Captain Augustus R. Hinckley - Lake Ontario Mariner

 

          Biography of Captain Augustus R. Hinckley

                By Richard Palmer

It was eight days before Christmas, 1902. The steamer HINCKLEY had been fighting her way through a blinding Lake Ontario snowstorm for hours, returning from Cape Vincent to her home port of Oswego. No land, beacon, or buoy pointed the way; on every side, there was only whiteness. Even before HINCKLEY had cleared the Cape Vincent breakwater, the storm had been raging, and heavy seas buffeted her as she steamed southward. With only a compass to determine the course, and an approximate knowledge of his ship's speed, the captain guided his boat by "dead reckoning", and the crew prayed that his accuracy would bring them safely through the storm.

Quite suddenly, the seas calmed and the steamer brought up against a mountain of ice. Startled but undaunted, the captain held the bow of his craft against the ice while one of the men scaled it. So thick was the falling snow that the sailor was unable to see more than a few feet. He reported, however, that a mysterious tower-like structure stood at the edge of the ice. What this might be, no one ventured to guess, but when further investigation revealed timbers beneath the ice, HINCKLEY was allowed to drift back until she reached the far side of the ice. There, to their amazement, the crew found themselves at the entrance to Oswego harbour. The strange structure was, in fact, the lighthouse!

Capt. Augustus R. Hinckley had won another battle against a lake storm. He was one of only a few men who had sailed completely "blind" from the St. Lawrence River to Oswego, and none of his crew ever forgot the anxiety of that passage. Henry Lake, the mate who climbed the "iceberg", is said never to have sailed again.

Hinckley was the proprietor of the Hinckley Forwarding Company of Cape Vincent, N.Y., and was a very well-known Lake Ontario captain. In spite of the bad luck that seemed to follow him for much of his life, he never lost his love for the water. He knew the thrill of success against tremendous odds, yet a strangely malign fate dogged his course and he saw wealth wrenched from his grasp and his most ambitious ventures come to naught.

The beginning of his career had been auspicious enough. Augustus R. Hinckley was born on Wolfe Island on August 11, 1856, the youngest son of an old-school St. Lawrence River pilot. Even as a boy, he took great interest in all things nautical and he was still just a lad when he took up sailing as a career. On May 27, 1829, his grandfather, Samuel Hinckley, had been granted a license to run a ferry between Wolfe Island and Cape Vincent, and the family had retained the franchise for many years. Gus' father, Coleman Hinckley, piloted on the river, built ships, and ran the ferry from Kingston to Wolfe Island from 1857 until 1872. In time, Gus Hinckley came to own his own fleet of boats and was awarded a U.S. government contract to place buoys in the St. Lawrence between Cape Vincent and Morristown. In addition, his skill as a salvager won him wide renown.

One of Hinckley's misfortunes involved the loss of the wooden steamer PENTLAND (U.S.150656), 192.8 x 35.5 x 14.3, 827 Gross, 617 Net, which had been built at Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1894 by Duncan Robertson for the Pent-land Steamship Company. After passing through several sets of hands, she was purchased in 1916 by the Coastwise Steamship Company and, in 1918, by the Ontario Trading Company of Ogdensburg. On November 22, 1921, PENTLAND was upbound from Montreal to Oswego in ballast under Capt. John J. "Jack" Powers, master and part-owner, when she grounded hard at Weaver's Point on the north shore of Gooseneck Island, three miles from Morrisburg. The Donnelly Wrecking Company of Kingston was called to the scene but was unable to take her off and there she remained until the following spring. In June, 1922, PENTLAND was purchased by John E. Russell of Toronto but, not long thereafter, Capt. Hinckley bought the wreck for the sum of $800.

In his own unique manner, Hinckley refloated PENTLAND. He then hauled her to the channel and steamed her to Ogdensburg and onto the St. Lawrence Marine Railway for survey and complete refit. It is said that a Cleveland concern offered Hinckley $30,000 for the boat, but that he refused to sell her. Shortly after her return to service, PENTLAND struck the Port Colborne breakwater and sank, but Hinckley again raised her. She was finally abandoned in 1928.

