{"id":3509,"slug":"george-w-wells-camden-maine","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The George W. Wells was the first six-master — the 1900 schooner launched from Camden's Bean shipyard, the largest wooden sailing ship yet built. Captain Crowley rushed the launch to beat Bath's Eleanor A. Percy — the temporary masts and the doves and the roses for the ten thousand watching. The six-masters were the coal trade's answer — the five thousand tons that paid when the railroads hadn't killed sail yet.","The Wells was named for the American Optical owner — the industrialist's name on the industrial ship, the timber schooner that was bigger than anything before. Camden's yards built the multi-masters — the Bean family's fifty-four vessels, the Prescott and the Wells and the fleet that made the town a shipbuilding name. The six-masters were the last glory — the wooden giants that served until steel and steam finished them, the Wells that sailed until the war.","The file keeps the George W. Wells: the 1900 launch, the six masts, the Camden shipyard, and the coal trade.","The George W. Wells is the archive's schooner file — the first six-master from Camden."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The George W. Wells is the archive's schooner file — the first six-masted sailing ship.","A ship keeps its launch — the file's suggestion being that the Wells's hold is the race: the temporary masts to beat the Percy, the doves at the launch, and the wooden giant that was the biggest schooner afloat."]}],"name":"George W. Wells","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","MUSEUM","MARITIME"],"groups":["hauntings","legends"],"desc":"The 1900 schooner—the first six-master.","full_desc":"A site in Camden, Maine, George W. Wells is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1900 schooner—the first six-master. HauntHunt files it with maritime history, museums and local folklore. The presences in its file go unnamed: the crew, the record says. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 2 legends and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Camden","county":null,"state":"Maine","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":44.213771,"lon":-69.068463,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"SHIP batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3826,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures on the ship. The reports at George W. Wells are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. The report is preserved in sources like 'George W. Wells'. Whatever walks there, it walks often enough to keep the reports coming.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3827,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The dead are reportedly seen. The accounts name only a collective — the crew. George W. Wells in Camden, Maine carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. 'George W. Wells' carries the account. A ghost with a name outlasts a ghost without one; the reports keep it employed.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The crew","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1900 schooner is documented. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'George W. Wells' carry the record. The record keeps it — history, not lore. The lore keeps its witness. The lore keeps its witness.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1900","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported figures on the ship. George W. Wells' file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. Sources including 'George W. Wells' keep the claim in circulation. Every community keeps one story like this; this is theirs.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"name":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. George W. Wells in Camden, Maine carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Sources including 'George W. Wells' keep the claim in circulation. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The crew","claimed_identity":"The crew","verified":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. The accounts name only a collective — the crew. The reports at George W. Wells are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The account appears in 'George W. Wells'. The lore has a face now: The crew. The reports keep the address on the map.","behavior":"The dead are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"George W. Wells","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_George_W._Wells","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":2,"entities":1,"sources":1}}