Bertha Barnes
Sheboygan Times, July 27, 1872
The schr. “Bertha Barnes”
was successfully launched, last Saturday, at Messrs. Thayer & Gregory’s shipyard in this city. The vessel was built for “The N. Ludington Co.”, of Marinette, and is intended for the lumber trade between Menominee and Chicago. She is named for a daughter of C. C. Barnes, the well known school book publisher of Chicago, and will be commanded by Capt. Z. Sargesson, who expects to sail to-day with a load of brick from Messrs. Reed & Hinckley, for Marinette, her port of hail.
The schooner is what is commonly called a three-and-after with square sail; is 154 feet long on deck, 30 feet beam and 10 feet 6 inches hold, her registered tonnage being 331 tons, with an actual capacity of over 20,000 bushels; is well and thoroughly built in every part, without any sham; rates A1 after a careful inspection by Mr. W. W. Rounds, of the Aetna Insurance Company.
Her graceful appearance as she sits on the water, attracts the attention of all admirers of marine architecture, and is a credit to her designer, Mr. Gregory, while her thoroughness of build, in the face of an advance of nearly fifty per cent in iron and labor since the contract was entered into, is evidence of mercantile honor that but few men appreciate in others or practice for themselves.
Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1872
Port of Sheboygan.
We understand that one of the large vessels building at Thayer & Gregory’s yard will be launched on Saturday or Sunday.
Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1872
A Sheboygan correspondent writes that a fore-and-aft schooner of 200 was launched from the shipyard of Thayer & Gregory, at that place, on Saturday afternoon. She is owned by Ludington & Co., and Captain J. Sargison, who superintended her construction, and will sail her. The new vessel was christened the Bertha Barnes1 (US No. 2935). Inspector Bounos pronounces her frame the best he has seen put into a vessel. She is to ply between this city and Menominnee, in the lumber trade, and will be ready for business in a fortnight or three weeks.
Buffalo Commercial, August 9, 1872
At Sheboygan, Saturday afternoon, the schr. Bertha Barnes was launched. She was a fore-and-after of 330 tons and built for Messrs. Ludington & Co.
Bertha Barnes
Chicago Tribune, August 10, 1872
FIRST TRIPS.—The new schooner Mary Higgie and Bertha Barnes, both cleared for Menominnee, on Saturday last, on their maiden trips.
Green Bay Weekly Gazette, August 17, 1872
A new vessel, called the Bertha Barnes, belonging to the N. Ludington Co., arrived this week. She is said to be a beautiful model, handsomely finished, and carries 320 M of lumber.
She had three masts and was over 151 feet long, weighed 330 gross tons and usually had a crew of 6 with her. She was outfitted with steam boilers to hoist the sails. The schooner can hold 420,000 ft of lumber or 600 tons.
While heading from Chicago to Marinette, the Bertha Barnes was caught in a gale and grounded her near the Wind Point Lighthouse in April 1893.
Buffalo Evening News, July 12, 1904
(Special Dispatch to the Evening News.)
NORTH TONAWANDA, July 12.—Capt. J. C. Clark of the schooner Bertha Barnes, which arrived here yesterday with a cargo of lumber, having experienced trouble with his crew over the pay upon arrving at this port, spent their night at a local hotel, fearing for his life if he slept on the boat.
He claims that the crew threatened his life yesterday. This morning he secured a policeman and went aboard. He found that his trunk had been broken open during the night and $10 in money and other valuables stolen.
The cook stated that she heard somebody in the cabin during the night, but thought it was the captain. The crew claims that they have pay for 24 days due, while the captain asserts that they have wages due only for 22.
One of the crew accepted his pay in accordance with the captain’s views, but the other sailors decided, after consultation with Secretary Lester of the local Seamen’s Union this morning, to secure a United States marshal and tie the Barnes up until they have each been paid for 24 days’ work, if possible.
The mate has $55 due him, while each of the sailors has $48 coming.
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes at the Soo Locks
1907
Buffalo Morning Express, June 8, 1905
Schooner Barnes sunk.
Michigan City, Ind., June 7—The three-masted schooner Bertha Barnes, laden with 162 cords of pulp wood, sank here today by crashing into a dock. The crew was saved. She arrived here from Saint Joseph’s Island, Canada, displaying signals of distress.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE SHIP.
The Bertha Barnes was one of several vessels that Captain Herman E. Schuenemann used for his famous annual Christmas Tree runs. Every year from 1886 to the fateful last in 1912 Captain Schuenemann made the dangerous late November run from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago in order to sell Christmas trees along a Chicago River dock.
In 1909 Captain Schuenemann chartered the Bertha Barnes for this season’s run. He was using the Wrenn.
