The Jennie Flood Kreger

by Tom Seymour

The five-masted schooner Jenny Flood Kreger under construction at the Matthews Brothers Shipyard in Belfast.
The largest ever built at Belfast and the last schooner as well. Photo courtesy of Belfast History Museum

The hopes and dreams of a once-thriving shipbuilding community accompanied the five-masted schooner Jennie Flood Kreger when she slid into Belfast Harbor on that early March launching day in 1919.

The Kreger was the biggest vessel and the only five-masted schooner ever built in Belfast. The vessel was built in order to take advantage of a surge in freight rates immediately following World War I. Rebuilding and re-supplying Europe required renewed shipping activity. Up until that time, shipping was mostly confined in one way or the other to the war effort. Now, private enterprise was needed to help get things back to normal.

Being wooden, the Kreger had an advantage over steel-hulled ships in that European harbors were filled with mines left over from the war and the mines, being magnetized, stuck to any metal object that came within reach. Wooden vessels were able to penetrate mined harbors without incident.

Also, since the Kreger was a sailing ship, her promoters argued that she would save money, since wind power was the cheapest form of shipping. In view of the glum wartime economy, that was a reasonable stance.

Launching Holiday

Ten years had passed since the once world-famous shipbuilding port of Belfast saw the launching of a new vessel. In the old days before the war, a new vessel being launched was exciting, but not terribly so. But now, with the decade-long lapse, Belfast and the surrounding communities were geared up for the big day. In fact, the city actually shut down for a half-day holiday in honor of the event.

People came from near and far to watch the launching of Jennie Flood Kreger. And none of them were more excited about the event than 11-year-old Katherine Frost. Katherine was the daughter of Orlando Frost, president of Mathews Brothers (the Kreger was a product of Mathews Brothers shipyard. This is the same Mathews Brothers better known for their long-running window and door business). Orlando Frost also supervised the building and launching of the Kreger.

Katherine was inspired to record the launching as well as the time leading up to it in her personal diary. Her notes begin on Monday, March 9, 1919. Katherine wrote that on the previous day, she accompanied her mother to the yard to view the soon-to-be-launched ship. The place was a beehive of activity and Katherine saw fit to point out that this was the only Sunday that the men were asked to work. She also mentioned seeing the mate (it is presumed she meant first mate), who was “…a German, like the captain is, although, of course, not in sympathy [with] the Germans and what the Germans have done.”

Katherine was a good observer, pointing out how the sunny, warm March day was propitious for the painters, who were putting the finishing touches on their work.

The next two day’s diary entries were full of excitement and anticipation. Katherine had dutifully completed her Latin assignment and had only one English recital left, so she was certain that her teacher would grant her leave on Wednesday to board the Kreger and be part of the launching party.

Then the big day came. Katherine wrote that after getting let out of school early, she went home, dressed and then went to the yard and boarded the vessel. Katherine met Mrs. Kreger, who sent her up to the ship’s bow, there to stay with some other girls.

It appears that the Jennie Flood Kreger was as anxious as everyone else for the launching to begin, because she began the descent to the sea by unexpectedly inching down her ways at 12:10 p.m., 50 minutes ahead of the designated launch time of 1:00 p.m. Katherine wrote that she heard someone shouting to people on the plank to get off, because, “She’s going! She’s going!”

Katherine described the sound as a grinding, creaking noise as the ship began moving. In fact, Miss Julia Talbot of New York City, who was appointed to christen the ship with a bunch of American Beauty Roses, had to think and act fast, quickly throwing the roses over the bow and smashing the wine bottle “squarely on the iron.”

Ship’s Namesake

Early on in the building of the vessel, Captain Kreger followed standing tradition by naming the ship for his wife, Mrs. Jennie Flood Kreger. Mrs. Kreger, it happened, enjoyed some measure of celebrity because of her 40-year efforts as a suffragist (“suffragist is the American version of the British word, “suffragette”).

Mrs. Kreger was also chairman of the Woman’s Republican Committee of Fairfield. A period newspaper article noted that Mrs. Kreger had, “…acknowledged the fact that the Republican Party had always been considerate of the women.”

Mrs. Kreger, according to the article, felt that house-to-house visits, along with individual conferences, were the only way to reach the majority of woman regarding the ballot. Mrs. Kreger said that perhaps two-thirds of the Maine women will be found ready, meaning that two-thirds of the women, when they finally became eligible to vote, would be well-equipped to make informed decisions.

Mrs. Kreger did much to prepare Maine women for the ballot. Her efforts were predicated upon her belief that, “Women of Maine should consider their ballot a sacred thing to use in defense of their home, their country and their God.”

Mrs. Kreger, as noted earlier, was a member of the launch party of her namesake, the Jennie Flood Kreger.”

Faded Glory

The Jennie Flood Kreger was an impressive vessel and besides being the largest ever built in Belfast was one of the largest built in Maine that year. She was 245 feet long overall, with a keel of 225 feet. The Kreger measured nearly 3,500 tons and her anchors weighed 6,000 pounds and were fitted with 110 fathoms of 2 1/3- inch chains. The Kreger’s metal work was galvanized. Her masts were of Oregon fir, 110 feet long, and her topmasts were 55 feet long, of Maine pine and spruce.

After her much-heralded and very successful launching, the Kreger sailed to her homeport of Boston. Her first sea trial was when Captain Kreger sailed her to Rotterdam, Holland, to deliver a load of case oil. Case oil was oil that came in rectangular cans, with the cans packed in wooden cases. This was as opposed to modern bulk oil, carried in sealed compartments.

Time passed and the Kreger did good service for a number of years. But the days of wooden sailing ships were numbered and despite her fame and despite the hopes of her owners and builders for a rebirth of the sailing ship industry, steel-hulled, powered vessels gained ascendency over their wooden forbears.

In her last days, the Kreger was employed as a coal barge, an ignominious role for a vessel with such a promising beginning. The end came in 1932, when, Jennie Flood Kreger and another schooner, Horace A. Stone, were tied up next to each other near the Chelsea Bridge in East Boston.

A fire of undetermined origin engulfed both ships as they sat, gently riding with the tide. Charles Bowman, the engineer on the Stone, was trapped inside his vessel. Bowman grabbed his pet cat and attempted to reach safety, but was overcome and perished. His charred body, along with that of his cat, was found near one of the hatches.

The Jennie Flood Kreger sat on the mudflats of Boston Harbor until she was cut up for firewood in 1936. She began with much fanfare and had a good run. But the days of shipbuilding for Belfast were over, as were the days of commercial sailing vessels.

Read Katherine Frost’s diary regarding the J. F. Kreger–An Account by Katherine Frost of The Two Days Before the Launching and the Launching Itself here.