ROCKLAND, Maine — Ruth Freeman Lucas said she believes God had a hand in the survival of her mother and infant brother 80 years ago, when the steamer Castine struck a ledge in Penobscot Bay.
Four people died and dozens more had to be rescued in what was one of the worst steamer accidents in the history of Penobscot Bay.
Only two survivors of the crash are alive today: 89-year-old Lucas and 95-year-old Roberta Holbrook Best, both of Rockland.
The 71-foot, 69-ton steamer Castine left Rockland the morning of June 8, 1935, carrying a large contingent from the Limerock Valley Pomona Grange who were planning to have a picnic on Vinalhaven.
Lucas, her mother, aunt and baby brother Richard were aboard to visit her grandfather, who lived on the island. She recalled that when her family, who at the time lived in Camden, got to the dock in Rockland, her mother wanted to cancel the trip because of thick fog.
But Lucas said she pleaded with her mother, who relented and decided to make the approximately 13-mile trip across the bay.
Lucas was below deck with her aunt when the steamer struck Bay Ledge about 2 miles from Vinalhaven. Her mother and 7-month-old brother, however, were on deck and were thrown into the ocean. The then 9-year-old girl had to climb on her hands and knees to get on deck as the vessel was listing sharply to one side.
The collision left a large hole in the starboard side of the ship. Cold ocean water quickly filled the cabin and boiler room.
Lucas said she watched her mother struggle in the water.
“My mother could not swim a stroke, and she was clutching Richard,” Lucas recalled. “Then, out of nowhere, this rope appeared and my mother was able to grab hold of it.”
Lucas said, however, no one was helping her mother get out of the water. Dozens of other people were struggling in the cold waters off Vinalhaven.
Her mother and brother spent an hour in the water before a fishing boat came along and rescued them. The boat took her mother and brother to Vinalhaven before they were able to get on another boat and return to the mainland later that day.
Lucas stayed with her aunt until another boat arrived at the Castine and returned them to the mainland.
Four of the approximately 70 people on board the Castine died. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wooster of Camden died that day. The wife drowned, and her husband — who jumped into the water to save her — suffered a heart attack. Two other women, Mrs. Rebecca Alley of Camden and Mrs. Evelyn Bartlett of Washington, later succumbed to injuries suffered in the accident.
For Lucas, all she had were wet feet. A doctor stopped by the house that evening to check on mother and baby. The doctor gave her mother a little bit of brandy, which Lucas said she remembered because her mother never drank alcohol.
Lucas said the tragedy did not deter her from going aboard ships again, but it took a long while before she would go inside the cabin of a boat. She said she does not blame the captain, pointing out that this was before radar was in use.
The other living survivor of the Castine disaster is Roberta Holbrook Best, who was not able to be interviewed this week because of health problems. In a 2009 interview, however, the 95-year-old woman recalled the events of that morning 80 years ago.
She was 15 years old at the time and was traveling to Vinalhaven with a friend whose family were farmers and members of a Grange. Best said she was on the bow of the vessel when the Castine struck the ledge, but that she did not even get her feet wet.
Best remembered not being frightened for herself but was scared for all the people in the water.
Her daughter, Gaye Best, said this week her mother still has a life preserver that was passed out to her after the Castine struck the ledge.
When the vessel struck the ledge, the captain sounded the horn to declare an emergency. Vessels from Vinalhaven and North Haven were dispatched, but it took an hour for them to arrive.
When boats arrived back in Rockland with survivors, they were met by a large crowd of relatives at McLoon Wharf, where the city fish pier is located today. Word spread to Rockland by telephone calls from Vinalhaven.
According to the book “Storms and Shipwrecks of New England,” the Castine ultimately broke in two. The book states that a piece of the hull of the ill-fated vessel was used to build a cottage.
In a 2001 BDN article, it was stated that “when the Castine went down, it took with it the romance and glamour of the Penobscot steamer era. At its peak, 23 steamers plied the Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay. By 1935, the emergence of the airplane, the automobile and modern railroad trains rendered river traffic too old-fashioned, too slow. One by one, the fleet disappeared, rotted at piers or was axed into kindling for the boilers of the river mills.”