Sometime you will miss me darling, when the long night shadows fall
I shall be beyond the deep blue horizon, I shall not hear you call
The sun sets for us all, it is so
To the west I must go
I will miss my girls but it's not to be,
for alas, the sea shall swallow me
Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished!” —William Shakespeare, The Tempest
One of the most tragic episodes in my wife's family revolves around her Buckminster family of Maine and Rhode Island. It is a tale of great love, dashed hopes and promise unfilled. The Buckminster family of Deer Isle and Portland Maine were struck by two unspeakable tragedies between November 1898 and March 1899. The history woven in the fabric of this family bonded to the sea could not be drowned. The sacrifices of their lives, gave my wife and kids todays and tomorrows.
The Buckminster father and son left behind wives and children who forged ahead and wrote new chapters in a book still being written today by their ancestors. Their lives were filled with an indomitable human spirit that would continue to link the chain of love of a family unbroken to the present day.
My wife's Great-Great Grandfather Vernley Joseph Buckminster perished on the on the ill-fated Steamer "Portland" Thanksgiving weekend of 1898 somewhere near Gloucester, Massachusetts. A little less than four months later, Vernley's father and my wife's Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster succumbed to a sea that takes without asking. The Captain was washed overboard in the North Atlantic, from the deck of his coal barge , "The City of Montreal" somewhere off the Jersey coast March 19, 1899.
Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky, let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic.- Van Morrison
Vernley Joseph Buckminster(on the left) Born Aug. 8, 1868, Deer Isle Maine Died: Nov. 27, 1898 Shipwreck of the Steamer "Portland"
Even though he did not become a sailor like his father, and his father before him, Vernley Joseph Buckminster was from a seafaring family. His father, Joseph Knowlton Buckminster was one of the most respected Captains in all of New England in the mid to late 1800s. Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster was born in 1839 in Deer Isle Maine to a father who was a farmer and fisherman, Thomas Buckminster and his wife Eleanor (Nellie) Carter. The majority of the 19th century New England Buckminster family from Deer Isle were sailors or fishermen. In New England in the 1800s the best living to be made on the coast of Maine was as a fishermen on the lobster, cod, and haddock fishing boats, or on barges which carried all manner of freight. It was on these boats that many of my wife's ancestors netted a good living from the sea.
Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster lost his father Thomas Buckminster on the first day of November 1849. Joseph was ten years old. This tragedy was the first but not last that a New England November would bring the family. Raised by his single mother, Joseph grew to love the sea. He sailed, fished and even played the hero rescuing other sailors when boats were tossed about in November gales.
Tales of the seafaring exploits of Captain Joseph Buckminster.
Each man on Buckminster's boat made $4.00 (about $118.36 in 2020 money) for saving the crew of the Schooner Tyro, stranded off Cape Ann at Norman's Woe, Gloucester, Massachusetts about 30 miles northeast of Boston during the gale of November 1861.
One of Buckminster's fellow sailors was Edward Fairfield Small, a year older and from one of the first Deer Isle Families. Edward's sister, Hannah Anne Small eventually became the wife of Joseph Knowlton Buckminster and the family had their first son Daniel Buckminster in 1863. In 1868, tragedy struck when Daniel died on July 8th. Exactly one month later, August 8, 1868, another son, Vernley Joseph Buckminster was born to Hannah Small Buckminster and Joseph Knowlton Buckminster.
Vernley grew up beside the ocean, watching his father sail with the tides, battle the brutal New England weather and live a rough hewn life as a grizzled salty sailor. Maybe it was because of the difficulties and risks he saw his father face, Vernley shunned the life of a fisherman and went into the lumber business with designs on eventually self-employment in his own business ventures.
No telling how many times Vernley's father Captain Buckminster probably could have or should have lost his life. From newspaper accounts, it appears the Captain rode out many rough New England storms over the years on various boats and survived while others perished. But the Captain's attempt to ride out a final storm on his final charge, the coal barge, "City of Montreal" ended when the high winds of a March New England gale swept himself and a deckhand overboard.
Captain Buckminster manned many schooners and other varieties of boats over his years as a sailor between 1856 until fate finally caught up to him in those early Sunday morning hours of March 19, 1899. The death of Hannah Small Buckminster's son Vernley in November 1898 followed by her husband in March was a heartbreaking blow to the mother and wife. Hannah went on to live another 23 years and according to her daughter-in-law Julia West Buckminster Babcock, was deeply affected by the losses. In a twist of cruel fate, Hannah died on November 6, 1922. The same month her son had been taken 24 years earlier. Hannah was buried at Carpenter-Lakeside Cemetery in East Providence Rhode Island in 1922.
