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by Richard Barons
Several years ago, the majority of the Society’s artworks were moved to a storage closet in the Jackson Osborne House. Up on the second floor, over the old kitchen lean-to was a dry and safe area for a small, but interesting collection of material—mostly in need of restoration.
One of the largest of the paintings was a scarred and varnish-darkened oil-on canvas depicting a large three masted sailing ship moving fast through a dark and rough sea. There was a name on her, but the crazed and blackened coat of varnish made identification impossible. Who was this handsome vessel? This work of art was the first choice of the collections committee to travel up Springs-Fireplace Road to the studio of local art conservator, Lawrence Castagna, to see what could be done to bring life back to this dramatic depiction of our mystery boat.
Many of our artifacts were identified by string-tags, rather than the more traditional inscribed catalogue numbers. This system is very frustrating because the tags often got in the way of displaying the object, so were removed, and never seen again. Worse still, is the string, tacked to a wooden stretcher with no tag to be seen. The latter was the fate of this painting’s tag.
When Larry called to say, “I think the name is Lydia Campbell” we started hunting the collection files. What we found was that before 1960 Harry B. Squires (son of a Brooklyn sea captain) had given us a painting by Stubbs of the Schooner “Lavinia Campbell”. A true collector, bachelor Squires filled his Home with seedpods, copper ore and humming bird’s nests. He also collected nautical items and ship paintings. He is buried at Good Ground Cemetery. With the name we started to find the tale of the “ Lavinia Campbell”.
The 697–ton “Campbell” was built in 1883 in the David Clark shipyard at Kennebunkport, Maine for Captain Charles N. Franklin. She was 697 tons in weight, 190’ long, masts were 94’ tall and used 5000 yards of canvas for her sails. Her hold depth was 17’ and her boom was 75’ long. She had a white painted hull when she was launched on July 3rd, 1883. She was the largest schooner ever built on the Kennebuk River. She was a coastal schooner, carrying coal to New England’s textile mills.
The first public notice of the ship was in the “New York Maritime Register” of November 10th, 1882 when the order was placed with David Clark to build her. Her masts were made of Oregon pine with scarcely a knot from one end to the other. She cost about $45,000.00. It is said that probably few vessels survived so many collisions as the “Lavinia Campbell”.
When only three months old and enroute from Philadelphia to Boston with 1150 tons of coal, she rain ashore on the south side of Block Island. It was 5 o’clock in the morning when through the fog a light three-quarters of a mile south of the Block Island Life Saving Station was spotted. The weather was foggy with heavy squalls of wind and rain accompanied by an ugly and fearful sea. The life saving surfboat was about to be launched when friends and relatives begged the keeper and crew not to attempt a rescue. These words had no effect on the station crew; off they rowed to save the men on board. The “Lavinia Campbell” sailed out of Greenport, New York and all eight crewmembers were saved.
The next day the ship was cleaned-out of its cabin furniture and crew’s clothing. The sails were loosened dry. Two days later a wrecking company extricated the vessel from the rocks and towed her to New Port, RI. After some temporary repairs, she was again towed, but this time to Boston, to be permanently repaired.
On the night of August 31st, 1886 while anchored between Pollock Rip and Shovelfull lightships in Vineyard Sound, the “Campbell” was run into by another three-master whose commander was the ancestor of our modern Hampton’s hit-and-run drivers; he didn’t pause to identify himself and left the Campbell without jib boom or headgear.
On January 10th, 1889 while lying at anchor below Baltimore with a full cargo of coal for Boston waiting for a fair wind, the “Campbell” had the misfortune to be rammed by a British steamer, “Macedonia”, which cut deeply into her stern, carrying away the whole starboard quarter. She filled rapidly with water and sank in shoal water from which she was towed by tugs and patched and raised and towed further to a shipyard and repaired.
Ten months later, while bound for Boston from Norfolk, the “Campbell” collided in the pitch-dark with an unknown bark, an encounter that did her much damage.
On the night of September 7th, 1892, while sailing down Boston Harbor bound for Belfast, Maine, the “Campbell” ran into the four-masted “Ebenezer Haggett” which was at anchor. The “Campbell” suffered only minor damage and after getting clear, proceeded to Belfast leaving the “Haggett” to nurse her wounds.
The “Campbell” was a splendid design and she had a reputation as a smart sailor and her rugged construction enabled her to withstand the worst fate had dealt her thus far; the next encounter was just too much. Early in the morning of September 13th, 1901, the “Lavinia Campbell” was sailing up the Delaware toward Philadelphia where she was to load another cargo of coal for New England’s new electric plants. The deep-laden four-masted schooner “Cassie F. Bronson” was sailing down the Bay headed toward Bangor. The two schooners came together with a fearful crash. The “Campbell” was cut through and capsized in about fifteen minutes. Filled with water, she drifted up the Bay until she grounded on a shoal. Early hopes for saving the “Campbell” soon faded and she was abandoned, her hull and fittings stripped by wreckers for what the scrap would bring.
Our painting is now a strong and powerful depiction of a coal schooner plowing through a dark and stormy sea with a hint of clearing over-head. This fine image is representative of the many ships that sailed the coast of Long Island at the turn of the twentieth century. We hope to construct an exhibition around our collection of depictions of sailing ships in the near future. But for the time being, you may visit the “Lavinia Campbell” for she is hanging on the walls of our office at the Osborn-Jackson House Museum located on East Hampton’s Main Street, number 101.
Osborn-Jackson House Museum
101 Main Street
East Hampton
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