Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties
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The Seafaring Tapleys Of Brooksville Adventure on the high seas by Jeffrey Bradley
T
he century that followed the Revolutionary War established Maine’s world-phenomenon maritime prowess and the long and storied lineage of great sailing ships and their able masters. Back then trade routes stretching from the Far East to New York or California might take months to navigate. Even “fast” passenger packets between the east and west coasts of America took weeks for having to round Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. Profits depended on speed, so fast “clipper” ships came into vogue that could cross the Atlantic in a “blister-
ing” thirteen days! When the Suez Canal opened in 1849 bigger, slower ships used this shortcut to deliver more goods in slightly less time. But until the opening of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s and the advent of steam a sailing voyage could still take the better part of a year. That much time at sea increased the odds of natural disaster — rogue waves, entangling seaweed, storms, shoals and shipwreck all took their toll. Many a ship just disappeared without ever leaving a trace. But there was a romance about it. Standing on the heaving deck of a JOEL GRAY WILSON PRESIDENT
stout-hulled oaken ship heeling before the wind while leaving a hissing white wake with the rigging thrumming under a leaden cloud-scudded sky was, it was said, to feel God’s own pulse beating against the planking. In Brooksville the adventurous Tapley clan heeded this wild call. Seven of eight brothers went down to the sea in ships to become Master Mariners and live adventurously before the mast. A few led fairly mild careers. Capt. Abram, for instance, commanded brigs and schooners before retiring to Hampden as manager of the Knickerbocker Ice Company on the Penobscot River,
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