The old bridge at Wiscassett spanned the Sheepscot River for decades and I loved the hum of tires over the narrow steel girder bridge. A new bridge replaced the old in 1983. New. No charm. Wicasset's primary attractions were its Maine coastal charms and the pair of rotting hulks wallowing in the mud flats. The state of ruin of the Hesper and Luther Little bespoke shipwreck to my boyish mind. These two timber schooners once transported pine trees from Maine to the world along with hundreds of other wind-powered Casco Bay schooners.
The Hesper and the Luther Little were the last two ships of their kind. The owner finally stranded them on the mudflats of the Sheepscot River. Each winter ravaged the ships rising and falling with the tides without ever floating free of the muck, yet they withstood the harsh treatment of Nature for decades. Finally two teenage boys set fire to the relics, damaging them to such a state that the town had them dismantled as a safety hazard.
Of course they could have remained in their final berth for another half-century, if it were not for the threat of legal suits and the town dismantld the wrecks. The Hesper and the Luther Little joined the hum of car tires over the Wicassett Bridge. Something gone, but not forgotten__
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Much more to come.
