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The Four–masted Schooner Alvena (A murderer mystery solved)

by John MacFarlane 2022

Alvena

The Alvena at Yarmouth Nova Scotia. The man with the oxen is Peter Doucette and the little boy is Albert Gordon. (Photo from the Jeannette Beranger collection.)

The four–masted schooner Alvena was apparently made redundant by a flood of new steam and motor vessels that were then being put into commission. In 1925 she was abandoned on the mud alongside the Irene at San Pedro California. She had been built in 1901 by Bendixsen Shipbuilding Co. at Fairhaven California and was employed as a lumber freighter. Her later association with Captain Thomas Mead Chambers Bram brought her notoriety and widespread attention. In 1901–1910 she was owned by San Francisco CA USA interests. In 1926–1927 she was owned by the Gardiner Mill Co., San Francisco CA USA. In 1935 she was a freighter owned by Captain Thomas M.C. Bram, Jacksonville FL USA. The Irene sailed from Jacksonville FL to Portland Maine and disappeared at sea.

A chance contact from a correspondent in North Carolina put me on to this story. Jeannette Beranger (Email to Nauticapedia 11/01/2022) stated "I’ve included a vintage post card and a newspaper clipping that confirms the image of the ship in the background is the Alvena. The image was taken in Yarmouth Harbor and the man with the oxen is my great great grandfather, Peter Doucette and the little boy is Albert Gordon.". She also included the title of a newspaper article (but not the text) indicating that the Alvena was connected to a famous murder case. It took some research to ferret out the details.

In January 1928 the Alvena was widely reported on the newspaper wire services as having been lost at sea. Many mariners felt that the sea had taken revenge on her master Captain Thomas Bram for something that had occurred 32 years previously. Bram came to widespread public attention when Captain Bram sent out a distress call on January 8th, 1928 off Cape Hatteras. Bram was travelling north to collect a trunk (an exhibit used in a murder trial) that had been found in the evidence locker at the courthouse in Boston. Bram arrived safely in Portland Maine.

Years before, on July 14th, 1896, someone on another ship, the Herbert Fuller, killed the master Captain Charles I Nash, his wife and the First Mate August Blomberg, while they slept in their bunks, with an axe. When the ship sailed into Halifax Harbour under the command of the ship&rsqhuo;s steward Jonathan Spencer and enduring sordid mystery began. Authorities boarding the ship found three bodies wrapped in shrouds being towed astern in the ship&rsqhuo;s boat and the First Mate Thomas Bram was in irons. Apparently Bram was arrested by Canadian authorities and handed over to United States law enforcement for trial. The barkentine Herbert Fuller was sunk years later in April 1917 when she was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Monaco.

When the bodies were found on the ship, Bram accused Charlie Brown of the murders, who was clapped in irons. But when the crew found Bram removing a bloody axe from a hiding place beneath the deck Brown was released and Bram was clapped in irons. In the incident Bram threw the axe overboard and suggested that the crew throw the bodies overboard and make no further mention of the axe. He suggested that they steal the ships and sell it at some un–named port. Later he suggested that the victims had killed each other.

Apparently at that time there were other celebrated cases of crew members killing master owners of ships and selling them on from foreign ports. Bram was apparently inspired by this idea and took action on the

Bram was tried twice, and found guilty of First Degree Murder. He was sentenced to hang in Boston after the first trial but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment after teh second trial. Bram served 15 years in jail when he was paroled on the order of President Robert Taft. In 1911 he was pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson after Bram contributed heavily to the purchase of Liberty Loans during the First World War. Bram never expressed any guilt or remorse, insisting that he had been wrongfully convicted. He made no effort to hide his past. He resumed his marine career eventually purchasing the Alvena. He was well known in marine circles and apparently popular and successful as a ship owner/master.

In 1939 the Alvena was sold by the Alvena Corp., Massachusetts to a New Brunswick shipping firm.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2022) The Four–masted Schooner Alvena (A murderer mystery solved). Nauticapedia.ca 2021. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Alvena.php

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