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Victory Chimes
History
From Work to Play
The Golden Age of Sail had gone over the horizon, and after WWII, cargo by sail brought diminishing returns. We've all seen old farm equipment in a field and work trucks long still "put out to pasture" and sinking into their last parking spots. So it was with many old cargo ships. Often old ships were tied up, dismantled, or just scuttled.
These ships were built so strong to handle hard work though, that when they were no longer useful, some still had life left in them.
Career of EDWIN AND MAUD as a Cargo-Carrying Ram
Originally home ported in Seaford, Delaware,35 Edwin And Maud spent much of her working career as a freighter out of Baltimore, owned by C.C. Paul & Co. and Albert F. Paul, normally carrying a crew of four.36 C.C. Paul was one of Baltimore's largest grain brokers, dealing mainly in corn and wheat.37
When Edwin And Maud carried fertilizer, which was carried bagged on the smaller schooners, recalled William Stevens:
"We never ran many bags...We carried it loose in her hold."38 Stevens also stated that "whenever we'd load grain or fertilizer in the hold we'd always seal the hatches. Sometimes on the Edwin and Maud, the water'd be coming across and you could have rowed a skiff around on deck if it weren't so rough. Of course we didn't mind 'cause she was a nice boat."39
Stevens and his father made several trips to North Carolina in the three years they sailed the ram, carrying fertilizer or soft coal down
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"We'd load the Maud with dry lumber until she'd tilt"
When picking up their return cargo of lumber, it was "loaded by hand and carefully distributed. If it was dry,a third of it was placed in the hold and two-thirds on deck. A load of green lumber was split half and half and it was often so heavy that, instead of figuring the rate by board feet, the captain charged a flat rate for the load.40
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"We'd load the Maud with dry lumber until she'd tilt,"said Stevens. "When she'd tilt a little bit, we knew we could only put on another 4,000 or 5,000 feet. We'd pile it eight feet on deck and could hardly see over it standing on the quarterdeck."41
On the return trip the yawl boat was critical, as on occasion Stevens and his father sailed EDWIN AND MAUD by themselves.
"We carried 750 gallons of gas and we hauled it over the stem to the yawl boat, 20 gallons at a time. That was all right when the Maud was loaded, because you didn't have to step far, but when she was light we'd have to get a ladder."42
Stevens and his father worked Maud until 1946. That's when the ship went from work to play. Read on and let the fun begin.
