The Schooners

In this post, I will share what is known about the schooners my grandfather sailed.  This is the type of vessel my grandparents lived on with their two youngest children.  We do not yet know which one they were on at the time of Granny's diary.

Among the schooners sailed by Captain George were the Levi B. Phillips, the Thomas B. Schall, and Columbia F.C.  These were built in the mid- to late 1800's, and served Chesapeake and Atlantic shipping interests until the 1940's, when two events rendered them obsolete.  The first event was an evolution in the Bay area transportation industry itself.  By the 1940's, the Chesapeake and rivers of the Tidewater had been spanned by bridges, and over-the-road trucks had surpassed watercraft as a means of transportation.  Giant freighters and also become a more economical means to transport freight.  Second, with the outbreak of World War II, German U-boats plied the Atlantic coast, creating a demand for wooden-hulled freight vessels small enough to escape detection in the Caribbean trade.  So at a time when demand for schooners was on the decline in the Chesapeake, there was increased demand in the Caribbean, and many of the schooners were sold south.  This is what happened to all three of these schooners described here.

The Levi B Phillips was built by the Joseph Brooks shipyard at Madison, on the Little Choptank River, Maryland, Eastern Shore.  (Source:  "My Years Before the Mast:  Memoirs of Chesapeake Bay Waterman William T. Hooper".)  During World War II, she was sold to the Peter Paul Candy Company to haul coconuts from Central America to Florida.  She was later converted to power and sold to Honduran interests in 1946.

Levi B. Phillips

Columbia F. C. (Fishing Club) was built in 1874 in Mundy Point, Virginia, and owned there by the Courtney family.  She was sold around 1946 to Captain Tom Henry Ruark of Deltaville, Virginia, who sold her to Cuban interests in 1948.

Columbia F.C. (Robert H. Burgess photo)

The Thomas B. Schall Company was the largest fruit packing company in Baltimore.  Levi B. Phillips and Kate Darlington (mentioned several times in Granny's diary) were both in the pineapple trade, a 1200 mile trip to the West Indies.  The four-month pineapple season began in April.   However, it is known that Captain George sailed only within the confines of the Chesapeake.  So while he sailed Levi B. Phillips, it was not on the West Indies runs.  Presumably it was during the other eight months of the year, the "non-pineapple" months.

Schooner Thomas B. Schall was built in 1882 by Thomas McCosker in Baltimore.  In this photo, dated 31 August 1938, Captain George is at the wheel.  She is leaving Curtis Bay, Baltimore, with a load of fertilizer.

Thomas B. Schall, Curtis Bay, 1938

This is one year after Granny's diary, and because of the relatively small living quarters on the Schall, it is unlikely that this is the schooner on which Granny lived and wrote.  The Thomas B. Schall met a sad ending.  She also was sold south, in 1942, and was lost in the Caribbean on 14 December 1942 with all hands, and is believed to have been sunk by a German mine.

Thomas B. Schall, with sails furled.

Thomas B. Schall in Chesapeake Bay, north of Windmill Point.