B A C K   T H E N

The Thomaston Schooner E. Starr Jones

Captain Arthur Elliot, “Flying Light”

The Jones was built in 1904 by Dunn & Elliot, who were also her managing owners. She was of the same model as the three-master Republic built in 1900. Originating as a sailmaking partnership in the 1850s, Dunn & Elliot became involved in shipbuilding and ship owning in the 1860s. Altogether, fifty-six vessels would come under their management. Thirty of these, from the barkentine Freeda A. Willey of 1880, to the five-masted schooner Edna Hoyt of 1920, were built by Dunn & Elliot themselves.1 An item in the January 17, 1893, [Rockland) Courier-Gazette gives insight into their business:

Advices from Capt. Sumner of sch. Sadie Sumner at Cienfuegos Cuba, which got on her anchor and was full of water as we reported last week, state that the vessel was pumped out and leak temporarily repaired. Capt. Sumner thinks of taking her to Pensacola to go on the railway—Sch. Berj. C. Firth, Fales, arrived in Boston from Philadelphia, Friday, with coal at $1—Schs. James Young and Seventy Six are frozen up in New York—Sch. D. H. Rivers, Colcord, is loading sugar at Matanzas at 8 or 9 cents for North of Hatteras—Sch. Lizzie Carr, Barbour, is at Norfolk with lumber for New York at $2.50 per M—Sch. Jennie F. Willey, Bulger, is in New York with railroad ties from Charleston, discharging—Sch. Elfie Simmons, Maloney, is on way to New York, with lime—Sch. Etta M. Barter, Bunker, is bound to Brunswick, Ga. to load hard pine for New York, at $5.25 per M—Sch. Lizzie Heyer, Birlem, is in New York discharging hard pine from Brunswick—Sch. Almeda Willey, Smith, arrived at Brunswick the 3rd where she loads hard pine for Provincetown at $4.75—Sch. Melissa A. Willey sailed from Beaufort, S. C., the 6th for Providence with hard pine, $4.75—Sch. Freeda A. Willey, Willey, is bound to Appalachicola to load cypress for Boston at $6.25—Sch. Lizzie B. Willey, Rivers, is at Providence discharging hard pine from Brunswick, Ga. at $4.65.

Sch. Carrie Strong, is bound to Manzanilla, Cuba, out and back, 21 cents on sugar or .22 if to Delaware Breakwater—Sch. T. W. Dunn, Ross, is bound from Philadelphia to Matanzas with coal at $1.40—Sch. P. W. Sprague, Strong, is in New York, unchartered—Sch. Cora Dunn, Harrington, sailed from Applachicola for Boston, 5th with hard pine at $6.25—Sch. Willie Childs, Giles, is at Philadelphia loading for Sagua, Cuba, coal at $1.60—Sch. Robert McFarland, Montgomery, is bound to Kingston, Jamaica, lumber and cooperage—Sch. Etta M. Willey, Willey, is at Mobile from Tampico, Mex., unchartered.

Text by William H. Bunting from A Days Work, Part 1, A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs, 1860–1920, Part II. Published by Tilbury House Publishers, 12 Starr St., Thomaston, Maine. 800-582-1899.