Early in his career as a shipowner, Capt. Hinckley's ventures into Canadian waters brought him into conflict with the Canadian pilots' association. He recalled that, one day, a shot came across the bow of his vessel and he was "escorted" to Montreal. His dual citizenship came in handy on that occasion, as he was able to prove to the authorities that he had as much right to be in Canadian waters as did any of the pilots who had questioned him. They did not bother him again!

His first experience as a wrecker involved the barge GEORGE T. DAVIE of the Montreal Transportation Company Ltd., which had sunk in some 80 feet of water in the St. Lawrence. As his boats passed the wreck, Hinckley noted the fruitless efforts of the salvagers who tried to raise the DAVIE. When they finally gave up, he offered to tackle the job. He had three boats and sixteen men working for him at the time. He placed his barges JESSIE and BERTIE CALKINS (an old schooner) on drydock at Kingston, where holes were cut through their bottoms at the stern, forming eight ten-inch wells in each. Through these were dropped two-inch iron chains capable of lifting 50 tons.

When Hinckley's little squadron anchored above the DAVIE, it was with a lifting capacity of 1,000 tons. Divers passed chains beneath the wreck, hatches were secured, pipes attached, and the pumps were started. As the jacks began to lift, DAVIE came up between the two improvised wreckers, but the hull rolled in the chains and slid over on one side. Hinckley hastily assembled his discouraged crew and had them lift carefully on the chains on one side. Slowly, the DAVIE rolled back to an upright position.

Hinckley cleared several thousand dollars on this job and such feats won him wide repute as an expert salvager. Be this as it may, he lived in Oswego during most of his sailing days but is still remembered by older residents of that city as "the little old man with the leaky boats". As a result of a series of financial reverses, John S. Parsons, noted Oswego ship chandler, ran the Hinckley Line for two or three years until the captain got back on his feet. Jack Donovan, who worked in Parsons' store, remembered that Hinckley "didn't handle money too well". "I remember him as a little, withered old man who used to come into the store to pay Mr Parsons with a gallon of maple syrup or a dozen eggs. Mr Parsons was always ready and willing to help down-and-out sailors." Donovan added that Hinckley would load his boats so heavily that there would not be a foot of freeboard.

One interesting vessel owned by Hinckley was ISABELLA H., named for his daughter. This wooden steamer had originally been McCORMICK (U.S.91938), 106.0 x 24.7 x 8.0, 160 Gross, 120 Net, built at Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1887 and purchased by Hinckley about 1909. He ran McCORMICK, with a built-up forecastle and steel A-frame, between Oswego and Montreal, and also serviced buoys in the spring and fall for the U.S. government. Unfit for service, she was abandoned in June, 1911, at Chaumont, N.Y. She was rebuilt at Chaumont in 1915, 100.8 x 25.9 x 11.1, 248 Gross, 141 Net, and was renamed (b) ISABELLA H. (U.S. 213012).

On September 28, 1925, ISABELLA H. and HINCKLEY were near Oswego with loads of stone, bound from Alexandria Bay to Big Sodus Bay, when, with a storm running on the lake, ISABELLA H. sprang a leak. Both boats immediately altered course for the Oswego harbour entrance but ISABELLA H. began to sink rapidly. She listed heavily to port and then came to rest squarely on the flat rock at the entrance. One of the mates, Hiram Bush of Gouverneur, N.Y., was drowned in the accident, but the remainder of the crew was rescued by the Coast Guard. ISABELLA H. eventually broke up and became a total loss.

Another of Hinckley's boats was the tug CHIPPEWA (U.S.75818), which had been built at Philadelphia in 1875. She was 66.5 x 16.5 x 7.0, 43 Gross and 21 Net, and foundered off Weaver's Point on August 12, 1920.

