One housed the 25-horsepower main engine and boiler room, and a smaller cabin housed a second, similar-sized engine. A third cabin contained the crew’s quarters and the galley, and the main cabin housed the spacious quarters for the captain and officers.

Despite her two steam engines, the Singleton Palmer was designed for wind power caught in her 11,000 yards of canvas spread aloft. A beautiful ship seen through 21st-century eyes, she was a workhorse intended to haul dry cargo; particularly cargo supposedly her holds could carry a maximum 4,400 tons.

Work progressed well through summer and fall, with employment ranging between 100 and 125 men, including master carpenter George W. Billings, rigger Henry Bohndell, blacksmith Elisha Varney, and sailmaker S.A. Jones.

Winter 1903-1904 proved brutally cold along the Midcoast and so icy that by mid-February local newspapers speculated when the Sheepscot River ice would sweep away the toll bridge connecting Edgecomb and Wiscasset. The snow and cold often delayed work on the schooner.

Welt inauspiciously launched the Singleton Palmer during “a heavy snowstorm” on Saturday, April 16, 1904, noted a local reporter attending the event. “The snow was falling in clouds” when the ship was slated to slide down the ways at 10:30 am., and six inches of snow on the ground hampered workers trying to knock out the blocks keeping the vessel upright.

A large crowd watched from both Medomak River shores as the planned launch time came and went. Ax-wield-

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ing workers split the wooden blocks. Finally, the Singleton Palmer moved “so slowly … that she had gone a foot or more” before anyone realized the ship was moving.

“She went fast, making a very pretty sight as she slid off the ways in a heavy snowstorm.” thrilled the reporter.

Reaching the Medomak River, the schooner flew through the water and struck hard the mud along the opposite shore. The collision busted the ship’s rudder “and started her stern-post,” the reporter said. The collision’s noise echoed upriver into downtown Waldoboro, and people aboard the ship later said they thought the Singleton Palmer had struck a ledge.

“This is the first accident of any kind to occur at a Waldoboro launching,” the reporter observed.

Soon repaired, the Singleton Palmer dutifully hauled coal for William Palmer until he sold his fleet to the J.S. (cont. on page 42)

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(cont. from page 41) Winslow & Company in 1911. That firm managed other freight, including lumber, and ultimately sold some of the Waldoboro-built ships.

The Singleton Palmer remained a workhorse until she sank after a circa 1920 collision with another ship off the East Coast.

The Harwood Palmer suffered a violent end, too. Owned by New York City-based France & Canada Steamship Corporation, the schooner was hauling steel bars from Boston to St. Nazaire, France in late May 1917.

As the ship entered the Loire River estuary, German submarine UC-21 surfaced and shelled the vessel with a deck gun. Exploding shells hit home; her skipper anchored the Harwood Palmer near shore, but the ship sank without any casualties among her crew. The dragger NAUTILUS built at the Morse Shipyard in Thomaston. Item #LB1992.301.207 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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