Printer-friendly version

Contributed by Deborah Marx 2007-07-03

Waldoboro — Built in Waldoboro, Maine, the five-masted, 276-foot schooner Paul Palmer was part of William F. Palmer’s “Great White Fleet,” which at its peak consisted of 15 schooners that carried bulk cargos throughout the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean. During its 12-year career, the schooner Paul Palmer transported 280,000 tons of coal, as well as phosphate, railroad ties, ice, and sugar. After unloading coal in Bangor, Paul Palmer departed Rockport, Maine, for Virginia on Friday, June 13, 1913. Sailing south, the schooner caught fire off Cape Cod. Several vessels responded to the stricken schooner, but were unable to extinguish the fire. The schooner’s crew abandoned ship and was picked up by a waiting fishing boat. The Paul Palmer burned to its waterline and then sank. The Paul Palmer was the only five-masted East Coast schooner to be lost to fire. The Paul Palmer was no stranger to fire. In 1907, the schooner sustained light damage when it was nearly caught in a conflagration that consumed Baltimore’s coal docks. The following year, a fire swept across East Boston’s docks, catching the schooner’s top rigging afire. Tugs pulled Paul Palmer away from its dock and put out the fire before flames engulfed the schooner. The fire destroyed a quarter-mile stretch of the waterfront and caused $1.6 million in property damage.

Since NOAA’s discovery of the then-unknown shipwreck in 2000, the sanctuary has investigated the site with divers, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles capturing detailed video and still imagery to document the vessel’s construction and artifacts. This research led to the schooner’s identification in 2002 and its subsequent listing on the National Register if Historic Places in 2007. The partially buried remains of the Paul Palmer lie on a flat sandy bottom at a relatively shallow depth in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Massachusetts. Portions of the schooner protrude from the bottom around the perimeter of the site, while sand has filled in much of the ship's center. At the schooner's bow is a large steam powered windlass used to raise its anchors. The sanctuary is continuing its efforts to document the Paul Palmer and learn about the vessel's history. The Paul Palmer represents a typical coal carrying schooner built at the start of the 20th century prior to the dominance of towed barges. Much can be learned about the role the coal schooners played in the growth of New England by using the Paul Palmer's history and archaeological remains as a case study in coastal coal transportation.

“The schooner’s involvement in the coal trade connected it to Americans throughout the East Coast,” said Stellwagen Bank sanctuary superintendent Craig MacDonald. “Coal carried in schooners like the Paul Palmer powered the industrialization of the northeastern states, one of the greatest economic and social forces in American history.” For more information about the Paul Palmer and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary visit: http://stellwagen.noaa.gov