The Schooner Abigail Haynes makes a Winter Delivery
John Black’s business letters of 1854 tell a one-sided story about the difficulties of shipping a new church organ from Boston to Ellsworth in the midst of a brutal winter.
In the fall of 1853, John Black contracted with Boston organ builders E. & G.G. Hook to gift an organ to the First Congregational Church of Ellsworth with a goal of its being installed on January 1, 1854.
However, on January 4, 1854, John Black, wrote to the organ builders:
“…I assure you gentlemen that it is a very great disappointment to me that you did not get the organ finished and here before the New Year for our congregation had anticipated the pleasure of hearing it on Sunday the 1st January. There is still one vessel expected from Boston in all this week.” He also wrote to his Boston agent inquiring about the “one vessel”, Abigail Haynes, after a bad winter storm:
“I have heard nothing of the “Abigail Haynes” since a week ago yesterday when she was at anchor in Fox Islands [Vinalhaven area] and I hope she remained there until after the storm of Thursday. It was the most violent N.E. snowstorm that I have any recollection of. We have accounts of the loss of a great many vessels…We have between 2 and 3 feet of snow, which has drifted very much and blocked up all our roads…”
A week later he again wrote to his agent:
“I am sorry to say I have not yet heard of the “Abigail Haynes”…Messrs. E. & G. G. have built and packed an organ which they wish to send down by first opportunity. ...Since the violent storm we have had extreme cold – thermometer ranging many degrees below zero, but the weather has suddenly changed and today we have a severe rain, the thermometer being at 38 above, causing our snow to disappear very fast.”
Finally, in early February, the Abigail Haynes was in Boston and John Black anticipated the organ soon to be shipped to Ellsworth; in March Black’s letters complete the story.
“March 7, 1854 – Capt. Lord has had a long and tedious passage but I have the pleasure to inform you that he has at last arrived safe with the organ, which will probably be received here today.”
“March 8, 1854 –“ … yesterday she arrived in waters at Coggins Wharf at the end of Newbury Neck. She came from Boston to Bucks Harbor in 24 hours and has been ever since getting round to Newbury Neck. The reach and all the passages among the islands being closed by ice, she is a long distance from here, but trams can cross the bay on the ice in all directions and as the sledding is good, her freight can be got up without much
trouble.”
Exactly how, and how long, it took to get the organ from Newbury Neck to the
church in Ellsworth unknown. The organ was used from 1854 until its removal in 1912 when George Nixon Black, Jr. donated a replacement organ.
