Radio Script #90
Little Talks On Common Things
December 31, 1950
Even in the midst of the greatest crisis our nation has known since 1860 our government can continue a lot of foolish expenditures. No sensible American denies the necessity for appropriating billions for defense. We must have an incomparab~y strong Army, Navy and Air Force. But that is all the more reason Why some of the luxuries of peace time ought to be eliminated by the federal government just as th~y will have to be eliminated in your family and mine as we increasingly feel the pinch of higher taxes.
The other day in the U. S. Senate Senator Tobey of New Hampshire called attention to one of those silly inconsistencies that cost the taxpayer unnecessary millions every year. The Senator pointed out that, on the one hand, the Department of Agriculture is spending money to teach the people how to raise more cats, while the Division of Wild Life is spending fully as much telling the people how to exterminate cats.
Now Senator Tobey’s exposure would be just a humorous anecdote if it did not illustrate all too plainly how costly it is to have different agencies in our government at cross purposes, the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
At this time of crisis, instead of forgetting about the Hoover Commission’s report, which I discussed on this program last winter, we ought to consider it more important than ever. Never has there been a time When economy in the ordinary expenditures of government is so badly needed, for the very reason that we need that wasted money to keep America free.
On several occasions we have mentioned one or another of the old-time Kennebec steamboats. We once referred to the whole fleet of boats equipped and operated by the Vassalboro tycoon,Benjamin Brown. We also told the story, with its tragic and humorous overtones, of the maiden voyage of the City of Waterville from Bangor to the Elm City. Tonight we want to devote a few minutes to more thorough consideration of Kennebec steamboats.
In 1943 Mrs. Eleanor Sager Adams of Gardiner found in the attic of her home a handwritten manuscript entitled “Reminiscences of Steamboating”, written by Jason Collins. We do not know when this was written, but the latest date mentioned in the account is 1902. Mr. Elliott Hale of the Kennebec Water District has kindly furnished us with a copy of Jason collins’ manuscript, and it furnishes the principal source of tonight’s remarks about the old steamboats.
CUriously enough the man who. is credited with the first steam craft on the Kennebec River did not live on the Kennebec. He was Jonathan Morgan, a lawyer of Alna, one of Maine’s most interesting old towns, situated between Gardiner and Newcastle. Morgan’s scow, propelled by steam, was the first steamboat of any description on the Kennebec. The year was 1818.
Only a year later, in 1819, a sailing packet boat towed from Boston to the mouth of the Kennebec a small steamer called the “Tom Thumb”. It was a sidewheeler, thirty feet long, and all open with engines exposed to the weather. When the “Tom Thumb” steamed up to Bath against the tide, she created a sensation among people along the river. Word of her coming preceded her just long enough to gather the whole citizenry of Bath down to the wharves.
Mr. Collins himself saw the “Tom ‘lhumb” in t834; so he must himself have been well along in years in 1902, the last date mentioned in his account. He says when he saw the steamer she was towing the ship “Constitution” from Gardiner to Bath, and he adds: “Incredible as it now seems, she took six days to make the trip”.
Waterville enters the picture by name in 1823, when Capt. Samuel Porter built at King’s Wharf in Bath a steamer which was christened “waterville”. If our conjecture is right that she was the first steamboat ever built at a Kennebec yard, Waterville holds· a·· distinct. honor in the river’s steamboat history. It is somewhat of an anti-climax to report, however, that the 1823 steamer “Waterville” never tied up at one of those old slips down below what are now the Lockwood Mills. Her route was between Bath and Augusta. She never came above the Cushnoc Rapids.
The same Captain Porter operated a steamer named the “Patent” between Boston and Portland. In 1824 he extended her route to Bath, where she connected with the steamer “Waterville” for Augusta. It was 126 years ago, therefore, that the first steamboat service was established bet”‘e·en the Kennebec ports and Boston.
The first steamer to go above Augusta was the “Ticonic”, a stern-wheeler built in 1832 on the lot in the rear of the present Gardiner National Bank. She was hauled across the street and launched in the river at that spot. Mr. Collins says he attended the launching and remembered it vividly.
The “Ticonic” was built to run between Gardiner and Waterville. On her maiden voyage to our City of the Elms she was greeted with cheers, ringing of bells, and the firing of cannon. At a huge public dinner, the crew and the owners were feted and congratulated. The “Ticonic” might have continued on her Gardiner-Waterville route for many years, had not the hand of inevitable progress interfered. A dam was built at Augusta. To be sure, a canal and lock was constructed around the dam, so that small boats could pass, but the “Ticonic” was too big. Waterville had to bid her good~bye. Before she quit the upper stretch, however, the “Ticonic” had become part of a run connecting Waterville with Boston. The Boston steamer came to Bath, from where the “Hancock” ran to Augusta, there connecting with the “Ticonic” for Waterville.
By 1836 the need was clear for a steamer to run from Gardiner straight through to Boston without any change at Bath. The leading spirit in this plan was Captain Nathaniel Kimball, who is perhaps the most famous of all Kennebec” steamboat men. with the help of R. H. Gardiner, David Bowman, Edward Swan, Col. John Stone and other prominent citizens, Captain Kimball formed a company and secured stock subscriptions of $40,000. Such was the beginning of the direct line to Boston, which was still running when Mr. Collins wrote his reminiscences.
That first through-to-Boston steamer was named the “New Ehgland” and was personally commanded by Captain Kimball. The fare to Boston, including meals, was four dollars.
The life of the steamer “New England” was regrettably short. On the night of June first, 1838, on the way to Boston, she collided with the schooner “Curlew”, and so quickly filled with water that her passengers were transferred to the schooner. The latter sailed for Portsmouth, the port nearest to the collision.
