Page 161 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Susan asked around and found a company willing to dig up the wreck. Lo and behold, they found

a 10 ton, 34 feet by 8 feet section of a hull that weighed more than two tons! Using two bulldozers
and heavy chains, the company pushed and pulled the 20,000 pounds of ship’s remains onto a 30-

foot trailer and transported it to a nearby storage area.
But what ship was it? Where had it come from? What was its history? Susan, a dogged

researcher, made up her mind to find out. She turned for help to some authorities of nautical
archaeology: the Princeton University Archaeology Department, the Marine Division of the
University of Pennsylvania, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Wood Anatomy

- and they all helped.

After long research, Susan eventually learned that her ship was the George R. Skolfield, built
in Brunswick, Maine, in 1885. Its original size was 232 feet by 40 feet and it weighed 1,728 tons.
The ship had been built by the legendary Skolfield shipbuilding family, famous for generations of

shipbuilding. The George R. Skolfield had been the last and largest ship the family ever built.
Susan also learned that the ship had been severely damaged in a storm on February 5, 1920,

and stranded on the beach where she had found the remains. The crew had been rescued but all
attempts to save the ship had failed and rough seas had eventually broken the ship apart.

The news of Susan’s discovery spread far and wide and soon several nautical museums offered
to help preserve the ship’s remains. Offers of help came all the way from San Francisco where the

Skolfield had made regular stops. They even had photos of the ship docked at the San Francisco
wharf.
Then Susan got the great news that the Maine Nautical Museum wanted to acquire the

Skolfield for exhibit. Using her incredible resourcefulness, Susan got the huge exhibit loaded and
transported to the Maine Museum where it is now on display. For all her work, Susan was

recognized by the American Institute of Naval Archaeology as a “model of what an amateur
archaeologist can accomplish.”
My thanks to Susan for sharing this intriguing account with me when she came to Lake City

this past summer to attend Oliver’s class reunion.

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