One by one, Augustus Hinckley's old wooden boats outlived their usefulness and their ability to remain afloat. The pet of his own design, the "rabbit" HINCKLEY (U.S.96578), was lost on Stony Point, about 28 miles northeast of Oswego, during a storm in 1929. She had been built in 1901 in the shipyard of Frank Phelps at Chaumont, 114.4 x 24.0 x 10.0, 211 Gross and 177 Net. She was rebuilt and deepened in 1920 to 11.7 feet, 232 Gross and 188 Net. She carried a crew of six and had a 150-horsepower steam engine. (A typical "rabbit" of her day, HINCKLEY had her machinery and her double-deck cabin aft. Unadmiring crewmen sometimes referred to such boats as "coffins".)

HINCKLEY met her end on July 29, 1929, whilst en route from Fair Haven to Gananoque with a cargo of coal. There was a choppy sea running and the boat developed a leak which admitted water into the hold faster than the pumps could remove it. As she neared Stony Point Light, HINCKLEY began to settle and it was feared that she would founder in deep water. The crew abandoned the ship but Capt. Hinckley remained aboard and finally managed to bring the steamer up on the table rock in Gravely Bay. As the captain, a man in his 70s, later recalled, "the best thing for me to do was to go forward and drop in (the water). I forgot that I hadn't been in for years. I jumped in with all my clothes on, even my boots. The first wave caught me. After that, I was more careful."

Although her owner/master reached shore safely, HINCKLEY was a total loss, despite the efforts of the Pyke Salvage Company Ltd. of Kingston which had been summoned by the captain in an effort to salvage the ship and her cargo. Lying in an exposed position, with her decks awash, HINCKLEY went to pieces in a storm which sprang up shortly after she had been beached.

The last freighter owned by Capt. Augustus R. Hinckley was the wooden steamer HARVEY J. KENDALL (U.S.96166), 141.7 x 30.9 x 9.2, 398 Gross, 264 Net, which was built at Marine City, Michigan, in 1892. The captain bought her from the George Hall Corporation of Ogdensburg in 1930 to replace the lost HINCKLEY. (Actually, the sale was probably in 1929 - Ed.) HARVEY J. KENDALL was a rather odd-looking boat and was nearing the end of her days when she was acquired, for her hull was badly deteriorated. The following story of the last days of the KENDALL was related in 1973 by the captain's nephew, Theodore Hinckley, who sailed aboard her on her last trip, during which she sank in the Cardinal Canal.

"This is what I remember of my trip on HARVEY J. KENDALL under Capt. Gus Hinckley. This was the last civilian contract he obtained to pick up Coast Guard buoys; the U.S.C.G. took over this duty the following year. Uncle Gus stopped at the Cape (Vincent) about the middle of December, 1930. Some of his crew had quit and gone home, and he lacked a couple of deckhands and a coalpasser. So George Cody, Earl Snyder and myself hired on to go downriver with him and pick up buoys as far as Waddington, the last in American waters.

"Cody was fireman, Snyder and I deckhands. The old KENDALL had a high steeple compressed steam boiler which had a lot of leaks round about, but still worked. The engineer was Woods, of Alexandria Bay. He was a big, fat guy, took about a 52" waist. Cody's relief coalpasser was called 'Pipe Boiler' Paddy, from Oswego, built like Cody, tall and lean, waist about 32"; he wore a pair of overalls that the engineer had discarded, but wrapped around once again. We all got a bang out of seeing him with that outfit on. He was almost as dirty with coal dust as were the overalls.

"The hoist man was Jimmie Cree, an Indian from Morristown, a hard worker and a hard drinker, too. The mate was from Alex(andria) Bay, but I forget his name. Aunt Lydia was the captain's wife and also served as the cook. He couldn't find any other cook for the trip and was cutting the expenses as much as he could because he had bid too low on the contract.

"Uncle Gus had tied up at the depot dock in Cape Vincent and, about December 15, we shoved off and sailed to pick up the buoys. Earl Snyder could not go, as his father, J.P. Snyder, had refused him permission, so I was deckhand and coalpasser combined. We picked up buoys all the way down river and unloaded them at Ogdensburg. Then we got buoys from the harbour there and went down river to Waddington and got the last of them. It had turned very cold the night we left the 'Burg (Ogdensburg), and it was making ice in the canals and bays, so we ran the river and, with the current, made good time to retrieve the last buoys at Waddington.

