Noontime

Last year, the wreck of a the clipper ship, Noonday, was located just west of San Francisco. There was no great mystery where the ship sank in 1863, as the submerged rock where she struck has been known as Noonday Rock ever since. Nevertheless, the exact location of the ship had been lost until the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surveyed the area with the help of a remote-controlled submarine equipped with sonar and video. The ship remains buried beneath bottom and will be left undisturbed.  In 1934, the ship’s bell from the Noonday was recovered when it became entangled in the net of a fishing trawler.

Noonday was the last clipper ship built at the Fernald & Pettigrew shipyard on Badger’s Island in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, Maine, directly opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Noonday was built for Henry Hastings, of Boston, who also commissioned the previous clipper ship from the yard, named Midnight.

Badger’s Island was well suited for shipbuilding. Shipbuilding timber and masts could be floated down the Piscataqua River from forests inland. Close proximity to Portsmouth’s docks provided other supplies and labor, while the island’s gentle sloping shore into a deep water channel made ship launchings practical.

While Fernald & Pettigrew built clipper ships from 1844 to 1855, shipbuilding on the island dates back to the Revolutionary war. The island was called Rising Castle Island, but became known as Langdon’s Island when John Langdon established his shipyard there in 1776 and began building ships for the Continental Navy.  Ranger, an 18-gun sloop-of-war, commanded by John Paul Jones, was built in the yard.

An apprentice in Langdon’s shipyard, William Badger, acquiring 3 acres on the island in 1797 went on to build more than 100 ships, including naval vessels, merchant vessels and privateers until his death in 1830. Henceforth, the island was called Badger’s Island, in his honor. William Badger is buried on the island that now bears his name.

Following the delivery of the Noonday, the yard shut down. Shipbuilding moved downriver to Fernald’s Island, home since 1800 to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  Badger’s Island today is a suburb of Portsmouth occupied by houses, condominiums, restaurants and marinas.