Digital Illustrative painting of Schooner Eleanor A. Percy in the harbor. Reproduction of original photo by Nathaniel Stebbins, circa 1903. © Allan Wood Photography
The Final Voyages of the “Queen” of All Wooden Sailing Ships, the Six-Masted Schooner Eleanor A. Percy.
The Eleanor A. Percy was launched on October 10, 1900, at the Percy & Small Shipyard on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. The shipyard lies in the Boothbay region, where many lighthouses were also constructed to guide vessels along the river, among the islands, and along the rocky coastline. This six-master boasted a 323-foot-long hull with an overall length of 347 feet over the deck from stem to stern. She was the largest of all wooden schooners built at the turn of the century, referred to as the “queen” of all sailing ships. Over the years of service, she proved to be very profitable as she was capable of hauling over 5,500 tons of cargo. She had survived some dangerous collisions and accidents, a fire from a coal tower above her, and nasty gale storms, blizzards, and near hurricanes along the East Coast, and across the seas.
Changing Ownership and Making Money During the Great War
As the Great War waged on, freight rates were at all-time highs for steamers and schooners to make dangerous voyages across the Atlantic, and owners were selling their vessels at unrealistic costs. Such was the case for the giant Eleanor A. Percy, sold in early December of 1915 to a New York firm named Kinn Limited for $125,000.With freight rates at all-time highs during the Great War (WWI), she made many transatlantic trips. The giant six-master also underwent an overhaul involving additional renovations so she could carry either coal or petroleum oil. In February of 1916, she chartered to pick up 120,000 cases of oil and take the cargo for delivery to Montevideo, Uruguay. The great schooner was paid an astonishing $84,000 for that one delivery. However, she also chartered a return cargo, delivering 5,000 tons of linseed from Montevideo to New York, making $91,000. The combined $175,000 (amount equivalent to 35x that amount today) earned in the round trip was the most considerable amount of freight money ever earned by an American sailing vessel, quickly paying for her initial purchase by her new owners.
In November of 1916, after making considerable profits for her owners, she was sold along with three other smaller schooners for a high price of $800,000 (which would be 28 million dollars today). The new owners were a Norwegian company, Theo B. Hiesten & Sonner of Christiansen, and the schooner was renamed the Dusle. Problems arose when she was making her first voyage for them, as the six-master sprang a severe leak en route from South America to France and had to return to port on the Madeira Islands outside of Portugal. Her cargo had to be unloaded and stored in a warehouse while she underwent extensive repairs.
The Eleanor A. Percy at Norfolk Coal Pier in Virginia – Image Library of Congress
Unhappy with their purchase, the Norwegian company sold the Dusle afterward to the France and Canada Steamship Company in the spring of 1917. This group of investors also purchased most of the fleet of four, five, and six-masters built at the Percy & Small Shipyard for the war effort, as freight charges were still extremely high for increased profits. The new owners also returned the schooner’s original name, Eleanor A. Percy. During the summer and autumn of 1918, with peace rumored on the horizon, freight rates plummeted to normal, acceptable levels. The war ended on November 11, 1918.
With the Great War nearing its end, the Eleanor A. Percy was showing her age with needing necessary repairs on her aging wooden hull. Sailing to Argentina in South America or across the Atlantic takes a couple of months for those ships that would make this challenging journey. The collier left New York with her cargo bound for Buenos Aires on October 11, 1918, and arrived there around January 3, 1919. She waited for another charter before returning to New York and had some necessary repairs made before making the journey. Some months later, on July 4, 1919, the Eleanor A. Percy left Buenos Aires for New York and developed a severe leak in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in early August. The schooner had to turn back and safely reached the dry dock in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Final Voyage Ends On Christmas Day
With repairs completed, the schooner chartered to carry 4,000 tons of wheat for delivery to Copenhagen, Denmark. On November 11, 1919, she departed from Rio de Janeiro for Copenhagen under the command of Captain Mitchell. First Officer John Michael Natvig sent a postcard to his son, Harold, just before leaving Rio de Janeiro. The Eleanor A. Percy was carrying a crew of fifteen men. A German stowaway had also gotten aboard the ship to sail to freedom in Copenhagen.
Digital illustrative painting of the six-masted schooner Eleanor A. Percy. © Allan Wood Photography.