"My duties were to work on deck while we were taking buoys aboard and to pass coal onto the fireroom floor while underway. The meals were nothing to talk about with any praise, but Auntie did the best she could. A roast beef went a long way; first a roast, then hash, and finally soup. Everything else was the same; a ham was served about four different ways and the bone ended up in pea soup.

"I don't think anybody undressed fully at night. I know that I didn't. Our quarters were too cold but that didn't freeze out the bugs. They were in full power. The blankets and bunks were loaded with them. I left my socks and underwear on, so I only got bitten around my wrists, ankles and neck. Little red spots showed up every morning, but I was so tired at night that I slept anyway.

"We had seven spar buoys, three nun and two big flasher buoys aboard when we finished up at Waddington and started back for the 'Burg about the middle of the last day. Uncle Gus figured that we could make it back by working the eddies along the shore out of the direct current. He was right, except for one thing. Somehow the draft damper in the stack had become loose and the outside balance arm showed the draft wide open whereas it was actually only half-opened. The set bolts had slipped, as we later discovered.

"We knew it was making ice in the canal and, as KENDALL was built of wood, we didn't want to chance it. So we started upriver bucking the current. It seemed to go pretty well; I was passing coal and could look out the ash-chute hole and get a sighting on shore. Engineer Woods kept at Cody, the fireman, for more steam and Cody kept after me for more coal. Finally, I told Cody to get a sight on the shore; we were just holding our own and that was all. The captain was whistling for more steam but we just could not make it. He swung in nearer to shore to catch an eddy and hit bottom just like three steps (bump, bump, bump) and there we stayed. We tried to reverse and then tried everything else, but to no avail. Capt. Gus had the idea to put the hatch cover across the jolly boat and have myself and Jim Cree take it out in the river astern to act as a keg anchor, but this did not pan out because both the mate and I rebelled. If the lifeboat had tipped over when we dumped the anchor, we would both have been goners, for the water was ice-cold. So we had a farmer call Kingston, Ontario, to contact the tug SALVAGE QUEEN to come and get us off.

"Next morning, SALVAGE QUEEN arrived and dropped anchor above the KENDALL, then paid out cable until we got it from her stern. The she took up on her forward winch until she was half-way to the upper anchor. She started both winches and, using herself as one big winch, pulled us off the rocks. All the power the QUEEN had was in her winches; her engine was not very powerful and she couldn't buck the current, so we both dropped back and entered the canal below Cardinal. We tied up there to inspect the hull, but no bad leak showed where we had been on the rocks. Uncle Gus said that it was ledges and no boulders, so just the keel and forefoot were hit, and the hull was not damaged.

"The two captains talked things over and decided that SALVAGE QUEEN would lead, the KENDALL to follow, as there was about three inches of ice in the canal. Meanwhile, Uncle Gus had Woods and Cody check the damper in the stack and they found that the set bolts had loosened. It was adjusted and okayed. SALVAGE QUEEN started out but, even though she had a steel hull, she could not make it as the ice was too thick. New ice was tough, so she called Kingston for SALVAGE PRINCE, for she had lots of propeller power and an icebreaking bow. Unfortunately, she couldn't get there until the next day.

"Gus didn't want to wait and said we'd try it, as KENDALL had power enough but was only ironed (sheathed) part-way on the bow, which he figured was enough. So we started out of the lock for a ways but then new ice started. We'd make 200 or 300 feet, then back and ram it again. The poor old ship took a beating when we hit the ice but she would do well, her deck humping up and down like in an ocean roll, then stop, back, and hit again. About a quarter-mile outside of Cardinal, Cody called me to pass more coal. I stepped off the fireroom floor into about four inches of icewater in the bunker.

"I hollered to Cody 'better get me a pair of rubber boots as there's water in the bunker'. The engineer and Cody came in with a lantern and you should have seen the engineer's face when he showed the light in the bunker. The coal bunkers were in the stern near the fantail and, every time we backed, the stern would hit hard in the ice, and that had started the seams leaking. It was spouting 'pretty good' into the bunkers. The engineer notified Uncle Gus, who stopped her and held her into the ice.