Inter Ocean, December 7, 1909
“Christmas trees are going to be high this year,” observed Captain Schuenemann as he stood on the bridge of the schooner Bertha Barnes yesterday and filled the bowl of his pipe with tobacco that he had been rolling in the palm of his hand.
“This is the twenty-third trip I’ve made up into pine country for Christmas trees, and it’s about the slimmest cargo I ever brought away. Many a poor little kiddo in Chicago will have to go without his Christmas tree this year because his Santa Claus won’t have the price to buy one.
Only 15,000 Christmas Trees.
“Why, I’ve only got about 15,000 trees on the whole ship, and you know, of course, the Chicago market depends pretty much on my supply.
“It’s the bad weather that’s to blame. Trees were ice crusted and half bare. Also made it hard for the choppers and Indians. The Indian women, you know, depend on the Christmas trees for their pin money for the whole year.
“Here, you little girls, climb off that cabin or you might fall into the water! Santa Claus won’t bring you any presents if you fall into the water.” The captain paused in his soliloquies to attend to half a dozen curious little schoolgirls who had come down to the Clark street bridge to see the Christmas boat and its burden of trees.
Bertha Barnes
1909
Children Vist Boat.
“I guess the kids are the gladdest of anybody to see us come pulling into the river every December, “he continued, when he saw the little girls were safe again within the rail of the bridge when she swings open for us, and they wave their hands and cheer, and we cheer back. Some of them think we are actually coming from the north pole.
“Say, I’m wondering if our poor luck in getting trees this year hasn’t something to do with our changing boats. We’re on the Bertha Barnes this year. It’s the first time she ever had this honor and she acts as if she’s mighty proud of it. But I can’t help feeling a mite sorry for the (George L.) Wrenn. I took the Wrenn up there for the past twenty-two years.”
Cheers for Jolly Old Skipper.
“Last year she nearly chucked the captain and his crew into Davy Jones’ Locker, so we had to get a new boat. That’s her, back to stern of us—bare decks and weather beaten. Looks kind of heartbroken at her rival, doesn’t she. Well, here come the women. Ahoy, ladies!”
The captain beamed his broadest smile as half a hundred girls and women came out of the cabin where they had been twining and weaving wreaths.
“Hooray for Captain Schuenemann!” shouted some of the women as they waved their handkerchiefs at the jolly old skipper who resembles Santa Claus.
The following season, Capt. Schuenemann bought 1/8 interest in the ship Rousse Simmons (US No. 110087). The popular captain and his crew perished in a storm on the Rousse Simmons during the 1912 run.
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Bertha Barnes
Sheboygan Press, June 8, 1911
The schooner Bertha Barnes which has made the local port for many a season is in Milwaukee undergoing repairs and having her name changed. She will hereafter be known as the W. D. Hossack. Wm. Schlosser owns the boat and she will be renamed in honor of one of Mr. Schlosser’s best shippers.1
Chicago Tribune, December 9, 1912
Ice coated and with masts broken and sails torn, the schooners George Marsh (US No. 85727) and Hossack arrived in Chicago yesterday. The captains of both ships reported the roughest voyage in fifteen years. The ships were reported missing in the storm which is supposed to have sunk the Rouse Simmons.
The George Marsh arrived at 3 o’clock. It had been out nineteen days. During the storm Friday morning the foretopsail was carried away and the jibboon was snapped off.
Unable to weather the storm, Capt. Herman Olsen was forced to put in at Egg Harbor. During the trip the Rouse Simmons was not sighted.
The Hossack arrived in a partly disabled condition. Capt. Peter Petersen said the Hossack was caught in the fierce gale Friday morning and the topsail was torn away. The ship could not make headway and was carried for several hours with the storm. After much difficulty it reached Bailey’s Harbor.
When it was sighted from Chicago yesterday the tug Wisconsin started out to tow it in to dock. The lake was too rough, and the tug was forced to turn back.
After waiting three hours the tug was able to reach the ship and tow it in.
After the 1912 fateful storm that sunk the Rousse Simmons, other schooners were arriving into the Chicago port crusted with ice, These included the George A. Marsh (US No. 85727) and W. D. Hossack on December 8th, while the schooners Minerva (US No. 16628) and Arizona (US No. 1414) arrived the day before. The Edward E. Skeele US No. 19674), J. V. Taylor (US No. 13874) and Cora A. (US No. 126566) arrived in Chicago on December 9, 1912.
W. D. Hossack being towed by tug Sport (US No. 115152)
Winand Schlosser of Milwaukee, Wisconsin sold the W. D. Hossack on 1 June 1916 to Mobile and Bermuda S. S. Company. The schooner was used in the lumber trade out of Mobile, Alabama and later to Pensacola, Florida.
