Close Calls With Big Boys — and the End of Them: Schooner Days CCCLII (352)

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AS promised, Capt. W. J. Stitt of Toronto, had some lively experiences with his big barges, the Aberdeen, Frank D. Ewen and Zapotec, when he was towing these behemoths with the stout tug Florence. For example: One night we were driving up the Gulf with the Aberdeen heavy loaded with pulpwood from the Saguenay River, with a strong tide behind us and pushing along with our towing speed of eight miles per hour, which carried us over the bottom with the tide added some 13 or 14 miles. We were in a dense fog, and all at once we heard the fog whistle of Green Island right ahead and very close. Something had to be done quick as the Aberdeen was coming right behind like a mad bull straight for destruction. She had 1,000 feet of tow line and was following the tug with the aid of a fog line.

The first thing we did was to starboard our own helm and blow a danger signal, then one long blast for hard starboard, which was answered by them; then all we could do was to hope and say a prayer that the Aberdeen would clear the Green Island ledge that projects out 1,000 feet from the east end.

She did, but by an awfully narrow margin, as the captain told me after that he could have jumped ashore from the stern as she swept by the steep ledge. We on the tug were, as the saying goes, "sweating blood" for some minutes until we knew she was clear.

Another time, with the Aberdeen in tow, loaded with pulpwood, en Lake Ontario, going to Oswego, we got caught in a northeaster, with thick snow, late in November, and we almost hit the east end of the breakwater as we only heard the fog bell when a few lengths away, and again saved the situation as we had done in the preceding incident at Green Island. The tow only cleared the breakwater by a scant ten feet.

On another occasion we were enroute from Charlotte to the river with the Aberdeen, coal laden for Quebec, and got caught in a strong norwester, and had to run for Oswego, and by the time we arrived there the seas were piling over the breakwater and we were forced to go into the outer harbor and up under the breakwater. The storm signals were up for a big blow, so Aberdeen put out both anchor chains on the breakwater and prepared for the worst, for all mariners know what Oswego is in a heavy norwester. We took the Florence up in the river.

For 36 hours the storm piled over the breakwater and, although the Aberdeen lay back 500 feet from it, the great seas piled over her so that no one could venture on her deck.

It was during this storm that the tug William L. Proctor, with the big vessel James G. Blaine, attempted to make Oswego, and the hawser parted when they swung around to enter the outer harbor. That was the finish of the Blaine, for she, went on the rock ledges of the Fort point, and in thirty minutes ship and coal cargo was strewn on the shore, but the crew was taken off safely by the life saving crew by the breeches buoy.

The Blaine was originally the fine big three-masted schooner Pensaukee, and was then so lofty that they had to strike her main topmast to get her under the high level bridge in Chicago, 180 feet above the water.

One night late in November, 1908, we left Charlotte with the Zapotec in tow, deeply coal laden and 100 tons on deck. The weather was fine at the time but threatening. About 10 p.m. the wind came in from the northwest and by midnight was blowing a living gale, and a heavy sea running and getting bigger every minute, so we decided to pull for the north shore and head into it, for we were getting badly battered. It was bitterly cold, and the crew of the Zapotec took to the boiler room up forward for protection and to keep warm.

About 1 a.m. the heavy seas pounded both anchors loose and they went overboard and hung on their chains and pounded against the bows with the heavy sea, which put terror in the crew in the boiler room and they began blowing distress signals to us to come and take them off. But this was impossible with the tremendous seas running. On the Florence we were also having a tough time; our pilot house windows were stove in by the seas going completely over us, and most of my crew were seasick.

My mate lashed himself to the towposts aft behind the cabin, as he was deathly sick and was afraid of being washed overboard. Everything was thrown around and broken, even our anchors up forward were torn loose and carried by the seas all the way back to the stern, where they finally wedged themselves tight. Alter a desperate battle with the elements we finally got some protection under Long Point and hauled down for the False Ducks and made Cape Vincent, where we came to at the breakwater, and put our ships in order again, and the crews got their first eats in 14 hours.

Both the Florence and Zapotec were a sorry sight and badly scarred from the beating they took on the run across the Lake.

About 1914 the Quebec company for which Capt. W. J. Hackett and I had bought the barges and the Florence, sold their vessels and two tugs, the Florence and Margaret Hackett, to the George Hall Coal Co. They operated them in the same trade for two or three seasons, and then put the three big vessels mentioned above in Montreal harbor as fuel supply boats. The Florence went back to the Detroit River to tow sand and gravel barges, and finally sank at Windsor about 1932.

She was bought in 1933 by the Dominion Tankers, Ltd., of Toronto, and raised and brought to Toronto, repaired and used that season towing molasses barges between Montreal and Toronto, and late in November, when coming up Lake Ontario light, was caught in a strong breeze and sank off the False Ducks. When the crew saw they could not keep her afloat they took to the lifeboats and abandoned her and rowed ashore. The Aberdeen, Ewen and Zapotec finally were abandoned and towed away to the bone yard and ended their labors by the tooth of time.

THE ZAPOTEC at Racine, Wis., in the late 1880's. The big: fellow, already cut down to barge rig, lies inside the other "big fellows," dwarfing them by comparison.

TWO PICTURES OF THE JAMES G. BLAINE when she was the full-rigged schooner PENSAUKEE.