common, but by the early 1800s schooners had become the rig of choice. The growing size of the schooner was filling the gap between the sloop and the offshore ships. Shipbuilding and foreign commerce also flourished until the Civil War. The famed deepwater Yankee clipper was by then known in ports around the world. Trade between New England and the West Indies began early in the colonial era. Schooners from Maine brought lumber and returned with cargo from the Caribbean and southern states. Those making the trip regularly were known as West Indiamen.
     But after the Civil War (1861-1865) and its destructive effects, there was a shift in national attention and capital from maritime to industrial development, railroads and westward expansion. Deepwater shipping declined; however, demand for coastwise bulk cargo transportation increased as a result of this shift. The fleet of "coasters" expanded and shipbuilding with it.
     Population movement and immigration, in response to this industrial development, led to urban and suburban expansion. There was an enormous increase in demand for lumber, lime for mortar, granite, ice, and later coal in southern New England, Boston and New York being the largest markets. The huge factories built of brick, rows of tenements, the lumber-rich architecture of Victorian homes, granite public buildings and roads were to a large extent being built with Maine's natural resources.
     Lumber had long been Maine's largest export product. At times wood literally poured out of the rivers along the coast. It was not uncommon to see 250 sailing vessels in port at one time, on both sides of the Penobscot River at Bangor. Bangor, until about 1900, was the leading lumber port in the United States.
     Maine, by far, had the largest number of coastwise schooners and sloops in the early 1800s. It was also where many of the boats owned elsewhere were being built. At the end of the century, when much larger schooners were built, virtually all of these were Maine built.
     In the years just before 1920, there were many who remembered the height of the coasting trade. The keeper at Owl's Head Light recorded the vessels sailing by his position at the westerly approach to Rockland Harbor and Penobscot Bay. During the year 1876 he counted over 16,000 schooners alone, not including vessels of other rigs. Many of these were the same vessel making another passage, but it is an indication of the volume of traffic.
     Schooners before 1850 were typically under 100 tons, around 75 feet, with a long main boom, like the sloop boat, that hung well aft of the stern. The smaller coastwise boats (under 200 tons and under 100 feet) were often owned and operated by their captains. Like the fishermen-farmers of the time, some had farms that called for "hanging up" the boat while the hay was brought in. For some, the crew was family, neighbors or friends, including wives who sometimes cooked and acted in general as a member of the crew. John Leavitt, who worked on coasters from the age of 14 until the last days of coasting in the 1930s, wrote in his book Wake of the Coasters, "Life on a coaster was less formal than on deep water boats. The captain was the boss, but rather than being addressed as 'sir,' it was Captn' or by his first name." Personalities and method, of course varied, in maintaining command, but the "Bucko" found on deepwater clipper ships who enforced orders with his fists or a belaying pin, had no place on coastwise boats. The captain lived exactly as the crew. He may have a stateroom to himself or his choice of bunk, but otherwise the conditions were the same for him.
     Some boats were owned by the captain and investors who again could be family or friends, but often were locally known people expecting a good return on their share. In later years the captains of larger ships were paid a nominal monthly salary and they also owned a share. It was from their share that most of the earnings came, the value of that share, as it did in the smaller boats, depended on their abilities as a captain.
     For many of these sailors the Maine coast was a neighborhood. At anchorages waiting to unload or waiting out bad weather, they would congregate and talk weather, vessels and cargos. Boats, captains and crew were known to each other and sometimes a boat was recognized on the horizon by sails alone. A boat's reputation could be based on its speed and handiness, exceptional or miserable accommodations, good or notorious captain, seaworthiness or pay.
     Most of the Maine coasting fleet depended on lumber cargos, which were loaded below decks and above to heights that called for special "lumber reefs" in the sail. Some boats would be so heavily loaded that the decks were awash when under way. Lumber cargos were popular because they were clean and smelled good, but they also made the boat practically unsinkable. Building lumber was square edged making a tightly packed load possible. It was stacked fore and aft. Some deckloads were so high at times that the helmsman was guided by a crew member atop the load calling directions.
