Page Nine BH Man Recalls Construction And Use Of Coaling Station is Maxwell Leland were heard for miles around. We It was back sometime before watched this from home. In those 1905 that US Senator Peters of days there were no trees to ob- Lamoine sold some of his land, scure the view of the entire bay. which he owned there, to the US On fine evenings people would government upon which was to be go down to the shore and watch built the government coaling sta- the search light displays. Some- length boggy tion. This cove, particular shipped hard pine from spot in the full being a times they would pick us out, sit- tree ting there upon the ledges, but was south they were kind and did not hold and with massive pile drivers was their intense glare upon us more driven top end down into the bog than a moment or two. Some calm until the whole area was prac- evenings a signal light would be- tically one complete block of gin to flash from a battleship's wood. Well do I remember the mast and then stop for a moment, long period of "whump-whump" followed by three flashes. Upon from directly across the bay, be- the third flash brass bands upon cause I was born and raised on several ships would start playing the farm which now belongs to the same piece, all keeping in per- Mrs. Elizabeth Waterman. With fect time and accompaniment by my father's old "spy glass" we the flashing light. That music, watched the work going on. coming across the calm water in Ships loaded with granite and the quiet of evening, with search ships with heavy construction lights sweeping the skies, was timber, southern pine, and ships something Frenchmen's Bay prob- with steel, tons upon tons of it, ably will never know again. and finally around 1905 the sta- Then came World War I. Lam- tion began to take shape. My oine and its coaling station was brother was employed there as a discontinued. What coal the shed carpenter and rowed back and contained was removed. There forth across the bay in his small was no more action until after the skiff. Large cranes swung mater- war ended and potassium nitrate ials into place and concrete was was stored there for a while. I poured almost to no end, with rowed across and talked with the steel buried in it. Two 150 foot sailors on the freighter which high traveling towers with mas- brought it from Chili. Later the sive cranes were constructed. I nitrate was thoroughly cleaned know, because I climbed the lad- out because it is very inflamable. der to the top of one of them be- Some more time passed and fore they discovered me. They strange ships sailed into the bay threatened to shoot me down if and tied up at the station. Again I ever attempted to do it again. I I must investigate. They were never did. Japanese. The United States gov- A massive sheet iron coal shed ernment had sold all the iron and was constructed with elevated steel to Japan and they were tak- tracks into the top of it from ing it to build ships of their own which cable cars dumped coal, and to expand their possessions and rail ways through tunnels under maybe even take over the United the base of it for filling the cars States. They informed me of this again to carry the coal out onto at the United States Coaling the wharf to a bin, about a hun- Station at Lamoine, Maine. Gen- dred feet long. From there it was eral "Billy" Mitchell had stomp- picked up with clam shells and ed and pleaded and begged and swung on the big cranes from the been demoted. The Japanese took towers out over the men of war to the steel which was easily re- be loaded and down it went into moved but left tons more difificult their holds. I remember that one to get. night the wind blew so hard that During the Second World War one of the towers was blown over. I was working at Portsmouth It had to be dismantIed and re- Navy Yard when Captain Alder- constructed. man (captain of the yard) issued During the summers freighters word that, if any man knew of loaded with coal kept bringing any iron or steel lying anywhere, coal to Lamoine from where ever the US government wanted to they were loaded, principally know about it, and to contact Philadelphia, and battle ships con- Capt. Alderman at his office with- stantly kept coming to Lamoine to out delay. Steel was classed as a load up and return to New York strategic material and was need- and Philadelphia. I mention this ed drastically. So I went to his to emphasize the point of this office and told him about Lamoine, story. At one time there were 22 and how the steel could be remov- battle ships lying at anchor off ed by boat. He thanked me heart- Salisbury Cove, their hulls painted ily and would get in touch with white, and buff were their super- Washington at once, and would structures. Forty foot life boats I go to Lamoine with him? Sev- explored the bay and made con- eral weeks later I met him upon tacts with the station. They were the sidewalk and asked him if he powered with naphtha iburning had had a word from FDR. Did I steam motors and were silent in get my ears pinned back! By his operation. One summer these personal grace toward me as an "naphtha launches" landed enough eccentric he would not chastise sailors at Lamoine to execute a me for false information. Wash- sham battle, which was "fought" ington had informed him that the across the fields above the station. United States never built - never One boy was accidently killed. owned or ever operated a coal- Thousands of rifile shots (blanks) ing station at Lamoine, Maine, broke the quiet of the area, and that there was absolutely no rec- ord in Washington of any such project, and for me never to men- tion the subject again, period, or I would face courtmartial for sub- versive information. Only my good standing in the yard favored me. The following Memorial Day the US Naval Inspector Robert Rosely and I came up here from Portsmouth Navy Yard took my boat etc., and went to Moosehead. On our way back, I unhooked my trailer and took Mr. Rosely to Lamoine and showed him what I had told Capt. Alderman about. He stood there amazed. He and Capt. Alderman were fast friends. At Portsmouth Navy Yard Rosely contacted Alderman and told him what he had seen. Next day when I saw Rosely on the job, he came over where I was and said to me, "Max, I know what you mean, period." "