Woman shares her seafaring family's photos

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By ISAAC KESTENBAUM, News Assistant Portland Press Herald

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Photos courtesy Katy Jensen

The Dorothy B. Barrett sinks after being shelled by a German U-Boat on August 14, 1918.

DON'T MISS THE BOAT

You are invited to share a story about Maine shipbuilding from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 19, at the Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St. in Bath. Newspaper staff will be available to record your stories and scan your documents and pictures. To learn more, please call 791-6450. For directions to the museum, visit www.bathmaine.com.

Capt. William Merritt's son took photographs as the crew fled the sinking schooner Dorothy B. Barrett, which had been shelled by a German U-boat off Cape May, N.J., on Aug. 14, 1918.

The images of the five-masted, Bath-built ship burning and sinking have been passed down through Merritt's family for generations, and now reside with Kathy Jensen of Windham.

For Jensen, the photos reveal more than her ancestors did. "My great-grandfather -- the captain -- I barely remember him, but I don't remember him talking about (sinking)," she said.

Nor does Jensen remember many stories from her grandfather, Ray, who served as first mate aboard the ship, or from his brother, Sewall, the second mate and photographer.

Jensen does have a few newspaper articles about the event.

"The first warning they had that a U-boat was in the vicinity was when a shot was put over the bow of the schooner," reads a Portland Evening Express & Advertiser account. "They immediately prepared to leave the ship."

William Merritt had commanded the ship for four years. The Dorothy B. Barrett was owned by the G.G. Deering Co. of Bath and was carrying "bituminous coal for a New England port," according to the newspaper.

While compiling a family genealogy, Jensen spent a lot of time researching her great-grandfather.

"He's probably the most interesting person of all the relatives that I have," she said.

Born in Addison in 1866, William Merritt lived to be 92 and served as a captain of five ships, including another ill-fated vessel, the Carroll A. Deering.

In 1921, Merritt sailed from Portland as captain of that ship. "He got as far as New Jersey or Connecticut but got so sick, they had to take him off," Jensen said. "That was as far as his journey on that went."

The Carroll A. Deering was later found abandoned off the North Carolina coast, with its crew missing.

"They never found out what happened," Jensen said.

Jensen's research has taken her to Hatteras, N.C., where the beams of the Carroll A. Deering are displayed at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum.

Jensen was inspired to share her great-grandfather's story when she learned that the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram wanted readers' submissions for its series commemorating 400 years of shipbuilding in Maine.

"This has always fascinated me," she said. "I thought (the pictures) would fit right in there."

Today, the framed photographs of the Dorothy B. Barrett hang in Jensen's family room. Her siblings also have copies. In fact, Jensen has forgotten which are the originals.

"The photographs were on the wall at the house I grew up in," Jensen said. "They are being passed down to the grandchildren."

News Assistant Isaac Kestenbaum can be contacted at 791-6308 or at:

ikestenbaum@pressherald.com.

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