Steamship wars intrigued Penobscot Bay region

Being able to hopscotch from Bucksport to Belfast to Camden or to some other point along Penobscot Bay on a coastal steamer used to be as important as going to the mall in the family car is today. So when the owners of the Bucksport and Camden Steamboat Line went to war a century ago, people watched in awe as fares were slashed and rival steamers raced up and down the bay with reckless abandon.

It became clear that Capt. William D. Bennett and chief engineer Daniel W. Kerst might destroy themselves before they destroyed each other during their two-and-a-half year long blood feud. Today, however, the battle sounds more like a comic opera starring the Marx Brothers than the titanic clash portrayed in the old newspapers.

Where others had failed, Bennett and Kerst had succeeded in knitting together a steamer route among the small harbors on the lower Penobscot. They were “on the way to a comfortable fortune,” it was stated in the Bangor Daily News. Then the Great Penobscot Steamboat War began.

Kerst reportedly was taken by surprise on Jan. 1, 1903 in the engine room when Bennett informed him their boat, the 96-foot Merryconeag, would remain tied at the dock in Bucksport until the engineer either bought or sold half the vessel for $7,500. Kerst was doubly shocked the next day when his partner began operating another steamer, the 75-foot Golden Rod, on the same route they had shared.

The Merryconeag remained tied up until Kerst got a judge to say he could use it after posting a bond. By Feb. 9, Kerst was back on the route with his new Bucksport, Belfast and Camden Steamboat Line, and the steamboat war had commenced. In May, A. M. Devereaux of Castine stepped forward with the $7,500 to buy out Bennett. Devereaux and Kerst re-formed the company with Devereaux as the general manager.

From there the battle escalated. Both companies slashed rates from 75 cents and 50 cents to a flat 25 cents for all stops. The boats kept getting bigger as the parties became more desperate. Bennett, even though he was making less revenue because of the fare cut and the competition, chartered a bigger, more powerful boat, the 121-foot Mineola, from the Portland and Rockland Steamboat Co.

“A steamboat war, and a pretty good one, full of real lively competition is threatened in the waters around Penobscot Bay, and from outside indications it would seem as if it were a case of cut-throat on both sides,” the Portland Advertiser gleefully reported on Nov. 14, 1904. It said Devereaux had been in the Portland area looking for a boat to replace the Merryconeag.

Two other, much bigger companies were rumored to be getting ready to enter the fray. The Maine Central Railroad and the Eastern Steamship Co., which both ran bigger steamers in the area, were upset with the rate cuts instituted by the Bennett and Kerst boats.

Meanwhile, Bennett and the Merryconeag’s captain, Charles Shute, had been operating their steamboats in an increasingly reckless manner, bumping and thumping together in several minor accidents. Then on Nov. 19, a major crash occurred, one large enough to attract the attention of federal steamboat inspectors. Both boats were speeding to the dock in Belfast when Bennett had tried to pass Shute without allowing enough leeway, and Shute had refused to slow down.

As the two companies nursed their wounds, a big, powerful and luxurious Maine Central Railroad boat, the 140-foot Sappho, chugged onto the scene a few days later, creating a three-way competition. The newspaper started to cover each day’s departure from the Bucksport docks like a horse race, recording how many passengers got on each boat and which was in the lead at various stops along the bay. With the boats getting bigger and more expensive to operate and the number of passengers static, however, it was only a matter of time before somebody would fail financially.

Soon the railroad traded the Sappho for an even bigger, faster boat, the Pemaquid. The Merryconeag kept up the fight. Capt. Bennett, however, returned to using the little Golden Rod. That enabled him to keep his rates at 25 cents, while the other two companies raised theirs.

The final acts of the Great Penobscot Steamboat War happened in quick succession. On Dec. 11, general manager Devereaux announced that the Merryconeag had been withdrawn from the route while the company looked for a smaller boat to save money.

A few days later, the Merryconeag was “libeled” by its creditors, including the Devereaux Coal Co., “said to be composed by the general manager’s daughters,” according to the Republican Journal of Belfast. The boat was sold later to the Casco Bay Steamboat Co. at a U. S. Marshal’s auction.

Meanwhile, the trusty little Golden Rod continued to chug along with Capt. Bennett in the wheelhouse. But then, on Dec. 14, he and Capt. Shute lost their licenses for four months for “careless and unskilled navigation and neglect of duty” because of the Belfast crash.

The steamboat war was over. Kerst had lost his boat. Bennett had lost his license. Each had lost some of his dignity and reputation.

The story ended happily, however, at least from what I have been able to ascertain from the old newspapers. A century ago yesterday, on June 26, 1905, Bennett, Kerst and a third individual, Fred G. White, formed the Penobscot Bay and River Steamboat Co. Bennett’s and Shute’s license suspensions had been reversed in February. The MCRR decided the route was too costly, withdrawing its boat on June 1. The Merryconeag was gone, but the partners were able to trade up from the Golden Rod to the 99-foot Rockland.

“This appears to be the spring of beauty and peace in the long drawn out steamboat war on the lower river,” wrote a BDN reporter, most likely with a wink.

Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net