The Sunset of Sailing Ships

The schooner was the workhorse of the seas in early America. Sailing ships plied the waters off of our coast. Small crews of less than ten men could move heavy materials to our port cities. The work was dangerous.

Fleet of Schooners pass the beach at Sea Girt in 1884. Vintage photos courtesy of the Marriott C. Morris Collection, Library Company of Philadelphia

The inshore waters of New Jersey acted as a highway for this fleet. Its shifting sands grounded many, and the US Lifesaving Stations were set up along the coast to rescue foundering sailors.

This schooner, the Charles C. Dame was grounded on the beach near the current location of the Mantoloking bridge for over a year, when Marriott Morris captured these photos in 1884.

On the Mantoloking beach where the Charles C. Dame was under repair

In October 1893 the 568 ton ship left Baltimore bound for Charleston, S.C. loaded with $4,000 worth of coal. Sailing into a category 3 hurricane, the ship was blown into Frying-pan shoals eight miles from the Cape Fear life-saving station, at 3 o'clock in the morning. The ship turned on its side and broke in two. The eight-man crew lashed themselves to the rigging.

Manasquan US Life Saving Station was one of 450 set up by the forerunner of the Coast Guard

Capt. Watts and his crew of life-savers spotted the ship in trouble in the morning light and they rowed out from the Cape Fear station in a surf boat. They reached the men by early afternoon and avoiding the debris field of the ship were able to get the captain and all seven other crewmen with nothing but the soaked clothes on their backs.

Surfboats are still an important part of Ocean Rescue

The Vanname & King from the beach in Sea Girt 1886

This ship, 620 ton three masted schooner Van Name & King, was named after a New Haven Connecticut Sailmaker. It is pictured here passing Sea Girt in September 1886 when it was relatively new. Even though it served twenty more years of service and was eventually outfitted with an engine, its crew was not as lucky as the crew of the Charles Dame.

In early October 1905, Captain William Maxwell of Egg Harbor NJ left Charleston with a load of cut pine and headed to New York with seven other crewmen. Off Cape Lookout, NC they met a gale, which filled the hold with water, jammed the pumps and the ship rolled in the storm. The men tied themselves to the high side rails. During that first day, a giant wave swept one of the men away and broke the legs of Alfred, a sailor from Jamaica. The storm beat them for 24 hours. On the second day, the ship rolled completely over and the seven remaining men were thrown into the sea as the ship went down. They were eventually able to scramble onto a small piece of the aft deckhouse with a piece of tarp to catch rainwater. Over the next three days, they were weakened from exposure with no food and little water, and constantly battered by the waves.

"That night Arthur died in the arms of Captain Maxwell, and to relieve the overloaded raft his body was dropped into the sea. Sunday, October 8, a craft was sighted. but she passed by without heeding the little group of seamen. That night the waves subsided and little rain fell, which was caught n a tarpaulin and brought slight relief, It was only temporary, and not long after Chase's mind gave way entirely and the craft was again lightened when he threw himself into the sea.

The next terrific strain was Maxwell, who on the forenoon of October 9 became violently insane, and followed his mates' example. The spectacle of two men voluntarily throwing themselves into the sea proved too much for the German engineer, and a few hours after Captain Maxwell's death the craft was lightened for the fourth time, -when the crazed seaman jumped into the waves. The last victim was the colored steward, who died on the raft late Monday night. His body was dropped overboard by the two remaining seamen. Relief came twelve hours later, when the schooner F. Kelly, bound up the coast from Ceylon, to this port, sighted the little raft and hove to."

-Keyport Weekly Oct 20,1905 CASTAWAYS LEAP TO DEATH Two Only Could Stand Privations of Five Perilous Days

After five days adrift, William Thomas and William Warner, twenty-six-year olds both from Antigua were saved by the passing schooner F. Kelley. The men were hauled up in slings and were unable to move for two days. Both men were 6-3 and had lost over 30 pounds in the ordeal but eventually recovered.