Only 20 days prior to his own death, Captain Buckminster, while on a daily boat run to Newport News Virginia, wrote a letter of encouragement to his daughter-in-law Julia West Buckminster Babcock.(who he affectionately referred to as 'daughter') The Captain foreshadowed his own death in the letter and it would be his last to his precious daughter-in-law. After March 1899 the only child of the Captain and his wife Hannah Ann Small Buckminster left would be Vernley's younger sister Pauline, who was a schoolteacher and superintendent and she never married.
Letter written by Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster to his daughter-in-law Julia West Buckminster. Dated Feb. 27, 1899, only 20 days before the Captain died himself in a storm off the coast of New Jersey. In this letter he lends some encouragement to his grieving daughter-in-law, Julia, who had lost her husband, (and the Captain's son) Vernley Joseph Buckminster four months earlier in the Portland Steamer shipwreck.
"O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
-Walt Whitman
The once hopeful November brings a new marriage
On November 3, 1888 at the age of 20, Vernley Joseph Buckminster married Julia West at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I traveled to Cape Elizabeth several times in the past half decade and can say that it is one of the most beautiful spots on earth. A perfect place for a wedding. But alas, November is damp, cold and dreary on the Cape. I don't pretend to know if November had something against the Buckminster family, but that particular month would come to be an anvil that weighed heavily on Julia West Buckminster's memory decades of Novembers after their marriage.
Portland Head Light at Casco Bay, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
June 2019-by Dallas Reese
Joseph's wife Julia was from a seafaring family as well. Her father, Charles West was a sailor and the family lived on tiny Monhegan Island, Maine. Julia's sister Emily was born on the island, but without a doctor there, and only a midwife assisting, her mother Permelia Simmons West almost died when Emily was born in 1866. So Julia's father, Charles West decided his next child should be born on the mainland. So Julia was born just across the way from Monhegan Island in Herring, Maine on November 6, 1868. Herring was a town Julia disliked not because of where it was but because of it's name. Eventually the area was renamed St. George Maine. For the rest of her life Julia told people she had been born in St. George, Maine, because it sounded less fishy than Herring.
Julia West had a tough go of it growing up. Her mother, Permelia Simmons West became an invalid when Julia was in high school and Julia had to drop out of school to care for her mother full time. After caring for her mother for about three years Julia met Vernley Joseph Buckminster and fell in love. Julia was 19 when they married November 3 1888.
Amelia & Anna Buckminster, six months old September 1890
Only a year and half later, on March 12, 1890, Vernley Joseph and Julia Buckminster were blessed with the birth of twin daughters. They gave them family names. Amelia Simmons(my wife's Great-Grandmother) was named after Julia's mother Permelia Simmons and maternal grandmother, Permelia Starling Simmons. Anna Small was named after Vernley Joseph Buckminster's mother Hannah Anne Small Buckminster.
There are no better words to describe this family's life than those written by Julia herself. Below is a diary entry of Julia's from Sunday February 26, 1956. This entry was written when Julia was 88 years old. Julia was as sharp as a tack up until the day she died on March 23, 1959 in Orlando Florida, where she had moved to live with her daughter Amelia Simmons Buckminster French. Julia left an extensive written record of her family life and it has been invaluable in discovering information on the Buckminster, West, Simmons and Babcock families. Many of Julia's writings give incredibly detailed biographical information about her life and that of her family.
After the death of her husband Joseph Buckminster, Julia got a job as a housekeeper for a prominent and well respected Providence, Rhode Island attorney, Harmon Seely Babcock. After several years they married- whether it was going to be a marriage of convenience or love was not evident at the time, but it worked out well in the end. Together they had one son, Harmon Seely Babcock Jr. Julia and Harmon shared about 38 years together until his death at the age of 87 in 1937. Although the marriage was a happy one, in other writings Julia admitted that Joseph Buckminster was her true and deep love and she thought of him often.
A Final Thanksgiving together
Thanksgiving Day 1898 was a joyous occasion for the Buckminster family. With the lone exception of Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster, the entire family was there. The Matriarch, Hannah Anne Small Buckminster, Captain Buckminster's youngest daughter Pauline, his son Vernley Joseph Buckminster, and wife Julia and their twin daughters, Amelia and Anna Buckminster. They all enjoyed the family time.
Amelia & Anna Buckminster 1898
But as per usual, work beckoned Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster. He sailed a coal barge that fateful Thanksgiving week. The Captain sent instructions to the family to set a place for him and talk to him and serve him like he was there, even though he would not be. Julia did just that and she and Vernley and the kids and rest of the family had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Later in December, when the Captain wrote to Julia, he said he regretted not being there to see his son on that Thanksgiving Day, of course not knowing at the time that only a couple days later Vernley Joseph Buckminster would be lost to eternity.
