Biddeford Pool, Maine

Photograph ©   www.maineimaging.com

Negro and Wood Island

By Margo Alley

      Negro Island, the smaller of the two was once known as Tappan Island and had a store on it with an apartment upstairs where the proprietor and his family resided. Mr. Tappan carried a wide array of goods: tobacco, clothing, confectionaries, gear of all sorts, cordage, shiny mackerel jigs, stout cod hooks, and several different kinds of bait, even one of a very popular and powerful liquid sort, so it was said! With a large variety of goods, it is easy to see how the Tappan General Store became a success.

     The above recent ariel view of Negro and Wood Island’s during low tide is spectacular in showing the true distance between the two islands. Though there is an underwater ledge that connects the two, it's not comparable to the way Basket Island is connected to Hill’s Beach where during summers vehicles can quickly pass across the sand bar at low tide. The underwater ledge that connects Negro and Wood Islands is not generally visible nor can one walk across it even during the low tide.The photograph below was taken from the deck on the Wood Island boat house at low tide. The distance is not as close as one may think and the underwater ledge is not visible.

      Wood Island deck looking towards Negro Island

      During the Tammy Burnham rescue in November 1960, USCG rescuer Seaman Edward Syvinski and 2-year-old Tammy Burnham washed up during rough breaking seas on Negro Island during low tide. The charts for the area they came upon at Negro Island show a water depth of fifteen feet during the lowest tide with approximately a few hundred or more feet from the Wood Island boathouse to the location on Negro Island they made landfall. They were later located by the Wood Island Lighthouse tender and Tammy’s father, EN-1 Laurier Burnham who went out into rough breaking sea’s against orders and under threat of military court martial from his commanding officer at the time. 

     Charts shown below prepared by rescuer Edward Syvinski explain where the rescue took place in Wood Island Harbor November 29, 1960.

                         Ram Island

Basket Island 

 Stage Island

The Building of the Monument 1825

By Margo Alley

     Picture it; the year is 1825.  Navigating in and out of the Saco River is difficult at best.  There is nothing particularly prominent near the rivers mouth to shape your course. 

     Navigation was so difficult in fact, the government took action and decided to have a large Monument built on Stage Island to serve as a “Day mark.”  A Day mark serves the same purpose as a Buoy that is used as a marker for navigational purposes. 

     The government awarded the contract to build the tower to three Portland stone masons and bricklayers: Benjamin Bailey, John Leavitt and John Lowell.   The Monument Tower would have walls four feet thick at the base of the hollow shaft; of split, undressed stone set in a good lime mortar.  The walls were to gradually taper and diminish in thickness to two feet at the apex of the 60 foot tower.   The contractors would be paid $1,200 for the construction of the tower.

     The tower would be built of stones obtained just a few hundred feet from the shores of Stage Island.  Contractors blasted out large slabs of rock, where still today,  evidence  may be seen by the remains of the flat rock pieces left by the mighty blasting 180 years ago.  

      The men hired their crews and set out to work.  But tragedy would prevail when the construction on the tower reached 54 feet, it suddenly gave way and came crashing down.  John Lowell was killed instantly, and three workmen were seriously injured. They later recovered from those injuries. 

     An inspection followed with a finding that:  a part of the foundation which had not been built on solid stone had gave way, causing the tower to crash. 

     The remaining two contractors were obligated to rebuild the shaft.  Due to the great financial loss they had suffered with the first tower, they petitioned the government for reimbursement.  There is no record that the petition was ever granted. 

     The second rebuilding of the tower was successful.  At completion, it stood 60 feet high with a five foot entrance opening.  Lastly, a fresh coat of white paint was applied.  

     Over time, natures fury left cracks and crevices that needed to be tended to.  In 1913, masons were contracted to make repairs on the tower and give it a fresh coat of new white paint.

     Today, when one stands on the shore looking out towards Stage Island, the Monument, no longer white but now back to it’s natural stone color, holds a mystic and spooky sort of look to it.  It seems to be one of these old things that almost lures you to dig into its history, for after-all, something that has stood in such a place for so many years, must have a story to tell.  And Stage Island and the Monument do have stories to tell, and intriguing ones at that.  So many ships were wrecked running up onto the Island before the monument was built, that documenting them could fill the pages of a small book.  It once was a grazing ground for sheep many years ago, and they would go into the Monument for cover from weather.  It housed large drying stages for the fisherman.  But one of the most interesting things, was the only house that stood on Stage Island in the mid 1800s. It was a two family house occupied by two fisherman brothers, Jacob and Frank Verrill, and their families.  Jacob and wife Edwina              moved to the island when their son Waldo Stillson Verrill (born 1858) was just an infant.  Waldo grew up with two very different skills.  He was a Lobsterman and a highly regarded Poet, quite a combination. He wrote more then 200 poems, many published in the Zion’s Herald, and locally.  He was an eloquent speaker who lectured on topics near and dear to his heart.  Some of those lectures took place at Union Church, where his father, Jacob Verrill, is recorded in the first church ledger as one of the church’s original founders. 

     Waldo grew up on Stage Island and moved to the Pool in later years.  In the winter, if it took more than 20 minutes to drive to town from the Pool, he and Mrs. Verrill would take an apartment in Saco until the worst of the season had passed.  He was a true native who passed  his days at or near the Pool.  

        An article in the 1930s finds Waldo Verrill reminiscing of days when, even way back then, had long since passed.          

Maybe it was 55 years ago I started in the Lobster business here, I operated the smack Etta B. Rich between here and Portland.  There was no well in the craft but lobsters were so plentiful and the run was so short, we got along all right without one.  I would frequently take from600-800 lobsters in two or three hours that would average two pounds or more a piece.  I also bought from other lobstermen.  Maine’s lobster business really started here at the Pool.  Uncle Frank Verrill began way back, he would fill an 18 foot boat to the gun-whales and he did not save a lobster that weighed less than 2 pounds.  That was the smallest while most of them weighed 3 or 4 pounds.  Today, the demand is for the one-pound nine inch (sic) Canadian lobsters which have almost ruined our fisherman and their markets.   

     There used to be wonderful fishing right around the river mouth. The mackerel fleet all came in here, but it was the herring that made things hum.  I have seen as high as 200 sail of herring fisherman anchored off there in Winter Harbor.  The buyers used to speculate in herring just as one might in wheat or corn.  Sometimes a big catch would change hands several times without being moved from the vessel.  Fortunes were made and also lost in the business--Waldo Verrill

 Stage Island