On December 24, 1919, the schooner was 350 miles off the Irish coast and started taking water from another severe leak in her aging wooden hull. There was a dangerous storm in the western Atlantic as giant waves crashed onto the ship and huge swells tossed it around in the open seas. The crew tried their best to use the pumps to empty the flooding waters, but on December 25, Christmas day, too much water had come in, and the crew realized they would need to abandon the ship or perish.
Second Mate N. P. Austin and four Scandinavian seamen got into a motorboat, and the remaining crew members with the stowaway tried to get into two other boats. Captain Mitchell was the last to leave the ship in one of the other boats. The seas were still creating huge waves as the three lifeboats became separated from one another. After searching for about an hour, Austin and his crew found no sign of the other two boats as they tried to find evidence of their comrades surviving in the storm. The five men presumed the other boats overturned while the ship started to sink, dragging the other ten crew members and the stowaway to their watery graves.
The lone craft made it safely away from the sinking schooner, but soon, the motor ran out of gas, and the churning seas tossed the boat in endless directions. The storm passed the next day, and they continued to ride the waves as they began to ration water and saltwater-soaked biscuits to survive.
Exhaustion and hypothermia were setting in due to prolonged exposure to the freezing December winds and ocean spray as the five survivors drifted in their little motorboat. They placed clothes on a pole to attract any vessel’s attention while days would pass without any sightings.
Finally, on the night of December 29, with their water and food supplies gone, they were miraculously spotted by the fishing trawler Walwyn Castle. The captain and crew brought the exhausted men on board and gave them food and warm clothing. The trawler headed for the port of Swansea, about 210 miles from the point of their rescue. In the four days they had been drifting, they covered around 220 miles with the winds and currents.
Ten crew members and a stowaway went down with the ship, including First Officer John Michael Natvig and Captain Mitchell. The captain was from Poughkeepsie, New York, whereas Natvig was from South Portland, Maine. Two years later, the logbook, thrown overboard before the crew abandoned the ship, had washed ashore on one of the Isles of Scilly, off England’s most western coast. Surprisingly, it was still legible. Second Mate N. P. Austin, one of the survivors, made the last entry. It read, “sinking, Latitude 48°N, longitude 19°W, bound for Copenhagen.” The great ship had been in service for nineteen years.
Digital Illustration of the location of the sinking and rescue of the survivors of the Eleanor A. Percy off the coast of Ireland. © Allan Wood Photography, all rights reserved.
Books to Explore
The Rise and Demise of the Largest Sailing Ships
The Rise and Demise of the Largest Sailing Ships: Stories of the Six and Seven-Masted Coal Schooners of New England. In the early 1900s, New England shipbuilders constructed the world’s largest sailing ships amid social and political reforms. These giants were the ten original six-masted coal schooners and one colossal seven-masted vessel, built to carry massive quantities of coal and building supplies and measured longer than a football field! This book, balanced with plenty of color and vintage images, showcases the historical accounts that followed these mighty ships.
This self-published book includes the story mentioned above, among many others, involving the Eleanor A. Percy and the other ten vessels.
Available in paperback, hardcover, and as an eBook for all devices.
Enjoy a 10% discount on the hardcover version. Printed and distributed by IngramSpark.
Book – Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions in Southern New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
This 300-page book, Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions of Southern New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, provides memorable human interest stories from each of the 92 lighthouses. You can explore plenty of indoor and outdoor coastal attractions, including whale-watching excursions, lighthouse tours, parks, museums, and even lighthouses where you can stay overnight. You’ll also find plenty of stories of hauntings around lighthouses.
Book – Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions in Northern New England: New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont
This 300-page book, Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions of Northern New England: New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, provides special human interest stories from each of the 76 lighthouses, along with plenty of indoor and outdoor coastal attractions you can explore and tours. Attractions and tours include whale watching, windjammer sailing tours, lighthouse tours, unique parks, museums, and lighthouses where you can stay overnight. There are also stories of haunted lighthouses in these regions.
Book- New England Lighthouses: Famous Shipwrecks, Rescues & Other Tales
New England Lighthouses: Famous Shipwrecks, Rescues & Other Tales contains over 50 stories. This image-rich book also contains vintage images provided by the Coast Guard and various organizations and paintings by six famous Coast Guard artists.
You’ll find this book and the lighthouse tourism books from the publisher Schiffer Books or in many fine bookstores like Barnes and Noble.
Copyright © Allan Wood Photography; do not reproduce without permission. All rights reserved.
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