Captain Kimball and his crew remained by the wreck until the following noon, when the steamer rolled over and floated bottom up. She was later towed to Portsmouth, but lost her engine on the way and proved to be a total loss.
By 1840 the formidable opposition of the Vanderbilts confronted the local steamboat owners. Commodore Vanderbilt outfitted the steamer “Augusta” and put her on a regular run between Hallowell and Boston. Meanwhile Captain Kimball and Parker Sheldon had replaced the ill-fated “New England” with a new boat called the “Huntress”. Because the “Huntress” proved to be a faster boat than the “Augusta”, Commodore Vanderbilt decided to put on the river a boat that no one could beat. That boat was christened the “C. Vanderbilt” and had the reputation of being the fastest boat on the Atlantic coast.
The rivalry between the “Huntress” and the “Vanderbilt” was much like that between the Mississippi steamers of Mark Twain’s day. Each boat had its ardent supporters along the river. When the Captain of the “Vanderbilt” challenged Captain Kimball for a trial of speed from Boston to Gardiner, the skipper of the “Huntress” was quick to accept. Every member of both crews put up money on the outcome, and Com. Vanderbilt himself is said to have ventured a few dollars in judicious wagers.
Those old steamers were wood burners and the crew of the “Huntress” went to a lot of trouble to secure just the wood they needed for pushing the boilers to their utmost. When the boats left their Boston moorings, the “Vanderbilt” took a quick lead, but when she reached Boston Light she found the “Huntress” alongside. Before Eastern Point was passed the “Huntress” was ahead. All night long the two boats were in sight of each other, so closely were they matched.
Great excitement prevailed on both craft; no one had a thought of sleep. What rejoicing there was in Gardiner when the “Huntress” arrived three quarters of a mile ahead of the “Vanderbilt”. She had made the trip from Boston to Gardiner in ten hours and forty-five minutes, a record that stood for more than sixty years.
Com. Vanderbilt did just what one would expect of him. Convinced that he could not get a boat fast enough to beat the “Huntress”, he bought the “Huntress” himself. Then he turned around and told the old company that they must take the steamer and give him a bonus of $10,000, upon his agreement to withdraw forever from the line, or he would put the “Huntress” back on the route himself and ruin their business, because no boat could beat the “Huntress”. The company accepted the wily commodore’s terms, and the “Huntress” returned to the river with her old officers.
In 1841 another port got a chance to rival Boston for the Kennebec travel.
In that year the Eastern Railroad reached Portsmouth, and a . steamer called the “N. Y. Beach” ran between Hallowell and Portsmouth, where train connections to Boston enabled the traveler to reach the Hub several hours earlier than by the Hallowell-Boston steamer. P’ortsmouth lost this remunerative traffic a few years later, when the railroad reached Portland.
From 1843 to 1850 steamboat passengers on the Kennebec had a wonderful time.
The toughest of cut-throat competition lowered the rates to a point where at one time one of the lines actually granted a round-trip rebate greater than the one-way fare. It all began when Capt. Sanford of New York put on the steamer “Splendid” between Hallowell and Boston, in opposition to the regular line. Mr. Collins says that on some trips passengers paid Whatever they pleased, and that one man bragged about going all the way from Gardiner to Boston for twenty-five cents.
Then in 1845 prominent citizens of Gardiner and pittston entered the competition with their “People’ s Line”. Their steamer had a grand old American name, the “John Marshall”, but the venture did not prove profitable, and by 1850 the old company once more controlled the river traffic.
Perhaps the most memorable voyage of the fastest and most famous of all Kennebec boats, the “Huntress”, was made on July 2, 1847, When she made a special trip, bringing President Polk and his cabinet with many other prominent men, from Portland to Hallowell. Reaching Hallowell at midnight, the distinguished company transferred to carriages for the trip to Augusta, where they spent the night. After visiting the State House and attending a banquet, the entire company were guests of R. H. Gardiner at “Oaklands”. They then left for Portland on the· “Huntress”. At the Hallowell wharf before their departure speeches were made by President Polk and Hon. George Evans.
Ten years before President Polk’s visit, in 1837, the first steam ferry boat went into operation on the Kennebec. It ran between Gardiner and Pittston. She was built entirely in Gardiner, even her machinery being made by the Gardiner firm of Holmes and Robbins. She was called the “Kennebec” and continued in service until the building of the Gardiner bridge in 1852.
Jason Collins, writer of the “Reminiscences” began his own steamboat service on the ill-fated “New England” as an engineer’s helper. He was in continuous service, on one boat or another, from 1836 to 1849, between his home port of Gardiner and either portland or Boston. In 1849 he entered the employ of Com. Vanderbilt as engineer of the “Independence”. While in New York, superintending the installation of that steamer·s engines, Mr. Collins watched daily the building of Vanderbilt·s famous yacht “America”, first winner of the racing cup.
His service on the “Independence” took Jason Collins far from his beloved Kennebec, for in July, 1850 that vessel was at San Francisco, having made the voyage around the Horn. She had been held up a month at Rio de Janeiro because of yellow fever which cost the lives of four of her crew. Then the “Independence” went on a regular run between San Francisco and Nicaragua, until in 1853 she ran on a coral reef off St.. Margarita Island, took fire, and was a total loss, 245 of her passengers and crew going to their deaths. Engineer Collins was one of 255 survivors. Some evening on this program I hope to find time to tell you ‘Jason Collins· thrilling story of that shipwreck.
Right here we must leave the account of Kennebec steamboat days. But I assure you there is more to come. We have brought the account only up to 1850. In spite of the coming of the railroad, there was plenty of steamboating after that. So be ready for more of this subject some Sunday soon.
Year: 1950