Oscar Gilman Eaton was the son of Eliphalet Chase Pressey Eaton & Sally Doane Eaton. He was born November 6, 1841, on Deer Isle, Maine, and died May 5, 1935, in East Boston, Massachusetts. He commanded the Brig Renshaw; the Brig L. M. Merritt, 1866-71; the Bark Annie M. Gray, 1872; the Bark Proteus, 1872-73; the Bark Carrie Wyeman, 1873-74; the Ship S.F. Hersey, 1874-76; the Ship Oneida, 1876, 1881; and the Bark Penobscot, 1881-88.
Charles Melvin Nichols was the son of Wilson Cunningham Nichols & Margaret J. Cyphers Nichols. He was born January 20, 1851, in Searsport, Maine, and died April 5, 1937, in Searsport. He commanded the Bark Patmos, 1876; the Bark Arletta, 1882; the Ship Henrietta, to January, 1884; the Ship Lucy A. Nichols, 1883-85, 1888-90, 1895; the Bark Charlotte A. Littlefield, 1871-72; the Ship S. F. Hersey; the Ship A. J.
Benjamin Franklin Carver I was the son of Isaac Carver II & Hannah Nichols Carver. He was born September 4,1806, in Searsport, Maine, and died in Brooklyn, New York, October 27,1891. He commanded the Brig Kentucky, 1833-40; the Ship B. Aymar (when built in 1840); the Ship Charter Oak, 1854; and the Ship Henry S. Sanford.
Albert Nickels Blanchard was the son of William H. Blanchard & Clara E. Pendleton Blanchard. Captain Blanchard was born September 25, 1868 (at sea) and died March 12, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. The vessels he commanded included the Bark HerbertBlack, 1890-95; the Bark Puritan, 1896-97, 1900-01; the Ship Bangalore, 1897-98, 1900, 1901-04, 1905, 1906; the S.S. Banes, 1904-05 (fruiter of the Jamaica Line); and the Ship Governor Robie.
Oil on canvas, signed C.J. Waldron, 1873. The Moonbeam was built in Searsport in 1859 by William McGilvery. Amos Dow was master from 1859 to 1867. Her rig was changed to schooner in1891; she foundered off Point Judith in 1905.
A photograph of a watercolor by Louis Roux. The photo notes that the painting is owned by Amos Nichols. The bark Herbert Black was built in 1873 in Searsport by Marlboro Packard and stranded in Preston, England in 1919.
Working at sea in the middle of a storm was hard and wet work. Nets were sometimes set outside of the bulwarks to catch seamen to keep them from being swept overboard in a big breaking sea.
Capt. Butman was captain of the Searsport-built ship William H. Conner in 1891, which was but one of eight local vessels to sail to Australia just in the first quarter of 1889.
The Belle of Bath was launched in May, 1877 in Bath, Maine, by Goss & Sawyer; 1418 tons; length 203.9 ft, beam 39 ft., depth 24.3 ft. She was built for Parker M. Whitmore et al. and sold to Searsport parties in 1883 for $47,500. She was destroyed by fire in June, 1897, while bound from New York to Hong Kong loaded with case oil (kerosene). The Belle of Bath was captained by William G. Nichols and Henry G. Curtis of Searsport. This painting, done by an unknown Chinese artist, was given to Penobscot Marine Museum by the Nichols family.