"But nothing could be seen above water. The bilge had already been sounded and the water was gaining at a good rate even though we had two pumps going. Gus decided that, if we could get to Cardinal, we could stop and lay up, as it was getting dark. We made four more lunges at the ice and came to Dodge's coal dock outside Cardinal. Gus called for me and I jumped onto the dock; it was icy but I hung on. He whistled to go ahead and I thought that he had left me, but it was just to break ice so he could get closer to the dock. Finally, he backed up and I took a line and made fast fore and aft.

"By this time, the old KENDALL was making water pretty fast and it took a lot of coal to keep up steam. We had a four-inch bilge pump and two two-inch steam siphons going full blast, as well as the generator, and still we needed steam for the engine. The only way I could get coal on the fireroom floor was to rake it out of the bunker with the big fire rake. After we tied up, the water was sounded for depth in the canal and we found that if she did sink, the upper works and the top of the spray rail between fore and aft would be out of water, even though the keel was on the bottom.

"Gus had the engine shut down and he told Woods to keep the pumps going full. He said that he would be back inside of an hour, and away he went into the night. It was really dark by this time. I got a pile of coal ready for Cody and he said to me 'It won't be long now'. But there were still rats in the galley and we wouldn't go under as we were tied to the dock. I couldn't help but laugh, even though it was bad luck for poor old Uncle Gus.

"The water started to creep up on the fireroom floor. Woods told Cody to pull the fire, as the icewater would blow up the boiler if it was hot. So Cody dumped the fire and we climbed topside. We all got our gear together and were standing by as the pumps and generator started slowing down for lack of steam. Then we heard a team of horses on the run coming down the road. People were yelling. Into the coal shed and onto the dock came Uncle Gus and a farmer riding a wagon of horse and cow manure mixed with straw, this just as the lights dimmed and the steam siphons quit. It was kind of gruesome, the KENDALL groaning and settling. The only light came from the flashing tops of the buoys which stuck out of the hatches. They bumped the deck as the old boat went down, but stayed in the hold. Of course, Uncle Gus was mad as a hornet but Woods told him that he was afraid of blowing the boiler if water hit the hot grates. The engineer knew what to do, as he had his bag packed in ten minutes and came off the ship all dressed up. He had been ready long before.

"Maybe I had better explain the load of straw and manure that Uncle Gus got. In the old days of wooden vessels, if a bad leak developed in the seams under water, the caulking usually had become loose or was pushed through. If the boat wasn't in too much current or under way, sometimes wet sawdust or manure with lots of straw mixed in would, when dropped over the side, settle along the hull and be sucked into the leaking seams. This would lessen or stop a leak so that temporary repairs could be made. But I don't think that forty loads would have saved the old KENDALL.

"Uncle Gus had me swing down to the galley wall through a hole topside by the top of the boiler to retrieve a clock. We took handlights and went forward and got Aunt Lydia out of the captain's cabin where she had been all this time. We went on the dock, into the coal shed, where we called Cardinal and had cars come to get us. Uncle Gus did not have much cash on him, but borrowed some from Mr. Dodge who owned the coal dock, and he gave us each $20 on what he owed us. The spar and nun buoys were floating on deck, held there by the fareboard which was just out of water, and the lights were flashing on the big gas buoys. That's how we left the HARVEY J. KENDALL.

"The crew took a bus to Prescott and then Ogdensburg. We had to wait at the 'Burg for a train to Watertown... Cody and I left Watertown for Cape Vincent and the others went home. When I got home, I told Laulie, my wife, that I had better strip off my clothes on the outside porch and, while I did that, to start the tub running, as I badly needed a hot bath. It was cold that day but we had to fumigate my clothes and other gear just the same. I got home three days before Christmas.

