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Contributed by Robert Criswell 2007-03-05

Freeport, ME — My great-great grandfather, John A. Briggs of Freeport was in the ship building and management business from 1856 until his death in 1885. He and his two partners would build the vessels and then operate them as joint owners. Sometimes operation would include a number of other friends or business associates, as well as the captain of the vessel. The partners were Hezekiah B. Means from 1856 to 1863 and Charles Cushing from 1857 until 1885. After they stopped building ca 1880, John and Charles continued to manage the remaining vessels until they were sold or lost at sea. The Briggs and Cushing yard was located about a mile below Porter's Landing on the Harraseeket River at the foot of Cushing-Briggs Lane in South Freeport It occupied about one half mile of the riverbank. A total of eleven vessels were built in this yard — 6 ships and 5 barks. A bark is similar to a ship but with a different configuration of rigging. One of the ships built in the yard was the John A. Briggs. It was the largest vessel launched from any shipyard along the Harraseeket River and launched on 31 August 1878. When registered on the 23rd of September, it was described as having 3 decks, 3 masts, a plain head and a round stern. It was 234.2 feet long, 44.1 feet in breadth and 20.5 feet deep with 8.3 feet under the spar deck. The measured capacity was 1252.7 tons between decks, 668.99 tons above deck and with other locations had a gross tonnage of 2110.37. Later, maritime regulations reduced the tonnage allowance to 2033.49. About seven thousand people watched the launching including Governor Gurcelon, his staff and James A. Garfield, future U.S. President. Excursions were run, schools in Freeport and surrounding towns were closed and even some of the local stores closed. Music was furnished by the Freeport Band and the Chandler's Band of Portland. While owned and managed by Briggs and Cushing the John A. Briggs engaged in international trade. In 1887 she was sold for $37,000 and her home port changed to San Francisco. From then until November 1905 she was used in intercoastal and international trade out of the San Francisco and Puget Sound districts. In December 1905 she was registered in Port Townsend, WA and converted into a schooner-barge. The last Register was issued at Elizabeth, NJ in November 1906. The John A Briggs foundered (sank) while in tow 15 miles NE of Barnegat, NJ in December 1906, 28 years, 3 months after she was launched. The vessels built along the Harraseeket River were usually launched before high tide so the momentum of the slide down the ways carried the ship across the Harraseeket River onto the shoals off of Wolf's Neck. The vessels floated free when the tide came in and were then towed to a wharf or dock where the masts and rigging were added. A few things still remind us of shipbuilding days in Freeport, the most notable probably being the wide design of the intersection across from the main L.L. Bean store. This intersection was designed to permit a load of very long logs to turn from Main Street (US Route 1) onto Bow Street. These logs were being transported to Mast Landing and then to the shipyards where they were made into masts.

The only remaining evidence of the Briggs and Cushing shipyard today is the street named Cushing-Briggs Lane which leads from the South Freeport Road toward the Harraseeket River. At the end of the lane there is a group of houses overlooking the river.

Another remnant of the shipbuilding days is the architecture of the First Parish Congregational United Church of Christ on Main Street. In April 1894 the original Congregationalist church was destroyed by a fire which originated in stores adjacent to it. This site, on Main Street at the intersection with Bow Street, is the present location of the main L.L. Bean store. Will S. Aldrich who had grown up in the home of his grandfather, John A. Briggs and was a graduate architect of Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the architect of the new church. Construction was started in the fall of 1894 on Main Street a few blocks south of the church’s original location. Reflecting Will’s shipbuilding heritage, the structure of the roof trusses and particularly the knee brace at the intersection of the roof and side walls used the same design principal as that of the intersection of a ship’s hull and the deck support beams. The home of my great-great grandfather, John A. Briggs, remains on Maple Street and is operated as the Capt. Briggs House, a B & B – the captain designation being a bit of a “poetic license” as John A. Briggs was never a captain, though certainly was affiliated with ships. Some of the information on the launching of the John A. Briggs was obtained from Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine by Florence G. Thurston & Harmon S. Cross (1940), page 132.