     A typical schooner of about 75' would carry about 100,000 board feet. Openings were left in the load around pumps, deck gear and companionways. The number of trips made each year varied according to the length of the trips, along with many other variables like weather and repairs. Sailing between mid-coast Maine and Boston or New York, a coaster would have made 8 to 12 trips a year.
     Cargos of all kinds were carried on coasters. The sight of hay schooners, with the load piled high and hanging over the sides, box boards that were not edge sawn and stacked with the load well out beyond the bulwarks or a load of piling logs nearly the length of the boat and stacked up under the boom were taken for granted in those days. Salt may have been hauled back on a boat that had unloaded lumber. Some boats would regularly haul a particular cargo for months or years then switch to another because of prices paid, availability, or the condition of the boat.
     Stone droghers hauled large pieces of granite that neither smelled good nor bad. But unlike the lumber load it was not very buoyant. Early on sloops hauled stone, using a boom stepped off the mast just above the deck for loading. Most of these were out of Chebeague Island in Casco Bay. In later years schooners were refitted and rerigged for hauling stone.
     A lot of smaller boats on the Boston run, like the schooner Annie and Reuben, were loaded just shy of the sinking point. John Leavitt wrote, "I have seen the Annie and Reuben with something over 200 tons of stone aboard, lying at Crotch Island wharf with the water flowing through the scuppers to the height of an inch or more on the main hatch coaming. This in a flat calm." A rugged schooner and good sailer, "winged out before the wind she was almost impossible to catch." It was said that between Deer Isle and Boston there wasn't a harbor where she wasn't known. During World War II she was sold to go south to the Cuban sugar trade, but she got ashore on a New Jersey beach and never got off.
     Stories of stone freighters sinking are common enough. Spitting out caulking in a blow, springing a plank or pumps that cannot quite keep up with the leaks are among the causes. In the calm waters near Hall's Quarry toward Somesville, on the westerly side of Somes Sound, Mt. Desert, vessels loaded granite for New York. Not far off the wharf the schooner Delhi, deep loaded with granite, suddenly opened up and sank in minutes with her topmasts disappearing far below the surface.
     Limers carried a cargo with its own peculiar hazards. Being over loaded went with the territory for coasters. Carrying lime made water in the hold more of a threat. Lime for mortar was shipped from Rockland and Thomaston, Maine in large casks. If the casks of lime got at all wet it would create a smoldering fire in the hold. It was a fire difficult to extinguish and the cause of more than a few coasters burning to the waterline. Dousing it with water was out. Smothering the blaze was the only option.
     An example of the problem can be seen in the 1890's case of the Herman F. Kimball, built at East Boothbay in 1888 by George M. Hodgdon. Off the coast of Kittery, bound to the westward, it was discovered that her cargo of lime was afire. The skipper headed for Kittery, the nearest port and anchored behind the breakwater off Fort McClary. The crew opened a cask of lime to make plaster for sealing any cracks that might let air in below deck. A sail was used to make a tent over the boom and the men settled in to wait for the fire to be extinguished. After a few weeks a cautious look below found the fire still smoldering. Not until three months later was the fire found to be extinguished. There was considerable damage, but she was rebuilt and sailed again.
     The manufacturing of lime required great quantities of wood to fire the lime kilns. The lime was used to make mortar for laying bricks. The firewood was hauled by coasters to Rockland and Thomaston from ports along the coast. In 1900 the Rockland-Rockport Lime Co. had 150 schooners, half of them sailed to New York and Boston with lime. The rest hauled fire wood to fed the kilns. By 1915 they had only four schooners. Firewood and pulpwood remained a cargo coastwise. To pick up a load schooners sailed to a tidewater area on a tide. As the tide dropped the schooner sat in the mud while cords of wood were piled high on deck. Long experience brought the knowledge of the maximum load that would allow the vessel to float free. Some of the more extraordinary photos are of schooners loaded 8'-10' above the deck with a cargo of fire or pulp wood.
