Monday, February 3, 1908
Lost With All Hands
Sch. Northern Eagle Reported
Missing in Mexican Waters
She Hailed from this Port
Crew Composed of Well Known
Gloucester Fishermen
"A dispatch from Tampico
(Mexico) says that the Northern Eagle, an American fishing schooner with a crew of 10 men,
which left Key West 25 days ago for Tampico was lost in the recent storm which swept over
the gulf of Mexico. All the crew perished." The
telegram, in its few lines, tells very sad news, for, if correct, it tells of the loss of
ten fishermen, hailing form this port, and many of them very well known afloat and ashore.
Although sold here last summer, her hailing
port was not changed and when she went from here, November 26, she bore the hail of
Gloucester on her stern, and this is the first vessel from this port to be lost at sea
with all hands since sch. Annie Wesley, which it is supposed
went down in the terrible gale of December 1902.
The crew list of the Northern
Eagle was as follows, the men shipping before United Shipping Commissioner Roderick
McDonald of this city, November 20, 1907.
Roger Lord, 50, master and
owner, resided in Gloucester
Stanley Ryan, cook, resident of Gloucester, left widow and five children
Hibbert Conrad, 43, native of Port Medway, N. S.
Lyman Conrad, 25, native of Port Medway, N. S.
Edgar Teal, 30, native of Port Medway, N. S.
Norman Sponagle, 43, native of Dublin, N. S.
Bert Blair, native of Lunenburg, N. S.
Barney Conrad, 24, single
Arthur Smith, 42, single
Thomas Cronin, 42, resident of Gloucester
A man named Harry Anderson
signed the papers to go as cook, but did not go, and at the last moment Ryan
was shipped in his place. W. A. Grady also signed the shipping articles
but did not go in the vessel.
Capt. Lord, it appears, is a
Maine man, who was thoroughly acquainted with the Mexican and Central American coast and
the south American coast, as far as the Amazon river, which he has also explored for a
number of miles. He held a fishing grant form the Mexican government to fish in
certain waters on the Mexican shore. He bought the Northern Eagle
early in the summer of 1907 and let her lay here, remaining here himself.
The Northern Eagle
was quite a famous little craft, being 51 years old. Before leaving here she was
hauled out on the 'ways and fixed up considerable for her long voyage. She was 36.97
tons gross, 35.12 tons net, and formerly owned by Capt. Simeon McCloud of
East Gloucester, and built at this port in 1857.
Capt. Roger W. Lord, the owner and master
of the lost schooner, came here last summer from Brazil, for the purpose of purchasing a
vessel with which to take a cargo of mahogany from the Amazon River to Amsterdam,
Holland.The mahogany however would not be ready for shipment until this spring, and the
vessel was chartered by Mr. Hazen Foliansbee of this city to convey a
large quantity of fishing paraphernalia from this port to Tampico, as Mr. Foliansbee
was the agent of a syndicate of American capitalists who had secured a grant to take fish
along the Mexican coast..
The Northern Eagle, when she
sailed form here, carried a complete outfit of fishing paraphernalia, including a mackerel
seine and pocket, mackerel and cod nets, trawls and handlines, also lumber and joist and
shooks, in fact everything to be used on fishing voyages of an experimental nature on a
strange coast. This all was valued at about $1500 on which there was no
insurance. Capt. Lord stated before he sailed that there was no
insurance on the vessel. |