W. D. Hossack with a cargo of Cedar and Pulp Wood
Cedarville, Michigan
1915
On 4 August 1920, she foundered off the Isla de Pinos (Isle of Pines), which was renamed Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in 1978, located just south of Cuba. There were nine aboard at the time, but no lives were lost.
About 200 shipwrecks have been reported in the Archipiélago de los Canarreos which is comprised of about 350 isles and form the municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
Isle of Pines
Cuba
About Bertha Barnes:
1 Mary Ludington (1847-1922), daughter of wealthy lumber merchant, was born in Milwaukee, she moved to Chicago with her parents Nelson and Charlotte Van Alstine Ludington as a girl and there she married Charles Barnes in 1868 in an elaborate wedding celebration. They had two children: Bertha (1869–1913) and Nelson.
In 1895, at the age of 39, James Clinch Smith (a descendant of Richard “Bull Rider” Smith, the founder of Smithtown, Long Island, NY) married Bertha Ludington Barnes of Chicago, an accomplished musician and composer.
By 1911, Bertha’s obsession with music was causing problems in the marriage, and there were rumours of a legal separation or divorce. Clinch returned to Smithtown in April of that year, but in January of 1912 he returned to Paris at Bertha’s request. The couple were reconciled, and Bertha agreed to give up her career and go back to Smithtown to live. Bertha had planned to travel home with her husband, but at the last minute the plans were changed, and it was decided that Clinch would go back alone to prepare the homestead for her return in a few months.
On April 10, 1912, James Clinch Smith boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as a first class passenger (17764, £30 13s 11d). He occupied cabin A-7.
Chicago Daily News, April 15, 1912
J. Clinch Smith, artist, reported to be on board the Titanic, is the husband of a former Chicago girl, Bertha Barnes, sister of Nelson L. Barnes, a broker in the Rookery building.
“Mr. Smith was planning to visit New York,” said Mrs. Barnes to a reporter for The Daily News to-day. “Mrs. Smith, my sister-in-law, is not on board ship with him, I am sure. She is living in Paris, where they have their home.”
The Barnes home is at 22 East Ontario street.
Inter Ocean, April 17, 1912
Mrs. James Clinch Smith of Chicago did not sail on the Titanic. according to a cable-gram, dated Paris, received by her brother, Nelson P. Barnes, yesterday. Mr. Clinch Smith, however. was aboard the foundered steamer. It was stated, and his brother-in-law expresses grave anxiety for his safety.
New York Times, August 21, 1913
Widow of Titanic Victim Never Recovered from Shock of His Death
—
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES
—
PARIS, Aug. 20—Mrs. James Clinch Smith, a well known American resident of Paris, died to-day at Leysin, Switzerland. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Barnes of New York, were urgently cabled for last month and arrived before their daughter’s death.
There was a tragedy in the life of Mrs. Smith, who practically died of a broken heart. She and her husband had been living apart for some time when, at the wife’s request, Mr. Smith came to Europe. The domestic differences were amicably settled and the husband decided to return to New York to find a house before Mrs. Smith’s homecoming. He booked passage on the Titanic and went down with that ship. His death grievously affected his widow, who never recovered from the shock.
Mrs. Smith was very popular in society here, and was a prominent figure at fashionable resorts, such as Nice, Monte Carlo, and Deauville.
Mrs. Smith before her marriage was Miss Berra Barnes of Chicago. She had lived in Paris for a great many years. James Clinch Smith, who was a victim of the Titanic disaster, divided his time between New York and Paris and was well known as an amateur sportsman, and was also prominent in club circles. He was a brother of Mrs. Stanford White and a son of Judge J. Lawrence Smith of Smithtown, L. I.
NOTES:
Mr. William David Hossack was born November 4, 1866 in Newcastle, Australia. He was locally educated and moved with his family to Torquay, England in 1880, where his father was a general merchant. In 1882, Mr. Hossack began work as an ocean seaman. By 1890, after a voyage to India, he received his master’s papers. Thereafter, he sailed on numerous freighters until joining Cunard Lines as a master in 1906.
When this wooden schooner-barge was acquired by Mr. Schlosser, he named it for Captain Hossack because of the friendship they had developed on several transatlantic voyages together. Captain Hossack made international news when he reported eighty foot waves on the Atlantic Ocean after arriving in New York City on November 3, 1925, on the S. S. Caronia. He retired in 1930 and died in Falmouth, England on October 14, 1938.
His namesake is shown while under tow in 1913. It was sold for off-lakes use June 1, 1916, to the Mobile & Birmingham Steamship Company. On August 4, 1920, it was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean while on a voyage from Charleston, South Carolina to a port just south of Isle of Pines, Cuba.
Leave a Reply