Today I stopped at Freeport, Maine where I went through the L. L. Bean headquarters store. I don't know what I expected but that stop was a major disappointment. The only one on this trip.
One of my best stops for this trip was at Bath, Maine where I toured the Maine Maritime Museum. This was absolutely one of the highlights of the trip for me. I will probably bore you to death but I will share some of the history I learned. Bath is located on the west bank of the Kennebec River which is about 50 to 60 feet deep and has been an active center of ship building since the early 1600s. There were three Bath shipyards in 1909. The original ship builder was Percy & Small Shipyard which is today the location of the museum. Today Nuclear naval vessels and large merchant ships are now built at the Bath Iron Works. Modern U. S. Navy destroyers are being built at the Bath Iron Works. Tours with out cameras are conducted but I figured for security reasons very little would be shown so I chose to spend more time learning about some of the greatest wooden ships ever constructed. Many of the original buildings are still in existence and/or have been reconditioned. Besides the actual museum building other building are:
Mould Loft which contains the architect's work area and table. Just like everything else these massive sailing ships started with an idea which was put on paper. After the plans were finalized a mould was made of the ship from which you could get a good idea what the finished vessel would look like.
Mill & Joiner Shop. This building contained all of the saws and wood working machine to literally convert a tree into finished lumber to make the complete vessel down to the very nice fixtures for the captains quarters. Originally the machinery was operated by steam power and years later the conversion was made to electricity. It was said that each morning when they started all their machines that it took so much power that the lights all over Bath dimmed. Regardless of the power source every machine was actually run off a system of belts all of which operated off a central system. I found this very interesting because the belt system reminded me the canning factory that my Grand Dad Diven owned and operated. This was the same factory where I worked during high school and college. I recall like yesterday repairing and working with those belts. I guess what I remember the most was how dangerous it was to work around these belts. None of them had any kind of protective covers or guards. You just knew to not get tangled up in a belt because you were going to loose the battle. I noticed none of the belts and pulleys here had any kind of protective covers. One more personal note about these belts and pulleys. In college in the ROTC program we had to take several skill and aptitude test to see were we would best fit in the Air Force work force. These test had a lot of questions about belts and pulleys. In particular they wanted to know after running the belt over several pulleys and twisting it " what direction would the final pulley turn ?" Or the same problem but stated in a different manner such as " how would you make the final pulley turn a a particular direction?" I thought these were the simplest things because I almost grew up in real life doing these things. I was one of the few who got these problems correct but lets not discuss a lot of the other questions. Also this shop contained all the hand tools needed to build the ships. You have to realize that no nails or bolts were use. The boards were held together with pegs which were made from black locust wood and were anywhere from a few inches long to a couple of feet long. Now realize the holes for the pegs had to be drilled and this was done by hand. What muscles those workers must have had. Its hard to realize how self sufficient the ship building industry was down to the actually making the ropes that were needed to operated the ship as well as making the sails. If you are a seamstress think about this. For the large 6 masted schooners it took 12,000 square yards of material to make the sails. The rope making building was about 2 city blocks long and was a very narrow building. They used manila and hemp to weave the rope. On the largest ships they needed 7 miles of rope. One final comment about the various saws, lathes, joiners, planners, etc they are not much different than those we use today except that today's tools are " prettier " but functionally they are the same.
Paint shop, Caulker's shed and the Pitch Shed. Obviously, the boards in the ship were not water tight so they had to put a wadding in the cracks then covered the wading with a tar pitch to make the ship water tight.
Many sailing ships were made in Bath over the years. There were the what I call the standard looking sailing ship which required very large crews and were hard to manage. Then there was the ship that used a square sail schooner which this ship building yard was the most famous for in particular the " Schooner Wyoming ".
In 1876 the United States was having a financial problem much like we have today. After the civil war there was a lot of population shift with a lot of people coming east and a manufacturing shift also to the east. Along with this was a large increase and demand for coal to power the increase in manufacturing. A problem existed of how to move this coal in the quantity needed. The answer was the large schooner ships specifically designed to haul coal and heavy machinery and equipment. These were known as coastal schooners. New ideas and equipment made it possible to move 6,000 tons of coal at $2,000 a ton. Also, with the additional of steam to these large schooners to hoist the sails, raise the anchors and a variety of other tasks these ships could operate with a crew of 13. The other standard large sailing ship required a complement of hundreds. So money could be made.
The largest of these large schooners ( in fact the largest wooden ship ever built in the United States) was the Wyoming. It took 22&1/2 tons of lumber to make the Wyoming. The planking was about 4 inches think and ranged from a few feet to several feet long. Imagine bending these planks to the shape needed for the sides. The wood was mostly yellow leaf pine from the local area and from Virginia. I mentioned earlier that the boards were held together with pegs which were made on the lathes at the plant. It took about 30,000 pegs to fasten the wood together. The masts for the ship were Douglas fir from Wyoming and the owner would not accept any other so that is how the name Wyoming came about. The masts were 136 feet high. The depth of the ship from the deck to the bottom was about the equivalent of a 8 story building. It was one hugh cavernous area for hauling coal. It cost about $185,000 to make the ship in today's dollars that would be about 16 - 18 million.
There were 41 of the large cargo type schooners built and 37 of them were lost at sea. Not sure what happened to the other 4. The typical workers at the yard received from $2.50 to $ 4.50 per day. That's right per day and they were long days. Remember ships of this size were totally assembled outside and they worked regardless of the weather. There times when the temperature was so low that the planking would freeze and they could not work with it. In spite of the hazardous working conditions in 30 years there were only 25 serious injuries. 14 of these were from falls. There were 2 deaths and one of these was from a lightening strike.
After the Wyoming was launched she did not last long and was lost along with all crew during a sever storm off the coast down south. No specific reason is know but it is suspected that there was a failure of the steam system and they could not raise the anchors and she just sat there and the storm totally destroyed her.
At the museum they have made a actual size piece of the keel and bow of the Wyoming and they are spaced to represent the true length of the vessel. They actually have the masts but do not have the money to put them on display.
Entrance To Maine Maritime Museum
Description of Wyoming
White Steel Structure Shows True Height
And Length Of The Wyoming
The Caulker's Shed
Another View Of Keel And Bow
Of Wyoming
Inside the Caulker's Shed
Snow Squall Clipper Ship
Rest Of Snow Squall Story
Remaining Parts Of Snow Squall
Remaining Part Of Snow Squall
Well it has been another night of posting this and listening/watching baseball and now listening/watching the Jets play football. So it is now time to push the publish button and hope this thing doesn't backfire and time to put Grandpa Bill to bed so he can go to sleep watching football. Any of you ever do that? Now tell the truth because I know by name some of you who do but I won't call you out for it. Its the thing to do.
As always I love all of you and wish you good night. The Lord is still on the throne.
Grandpa Bill
Hello Dad,
ReplyDeleteI have always loved going to these types of museum type places and seeing the enormous size of the task, the materials needed and the scope of the project coupled with the sheer grit and fortitude those laboring to complete the project. Everything today is so miniaturized and "programed" that we do not think about the complexity. As a person who knows how to sew...I would not like to be handling such enormous amounts of fabric! I saw on the morning shows that it was raining hard up your way and I wondered about your site seeing. Rain is always a good day to dash inside and roam a museum!
Love You,
Janice