Hesper and Luther Little

The Hesper and Luther Little were two schooners that were left abandoned in Wiscasset, Maine. Both ships were built in Massachusetts in the second decade of the 20th century, and wound up under one owner by 1932. Despite efforts to make use of the two schooners, this last owner went bankrupt and died shortly afterwards. Both ships were now essentially abandoned where their owner had left them in Wiscasset. Despite efforts to save the ships as tourist attractions, both were finally demolished in 1998 having by that time been reduced to piles of debris by the elements.

History
United States
Name: Hesper
Owner:
  • Various owners (1918-1932)
  • Frank Winter (1932-1936)
Builder: Crowninshild Shipbuilding
Launched: July 4, 1918
Homeport: Wiscasset
Fate: Abandoned in 1936
Status: Demolished in 1998
History
United States
Name: Luther Little
Owner:
  • Various owners (1917-1932)
  • Frank Winter (1932-1936)
Builder: Read Brothers Co
Launched: 1917
Homeport: Wiscasset
Fate: Abandoned in 1936
Status: Demolished in 1998
General characteristics
Class and type: Schooner
Tonnage:
  • 1,348 (GRT) (Hesper)[1]
  • 1,234 (GRT) (Luther Little)[1]
Length:
  • 210 ft (64 m) (Hesper)[1]
  • 204 ft (62 m) (Luther Little)[1]
Decks: 2 (Luther Little)[1]
Propulsion: wind
Speed: variable

History

The Hesper, and Luther Little were both built in Somerset, Massachusetts in the later half of the 1910s, each having a different career.[2] Both ships had donkey engines that were used for things like the capstan, and hoisting the anchor, but no auxiliary power. Their usage was primarily to ship coal and lumber, but by the mid 1920s new steam powered vessels were making cargo sailing ships obsolete.[2] One by one the ships were taken out of service, and found their way to Wiscasset where they were placed up for auction.

The two ships were purchased by Frank Winter in 1932, he was an entrepreneur who had also bought the Wiscasset And Quebec Railroad in order to operate a Boston-to-Wiscasset coal and lumber business.[2][3] He had the idea to have the ships bring coal north to Wiscasset, and bring lumber back to the south. The railroad was to be used to bring lumber, and coal to the interior parts of Maine.[4] This idea never came to pass though as Frank's business suffered through a series of bad events that led to the railway being ripped up in 1934 in order to pay debts owed.[3] The two schooners were left abandoned in Wiscasset Harbor by Frank who died shortly after his business became defunct.

As time went by both ships deteriorated at different rates, the Hesper suffered the most from the decay having been set on fire at least twice. There were efforts made to try and preserve the ships, but the town of Wiscasset did not want to spend the money to do so. For decades the ships sat where they had been left becoming a tourist attraction as they were highly visible from U.S. Route 1. Both ships kept their shapes until the mid 1990s when the remains bore more resemblance to piles of debris. The Hesper, and Luther Little were finally demolished, and carried off to a local landfill in the late 1990s after a storm had destroyed what was left of them. People were allowed to take whatever remains they wanted from the landfill until what was left was finally run through a wood chipper.[5]

Hesper

The Hesper was built in 1918 by Crowninshield Shipbuilding which was located in Somerset, Massachusetts. Her launch on July 4, 1918 was met with a delay that lasted a month, the Hesper made several voyages after that to Europe and South America. In 1925, she was grounded while entering Boston but was freed with the assistance of tugs. She then was moved around different ports in Maine in the late 1920s before she finally ended up in Portland. Frank Winter bought the Hesper in 1932, and had her towed to Wiscasset where she arrived in September of that year.[4] After her abandonment she had her masts cut down in 1940, and five years later her aft deckhouse was burned to celebrate the end of World War II. Despite the damage she was able to be boarded as late as the 1960s, a few explorers were even able to access her lower decks.[6] In 1978 another fire further damaged the ship, a salvager though was able to make off with a wooden plank of the ship that said "Hesper" on it possibly saving it from destruction.[7] By the early 1990s the Hesper had disintegrated into a pile of debris, her end came in 1998 when it was decided by the town to demolish what was left of the ships.[6]

Luther Little
Luther Little during launch day (1917)

The Luther Little was built in 1917 by Read Brothers Co which was also located in Somerset, Massachusetts.[8] Unlike the Hesper though, her small coal boiler also provided heat and hot water to the ship’s forward and main cabins in addition to mechanical work. In June, 1918 her crew managed to rescue two balloonists who had crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Delaware.[2] Other than this event, she was used in coastal/deep water trades early on in her career but was nearly lost in 1920 when she was grounded in Haiti. By the mid 1920s she was laid up until she was purchased in 1932 by Frank Winter who had her towed alongside the Hesper in Wiscasset.[4] After Winter's death both ships were forgotten until 1965 when the Wiscasset Industrial Development Committee looked into possibly restoring the Luther Little as a tourist attraction. The plan would have involved burning her to the waterline in order to preserve the ship, but this was never done.[2] By the 1970s the deckhouse fixtures had been stripped, and water had made its way into the 200 ft cargo hold.[1] In 1995 her masts collapsed in a storm, soon after her hull which had stood intact finally gave way as well.[4] In 1998 she was demolished along with the Hesper, with the remains going to the local landfill.[6]

In 1985, folk singer/songwriter Gordon Bok did a song called Wiscasset Schooners. Included in the group singing were Lois Lyman (the song's author), and her husband. Bok included the song on his albums Schooners, and Harbors of Home.[9]

References
  1. Lawrence Lufkin. "WISCASSET SCHOONERS". www.titanic-nautical.com. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  2. Phil Di Vece (December 2, 2015). "Story retold of Wiscasset's Hesper and Luther Little". Wiscasset Newspaper. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  3. "History of the WW&F Railway". wwfry.org. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  4. Andrew Toppan. "Maine's Last Big Schooners". www.hazegray.org. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  5. "Scuttled and Dumped, Schooners Up for Grabs". LA Times. September 23, 2001. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  6. Phil Di Vece (July 14, 2015). "More than just memories remain of schooners Hesper and Luther Little". Wiscasset Newspaper. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  7. Abigail W. Adams (December 16, 2015). "Wiscasset Legal Owners of Hesper and Luther Little Remains". lincolncountynewsonline.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  8. "Luther Little". www.mainemaritimemuseum.org. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  9. "Wiscasset Schooners". www.timberheadmusic.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
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