On Saturday November 26th the Captain was caught up in the same exact same Portland Gale, that took his son's life that evening on the Steamer Portland. Luckily, or by the Providence of God, the Captain & his crew and schooner would be the only ones of five from his company to survive the Portland Gale.
The legend grew of the Portland through the 1900s as evidence of the shipwreck could not be found. 60 years on Julia West Buckminster still ached with pain and dread every November. For the rest of Julia's life Thanksgiving Day & the holiday weekend brought a shroud of sadness over her. Julia shared some thoughts about that fateful Thanksgiving weekend of 1898, when she recalled the feelings of a final Thanksgiving shared with her first husband. This diary entry is from Thanksgiving Day, 1958, 60 years after that tragic "Portland Gale" weekend.
On Saturday morning November 26, 1898 Joseph Buckminster left East Providence Rhode Island for the final time. His intent was to make it to India Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts by afternoon, pay the one dollar ticket fare and take the Steamer "Portland" at 7pm that evening from Boston to Portland Maine. The ship was scheduled to arrive by Sunday morning and then Vernley would travel an additional 60 miles to obtain some bids on lumber for his company. He would then return to his home in East Providence Rhode Island the following week. But unfortunately Joseph would never would never return. 119 years after the death of his Great-Great Grandfather Captain Richard Buckminster during the coldest and most bleak November of the American Revolution, Vernley's life would succumb in the same month. For the Buckminster family the month of November had become the nattering naybob of negativity. The storm that walloped New England that weekend altered the lives of so many families and the Buckminsters were not spared.
The Paddle wheel Steamer Portland was a large side-wheel ocean-going steamship that was built in 1889 for passenger service between Boston and Portland, Maine. It was over 280 feet long and 42 feet wide, and was one of the largest and most luxurious steamers in New England, able to accommodate 800 passengers.
The Portland however was not made for rough ocean seas. It was more of a cruising vessel meant for calm waters. After it sank, changes were made in the shipping industry to try and prevent future accidents. The storm that sank the Portland was created by the collision course of a low pressure system moving north from Georgia and another low pressure from the Great Lakes. The two systems collided late Saturday November 26th and in the early morning hours of Sunday, November 27, 1898 creating the "Storm of the Century" later dubbed The “Portland Gale of 1898.” The Nor’easter lasted 30 hours, dumped more than two feet of snow and knocked out communications and shut down railroads across New England. More than 400 people lost their lives and more than 150 vessels were lost.
The sinking of the Portland was one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of New England. In fact it was dubbed, "The Titantic of New England". The story of the shipwreck dominated the newspaper headlines throughout late November and into December 1898 and for years afterward, partly because of the mystery surrounding the sinking. The wreckage was never found until a century later. At the end of this article I have included some excellent resources about the disaster and it's discovery on the ocean floor almost a century later off the coast of Massachusetts. There has been so much written over the past 122 years on the tragedy that took the life of 31 year old Vernley Joseph Buckminster.
Vernley Joseph Buckminster's body was never recovered. Julia and the family placed his name on a marker in Carpenter-Lakeside Cemetery in East Providence Rhode Island and in the same plot are buried his mother, Hannah Small Buckminster and sister Pauline. There's a name engraved for Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster, but his body was also never recovered as he was lost at sea. One of Vernley's twin girls, and my wife's Great-Grandmother, Amelia Simmons Buckminster, is buried with her husband Henry Frank French Sr,(my wife's Great-Grandfather) right in front of the Buckminster father and son. The Buckminster family held a memorial service with an empty casket for Vernley in late 1898. And later in March 1899, another memorial for Vernley's father, Captain Joseph Knowlton Buckminster. Both father and son would forever be lost to the vast deep blue, adrift with the eternal tides.
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Here's a great video special from the Science Channel about the loss of the Steamer "Portland" Thanksgiving weekend, 1898 off the coast of Massachusetts.
Additional reading and resources about the "Portland Steamship" sinking:
This one is my favorite. Tons of info and insight into the shipwreck. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=ee0d2462b0c94e71841dfbea8601e3c8
https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-portland-gale-of-1898-and-the-cat-that-saved-a-life/
Books about the Portland Steamship: The Wreck of the Portland-By J. North Conway https://bit.ly/37b7IA8 Four Short Blasts: The Great Gale of 1898 & the Loss of the Steamer Portland https://amzn.to/2JkLCTu