Man afloat with grandfather’s steamship items

BANGOR – Scott Nelson knew his grandfather had spent most of his life at sea, but as a boy he was more interested in airplanes than ships. It wasn’t until after Donald E. Nelson died in October 1975 that his grandson became fascinated with the steamships the elder man captained.

“I really didn’t know his history, but when I was 15, three years after my grandfather’s death, I found boxes of photographs under a table on the porch,” said Scott Nelson, who now works as a respiratory therapist. “I wish I had gotten interested sooner. I would have bent his ear and asked a lot of questions.”

Nelson, who lives on the city’s East Side, was born and raised in Winterport. His father, Donald O. Nelson, is the eldest son of the sea captain. Last week, Scott Nelson spread faded and tattered photos out on his kitchen table.

He also opened a gray-colored log book, its yellowed pages covered with neatly printed figures. The heading of each page listed destinations far and near – Denmark, France, Bermuda, Boston, New York, Nova Scotia and many others. Below each port were the readings from a sexton and the calculations used to chart the course Nelson would follow to reach each destination.

In conversations with his grandmother Mattie, his father and other relatives, Nelson learned that his grandfather was so determined to go to sea at age 16 that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and lied about his age.

The young Donald E. Nelson, who was born in Stonington to George W. and Nancy (Eaton) Nelson, told the Eastern Steamship Lines that he was 18 and boarded the Camden as a freight handler. At his side was Charles Prior of Cape Elizabeth, who would become his brother-in-law a few years later.

One picture shows the two young men leaning over the rail, mugging for a photographer. Nelson worked on Eastern steamships from 1923 until 1958. He served on the Rockland, the City of Bangor, the Governor Dingley, the Yarmouth and the Evangeline. Over the years, he worked as a watchman, quartermaster, third, second and chief mate before qualifying to serve as captain.

During World War II, Donald Nelson captained transport ships carrying troops and munitions in the North Atlantic. He led convoys of ships that zigzagged through the “Wolf Pack Zone.”

Nelson learned that his grandfather had many close calls, but the torpedoes launched from German U-boats never hit his ship. Others in the convoy were not as fortunate.

“I am awed by the courage these men must have had, knowing they could have been struck by a torpedo at any time, but carrying on,” Nelson said of his grandfather and his comrades.

Like many other Americans, the captain brought home Nazi memorabilia, including a U-boat captain’s binoculars and a shell casing he made into a lamp. Mostly, however, he took pictures of the ships he captained or those that sustained damaged.

Nelson was at sea for 11 months out of the year, usually returning home in December. Consequently, his grandson said, the captain’s three children’s birthdays fall together in late September and early October.

“I asked my grandmother what it was like being the only parent,” said Scott Nelson. “She said that she was used to the regimented schedule and routine. But it must have been strange for the children when they were very young. He probably was like a stranger to them when he came home.”

Eastern Steamship’s fleet was reduced from 15 to three during the course of the war, and the ships were too expensive to replace. After years of financial difficulty, the company disbanded and Captain Nelson came home to Winterport in 1958. He was not landlocked for long.

That same year, Robert Perry, then president of the Portland Pilots Association, asked Nelson to take a job bringing oil tankers into Portland Harbor. Captains would sail a schooner and dory out to the anchored ships and board them. They would take the helm temporarily, so that they were brought into port by pilots familiar with the harbor.

Donald and Mattie (Downes) Nelson, who married in 1927, lived for nine days at a time in an apartment, then returned to their Winterport home for four days. During his time in Portland, the captain was on call 24 hours a day, according to his grandson. Nelson retired for good in 1970.

Many of the photographs he left behind chronicle damage inflicted on the huge ships by heavy seas. In early 1967, Nelson piloted the heavily damaged S.S. Flaika into Portland Harbor. It had limped into Casco Bay after being damaged by 80-foot waves off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Scott Nelson never went to sea as his father and grandfather did. But he and his fianc?e Michele Young plan to honeymoon on a cruise ship in 2003.

And, Nelson still has unanswered questions. He does not know how the captain and his grandmother, who died in 1996, met or what their courtship was like. His grandmother did not save the letters they exchanged over the years, so he has no idea what impressions shared about the many foreign ports he visited.

He is, however, eternally grateful for all those who shared their memories and mementos so that he could know his grandfather better.

“After sitting with my grandmother numerous times, asking her countless questions,” said Scott Nelson, “she gave me all of his photos and war memorabilia. She said I was the only one of the grandchildren who had shown any interest in them and told me take them. I’d like to hold onto his things as long as I can and keep them in the family. They are more precious to me than any gems.”