     Before World War I schooners hauled cargos of ice to southern ports. Ice had been made a saleable commodity in southern latitudes in the early 19th century. Cut on lakes into blocks the size of hay bales and buried under sawdust, it could be made to last through the summer in an ice house. Coasters, less insulated though they were, took ice south and brought back hard pine from Florida and Georgia. In earlier days, larger deepwater ships loaded ice at Hampden and other Penobscot ports for the West Indies, South America and the Far East.
     The packet boat took passengers and local freight from port to port on a regular advertised schedule. Accommodations varied, but were reasonable for the times. The estimated time of arrival for many of these packets illustrates how differently time and travel were considered then compared to today. A packet from Portland to New York, depending on the weather, could take two days or two weeks.
     As demand for materials grew, larger and larger schooners were built. There were three-masted schooners built in the early 1800s. Maine shipbuilders rediscovered the rig in the 1830s. Maine was the principal schooner building state and early on three-masters were built at Ellsworth, Eden, Bristol and Blue Hill between 1831 and 1833. They became common later when hull size demanded it. As it is with growth and consolidation, soon it was the first four-master built at Bath by Goss and Sawyer in 1880. Hulls were larger too; the Elliott B. Church, built at Bath was the first to exceed 1,000 tons. In 1888 the first five-master was built at Waldoboro, Maine. It was also the only five-master to have a centerboard. Other large schooners had centerboards, but not the piece of equipment commonly thought of as a centerboard. These were 30' wide and 8" thick with a centerboard trunk approaching the size of a tractor trailer.
     In 1900 the first six-master was built at Camden, Maine, and others followed. Of the nine wooden six-masters built, all were built in Maine. The last was the Wyoming at 3,730 tons, which carried 6,000 tons of coal. With a length to beam of 6.5 to 1 they were too long to be practical. In spite of deep keelsons of 15"x 15" timber and sister keelsons on either side, hogging was inevitable.
     In an effort to overcome this and build even larger ships, experiments in steel schooners were tried. In 1902 the first seven-masted schooner, the Thomas W. Lawson was built of steel at Quincy, Massachusetts. She measured 395' with a 50' beam and drew 29' with a full 9,000 ton load of coal. The masts were steel, the foremast measured 33" in diameter. But even this enormous ship found coal cargos unprofitable and it was converted to a tanker. In 1907 she was loaded with more than two million gallons of lubricating oil and sailed for England by her new captain, George W. Dow of Hancock, Maine. After an extremely stormy passage with hurricane force winds of 90 mph, sails were shredded, rigging damaged, and life boats blown away. Forced to run before the storm, six weeks after leaving Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, she anchored off the Scilly Isles of southeast England on December 13th.
     At 4 p.m. a life boat was sent out, but Captain Dow said he did not want assistance at that time, believing his anchors adequate. Soon the wind picked up and in an hour or so was blowing hard. The lifeboat returned, but was unable to get alongside the plunging schooner. At 1 a.m. the port cable parted, at 2:30 a.m. the starboard cable let go and thousands of tons of metal swung off. All hands were ordered into the rigging. Ten minutes later the enormous Thomas W. Lawson, the first and last seven-master, was thrown on the rocks of Hellwether Reef, split in two between the 6th and 7th masts, then rolled over and sank in deep water. Captain Dow and his engineer were the only survivors of the nineteen crewmen on board.
     The world of the two-masted schooner, the owner-operated enterprise, was very different from that of the multimasted behemoths, huge investments, large market shares of turn of the century shipping. Cargo was available for the two-masted schooner operators into the 1930s, but less and less. Shipping rate increases during the First World War gave coasters a temporary boost, as did the promotion of and speculation in converted swamps in Florida shortly after the war. The demand for lumber in Florida revived part of what had been the West Indies route. Large steamships, railroads and later, trucking, would combine to bring to an end to what once was the way to transport bulk cargo in this country.