Wiscasset’s famous Hesper and Luther Little, “the last of the four-masted schooners,” won’t be totally forgotten. A renewed effort is underway to restore some of the pieces saved from them. After the pieces are sandblasted and painted, they will be presented to the select board for display at the waterfront.

The restoration first talked about two years ago stalled after town officials learned the school department was no longer interested in being involved. Discussions about starting anew began two weeks ago when William Gemmill of Federal Street contacted Wiscasset Newspaper News Contributor Phil Di Vece.

With the encouragement of town employee Steve Christiansen of Willow Lane, arrangements were made with Public Works Director Doug Fowler and Town Manager Marian Anderson to visit the  landfill to determine what iron pieces that remained there were salvageable. Soon after, Ken Boudin Jr., president of Machinery Service Co., Inc., offered his expertise.

On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Fowler, along with Christiansen and his co-workers, Ted Snowdon and Eric Moore, recovered over a ton of historic ironwork saved after the town demolished the Hesper and Luther Little in 1998.

The recovered items included a set of iron bollards approximately three feet long, a davit set used to raise and lower a lifeboat, two hawse pipes once attached to the bow where the anchor chain passed through, a 20-foot length of possible anchor chain and an anchor hoist.

These pieces, along with a propeller off the Winter Harbor, were carried to Machinery Service Co., Inc. on West Alna Road. The propeller had been in storage at the waterfront for years. In the early 1900s until the 1930s, the steamboat Winter Harbor ferried passengers, freight and the U.S. mail from the Boothbay peninsula and Southport to Wiscasset. It sank in Wiscasset harbor in the 1930s. Its propeller was later privately salvaged and given to the town.

Boudin said he’s excited about restoring pieces of the old ships and the propeller. He said he plans to do the work at his shop as time permits. Boudin's business is well-known in New England. Machinery Service Co. Inc. fabricates machine parts and specializes in the restoration of  wood planers, milling and other woodworking machinery across the U.S. and Canada. The company recently took on an intricate project to make a new conveyor system for General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works.

Gemmill has a keen interest in Wiscasset’s maritime history. He and his wife Sally live in the historic Carlton House once owned by Moses Carlton, a wealthy and influential shipowner from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

“You could say I have a deep and abiding passion for seeing some parts of those old schooners preserved,” he said. “I truly believe once these few pieces are restored and preserved many people will come to appreciate this important part of the town’s history as much as I do. That’s my hope.”

E. Davies Allen of Westport Island stepped forward to fund a proposed restoration effort two years ago. When contacted Friday, Oct. 13 and told about the new endeavor, he quickly responded with a generous donation. Allen, a marine contractor, has operated Chesterfield Associates on Westport Island’s upper West Shore Road since the mid-1980s. 

For decades, the Hesper and Luther Little sat grounded on the Wiscasset waterfront and were the subject of hundreds of paintings and countless photographs. The Wiscasset Police Department continues to wear a shoulder patch depicting likenesses of the Hesper and Luther Little.

“They weren’t just a part of Wiscasset, they were what people thought of whenever Wiscasset was mentioned,” commented Christiansen, who, like Boudin, is a Wiscasset native.

“It’s so gratifying to see that after so many years something is finally going to happen about preserving at least some of these pieces. They’ll make a great addition to our waterfront or anywhere else the town chooses to display them,” he added.

Still to be determined is how best to preserve several wooden sections including a plank with Hesper carved into it about 14 feet long and charred along the top, showing where the ship had caught fire one Fourth of July night in the 1970s. A paper tacked to it identifies it as having come from the schooner’s “portside bow.”

After the Luther Little’s bow section collapsed into the mudflat in 1998, the powers that be decided it was time for the ships to go. During their demolition that summer, a good deal of the ships’ parts, including their iron fittings and masts, were saved by the town, inventoried and set aside at the landfill. They sat forgotten until a story appeared in the Wiscasset Newspaper telling of their history.

Two other past attempts at restoring these items were discussed, then failed. Gemmill and the others believe this time the project will succeed. “People still ask about what happened to the old ships. When this project is through, I think it could help attract people to our waterfront.”

Anderson said anyone wishing to donate funds to the project may make a check payable to the Town of Wiscasset, RE: Hesper/Luther Little project. Donations may also be made in person at the town office during business hours, or mailed to: Wiscasset Town Office, 51 Bath Road, Wiscasset, ME 04578.