"The only lives lost in the sinking of the KENDALL were a lot of bedbugs. The Lighthouse Service, which had charge of all navigation aids at that time, got the buoys and took them to Ogdensburg. The following spring, Uncle Gus, Jim Cree and a couple of other men sealed off the leaks with canvas and lumber and pumped the KENDALL until they raised her so that she could be beached and repaired. She was brought to the breakwall at Cape Vincent but the steamboat hull and boiler inspectors of Oswego would not give Uncle Gus clearance to sail the lake and would only permit operation on the river.

"At the same time, engineer Woods put a lien against her for past wages, so Gus gave up. She was stripped of most of the removable items of any value, and Wilfred Dodge towed her to Button Bay, where he ran her up on the south corner of the marsh. That winter and the following spring (1932), the KENDALL drifted out and down the bay. She got as far as Perch Cove, out from Home's cottage, and sank there. Her remains still lie there in about fifteen feet of water."

In 1917, Hinckley had purchased a farm of more than 100 acres in the town of Parishville, St. Lawrence County. On this land was a lot of timber that he expected to cut and use in his marine work. In the early 1930s, he finally moved there from Oswego. "I'm keeping the farm for my old age", he used to say, "but Mrs. Hinckley asks me 'When does old age begin?'" Shortly before his death, he was planning to purchase a barge and continue his salvage work, for he yearned to return again to the water where he had spent most of his life. But on June 27, 1936, he passed away. His obituary in the Watertown Daily Times noted that "he died not on a battered schooner, plowing against strong headwinds, but on a quiet farm in the heart of his own north country".

Thus ended the illustrious career of one of Lake Ontario's noted marine personalities, an active career that spanned some 66 of his 80 years. 

Watertown Daily Times 

June 28, 1935

Capt. Hinckley Long on Lakes

Death at Parishville ends colorful career

Stayed alone on beached ship

When barge sprung Leak and It Was Put on Ledge of Rock He Sent Crew Ashore in Boat and He Stayed Aboard

He Did Much Salvage Work.

The death of Captain Augustus R. Hinckley, 79, at his farm home at Parishville, St. Lawrence county on Tuesday, brought to a close a long and colorful career on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence river. Captain Hinckley for 66 years had plied the lakes and river with his boats, meeting all manner of adversities, ship wrecks and storms. More than once his life was endangered when a barge went down or a terrific gale arose.

He was widely known up and down Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence for his daring marine feats.

Captain Hinckley was one of the few remaining skippers of the old school. His was a spectacular life packed with as much nautical excitement as would ever come to a Gloucester fisherman. An iron will combined with a determined mind set him apart as one of the most able and at the same time courageous captains that ever piloted a ship on the lake or river.

His long and stormy career began 66 years ago. He was born on Wolfe Island Aug. 11,1856, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Even as a boy his whole heart was set upon sailing. At an early age he took great interest in all things nautical and he was only a lad when he took up sailing in a serious manner.

It was only after a brief apprenticeship before he was master of his chosen vocation. He displayed, as a youth, as much courage as he did in later life when he was faced with still more dangerous situations. His friends and family thought many times that either the lake or river would take the captain's life. But fate apparently sailed on his side through those long 66 years of his career. He died not on a battered schooner plowing against strong headwinds, but on a quiet farm in the heart of his own north country.

Captain Hinckley at one time had a fleet of four vessels. They were the ill-fated Hinckley, Isabella H. Pentland and Phelps. All but the Phelps met a tragic end. The Phelps is still being operated, now owned by Eldridge and Robinson. The craft was rebuilt for service on the barge canal.

One of the most thrilling episodes that ever befell Captain Hinckley took (place about 1889)*

when the Hinckley went to pieces between Henderson Harbor and Stoney Point. After years of service and several wrecks the barge was caught by a stiff northwest gale. It had been a week previous that Captain Hinckley and his crew were forced to beach the ship on a shelf of rocks in Gravely bay after it had sprung a leak. At that time the crew went ashore in the only boat, leaving Captain Hinckley behind by his own order. Later a storm arose and Captain Hinckley donned a life preserver and swan 300 feet to the beach.

