Dec. 26, 1839
We have occupied a large portion of our paper, this week, in a manner we hope never again to be called upon to do, as we certainly never were before, viz: chronicling numerous and awful shipwrecks.
Belfast has suffered, since the spring, severely among her population who ‘go down to sea in ships.’ We have lost six masters of vessels, to say nothing of the many mates and common sailors. — Capt. Joseph Houston died in St. Augustine, Florida, of Yellow Fever; Capt. James Cunningham, and Capt. Ambrose Farrow, in the West Indies, of Yellow; the latter sailed from this place although his family resides in Islesboro; Capt. Thomas F. Patterson, in New York, of Yellow Fever, contracted in St. Jago de Cuba; Capt. Patterson might not have had the papers in his hands, yet in fact he had as much control of the vessel as the one in whose hands were the papers;) Capt. Philip Eastman, in Hampton Roads, of Brain disease; and last, Capt. Simon G. Cottrell, who perished in the late dreadful wreck. These men were all young and active, and much beloved.
Dec. 31, 1903
We learn of a pleasing incident of Christmas week at the shoe factory. Among the employees is a small boy who came to his daily work insufficiently clad for the rigorous weather we have had of late. He attracted the attention and excited the compassion of Mrs. Henry D. Clough, and taking a tin dipper she started on a round of the employees, asking from each a contribution of only five cents. Some insisted on giving more and dropped silver quarters in the dipper, which soon held $10.50. With this money a nice suit of clothes, a sweater and underclothes were bought, and Mr. Shaw, the superintendent, contributed a pair of shoes. If that boy was not happy he ought to have been, and he has cause to remember all his life the kind-hearted men and women in the Belfast shoe factory.
To the Editor of the Journal:
The clam diggers working for the canneries have been quite numerous of late along the shores of the islands in the Penobscot bay. They anchor small schooners in sheltered places and bring their boats to the shore. At one tide the crew will dig over a whole clam bed, taking every mollusk down to the size of a small bird’s egg, not leaving, if possible, even a remnant to propagate the species. And during the past week or more the temperature has been below the freezing point, and thus every tiny creature that escaped the eye of the diggers perished before the rising tide again covered the beach. In this way every area thus dug over is exhausted. … In order to prevent extermination the following precautions are necessary:
1. Never dig over a beach when the temperature is below the freezing point.
2. Take only large clams. Leave the small ones to grow and to propagate their kind.
3. Do not dig up the whole area of a clam flat. Leave a small space — even a square rod — near low water mater, and the bivalves on that small area will keep the whole beach fertilized.
Compiled from archival holdings by Sharon Pietryka, Reference & Special Collections Librarian at the Belfast Free Library.
