Damariscotta’s Charles Boutelle

Father of America’s steel Navy

by Charles Francis

The USS Minneapolis spent May and June of 1896 cruising the waters of the Baltic Sea. Her reason for being there was to represent the United States during the coronation ceremonies of Nicholas II, Czar of all the Russias.

The Minneapolis was a 7357-ton protected steel cruiser. She had a sister ship, the USS Columbia. Both were built in Philadelphia in 1894 and were state-of-the-art warships. The Minneapolis and the Columbia were constructed as commerce destroyers. They weren’t the only steel vessels built for the US Navy as the nineteenth century waned and the twentieth loomed on the horizon. Other steel warships built in this general time period included three battleships, small, fast torpedo boats, and landing craft.

The construction of steel vessels for the US Navy in the later years of the nineteenth century marked America’s entry on the world scene as a legitimate naval power preparing to rival mighty Britain and other European maritime powers. The steel vessels would first show their might in the Spanish-American War, in the Caribbean and in the Philippines.

It was a Maine man who was largely responsible for the creation of America’s modern steel Navy. His name was Charles A. Boutelle. Boutelle was a Maine Congressman. Boutelle’s Con-

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gressional bills created the steel Navy. Politicians in Washington listened to Charles Boutelle when he spoke on naval matters. He knew of what he argued for. He was a naval hero — the sort of hero of whom legends are made. Among other points of note in Boutelle’s life, the Confederate fleet defending Mobile Bay surrendered to him. The surrender was the conclusion of David Farragut’s famous attack on Mobile.

Charles Boutelle was one of the great Maine political figures of the late nineteenth century. He was a power in the state and in Washington. Though his name is largely forgotten today, there was a time when Boutelle was one of the most powerful and loved figures in the state. In Maine, Charles Boutelle sat at the helm of one of the state’s most influential newspapers, the Bangor Whig and Courier. In Washington, Boutelle chaired the powerful House Naval Affairs Committee. More, Boutelle was a powerful orator. When he spoke he drew attention and was listened to. When he spoke in Congress on the US annexing Hawaii he swung votes on the issue. The same was true when he spoke in favor of particular candidates at the Republican National Convention.

That Charles Boutelle was drawn to things naval and maritime comes as no surprise given that his father, for whom he was named, was a shipmaster. The man many historians identify as the father of the modern US Navy was born in Damariscotta in 1839. And like many a Damariscotta-born youth, Boutelle went to sea at an early age, at fifteen.

Charles Boutelle was descended from two old Damariscotta River families. His mother Lucy was a Curtis. And like many born on the banks of the Damariscotta, Boutelle looked beyond his immediate surroundings to the wider world.

Some would find it surprising that Charles Boutelle was a highly articulate man, that he went on to become a newspaper editor, and that he left school at an early age to go to sea. He has, however, been described as a charismatic speaker and an eminently persuasive writer.

Boutelle’s highest level of formal education was a single year spent at North Yarmouth Academy. Young Charles went there because his parents had moved to Brunswick, and North Yarmouth was the best school in the area. Other than the one year spent at North Yarmouth, Boutelle was self-educated. It might even be proper to say he was self-cultured. He read the classics, Cicero and Seneca. The great Romans were his models for public speaking and writing editorials.

Charles Boutelle had spent some eleven years at sea when Fort Sumter was fired on. When Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers for the Union Army and Navy, Boutelle answered. Because of his experience at sea he was made Acting Master of the gunboat John Paul Jones. The John Paul Jones, an old sidewheel wooden steam craft, was assigned blockade duty.

Boutelle must have proved his mettle as commander of the John Paul Jones for his next command was the more modern Sassacus. The Sassacus was another steam gunboat and it too was wooden. In May of 1864 the Sassacus engaged the Confederate ironclad Arbemarle. Boutelle rammed the Arbemarle. Then the Sassacus received a direct hit to the boiler. However,

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Boutelle was commended for “gallant action” and promoted to lieutenant, the highest rank attainable for officers not of the regular Navy.

Union Navy duty provided Boutelle with the first insights that led to his fight for a steel Navy for America. He saw first-hand how armor-clad gunboats dominated older wooden craft.

Boutelle’s last wartime command was the Nyanza, another wooden steam vessel. It was while Boutelle was on her that he took part in Farragut’s attack on Mobile Bay. Following this action, Boutelle was placed in command of Union naval forces on Mississippi Sound. It was his last wartime service.

Following the war, Boutelle secured a position as captain of a steamer running between New York and Delaware. He also married. His wife was Elizabeth Hodson, daughter of prominent Maine attorney and Maine State Adjutant General John Hodson. The couple had three daughters. In 1870, through the offices of his father-in-law, Boutelle was offered the editorship of the Bangor Whig and Courier. In 1874 Boutelle and a partner purchased the paper. It remained in his control until 1900.

Boutelle’s first run for Congress came in 1880. He lost to the incumbent by just under nine hundred votes. He ran in 1882 and won, continuing to be re-elected through 1901 when he resigned for reasons of health.

Charles Boutelle suffered what may have been a brain hemorrhage on December 21, 1899. He never recovered. Nevertheless, his friends and political allies submitted his name for re-election in 1900. The fact that he was elected for a last time with one of his largest margins of victory ever, speaks to the regard voters had for him.

Charles Boutelle died in May of 1901. Just prior to his passing he was promoted to the rank of Navy Captain,

Retired, by joint resolution of Congress. It is the rarest of honors for a volunteer naval officer.

At the time of his passing the New York Times wrote that Charles Boutelle “actively championed the policy that has resulted in the present perfection of steel armor plants, and encouraged the use of American designs and materials in the building of iron ships. He took a leading part in promoting the condition of naval preparedness with which the United States entered into the Spanish war, and to which the Nation is largely indebted for its speedy termination.” The words are a telling tribute to the man who was born on the banks of the Damariscotta River and went on to become an American hero and US Navy proponent.