When the storm came up, the ship which had been beached, began to crack up. Salvage of the coal aboard her went forward but the ship was doomed.

The Hinckley was built at Chaumont in 1901 and her hull was taken to Oswego where her boiler and machinery were installed. She was 114 feet in length, drew 11.7 feet of water and had a capacity of 332 tons. **

The Isabella H. foundered at the entrance to Oswego harbor and the Pentland, largest of the fleet went out of service and was eventually disposed of.

In later years Captain Hinckley did much salvage work. Many of these undertakings were hazardous and not always altogether successful. It was while doing this work that he came into possession of the Pentland after wrecking companies had abandoned efforts to raise the craft. He paid $600. For the sunken ship and in three days had it floated. It was reported that he later refused an offer of $30,000 for the ship. Through his efforts the sunken steamer George T. Davis of the Montreal Transportation company which went down in 80 feet of water in the St. Lawrence was raised.

One of his unsuccessful ventures in ship raising was the attempt to float the steamer Richardson which foundered on Lake Erie but the craft was mysteriously blow up after all preparations for floating it had been made.

The last cargo carrier owned by Captain Hinckley was the little steamer Kendall. He used this ship for handling buoys for the government on Lower Ontario and St. Lawrence. The Kendall sank in the Cardinal canal and was abandoned.

During the past five or six years Captain Hinckley had been in the marine contracting business in Cape Vincent, Henderson Harbor and Alexandria Bay. He told friends just before he died he was going to bid on work for the coast guard station planned for the Galloups Island this summer.

In 1917 Captain Hinckley purchased a farm of more than 100 acres at Parishville on the St. Regis river. On this land is a lot of timber which he expected to cut and use in his marine work. Captain Hinckley maintained his residence in Oswego for many years, the family home being at East Fourth and Mohawk Streets.

Besides his widow, he is survived by a daughter Mrs. Harry Place of Rochester.

The afternoon funeral services for the captain were held at his White Hill home near Parishville. Rev F, Nichols, pastor of the Parishville Baptist church, officiated. Burial was made in the Parishville cemetery, far from the sight of either Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence which in life knew him so well.

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Oswego Palladium-Times

Monday, Aug. 5, 1929

Steamer Total Wreck in Gale

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Hinckley, Last of Fleet, Breaks Up On Stony Point.

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Heavy pounding seas, which followed a northwesterly gale early Sunday morning, during the day completed the wreck of the steamer Hinckley on Stony Point, and at noon Sunday, only the top of the engine remained visible in the breakers that swept in on Gravely Bay, on the east side of the point, where Captain A.R. Hinckley had beached the steamer early last Tuesday morning when a bad leak gained on the pumps and made sinking imminent.

Efforts to salvage the steamer started Friday, when the tug Salvage Prince and lighters removed about 310 tons of chestnut coal from the stranded ship. The steamer listed, and there were so many started planks that pumps could not gain on the water in the holds. Saturday other efforts to free the ship were made, and with Saturday night, when storm warnings were flying the salvage fleet left the steamer to her fate. The steamer was not insured, but the cargo was. About 100 tons of coal remains in the holds of the ship.

About daylight Sunday the top hamper started to come ashore at Stony Point, and in less than two hours the rest of the hull above the water line followed, and the beach was strewn with timbers and the debris from the steamer.

The Hinckley was built by Captain M. G. Phelps at Chaumont as a barge 29 years ago, and was fitted out as a steamer in Oswego by Captain Hinckley and during that entire period Captain Hinckley had operated the steamer in the coal trade between Fair Haven and Oswego and Ontario and St. Lawrence river points.

In that period also, Captain Hinckley had a contract from the Lighthouse department placing buoys in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river, the Hinckley being of the first to open and last to close the season of navigation on Lake Ontario.

The Hinckley is the last of a number of steamers owned and operated by Captain Hinckley. The barge Isabella H. her consort sunk four years ago in the Oswego river mouth drowning one of the crew and the Pentland was beached down the St. Lawrence and removed as a hulk by the government the same year.

              Steamer Hinckley with Augustus Hinckley standing at pilot house