Per popular request I have put together series of photos and writing on a history of a shipwright's chest of tools.  I purchased it some time ago and have cleaned it up.

Happy reading

Brother Lou G. Schmidt

This chest of shipwright's tools was owned by Charles M Dale of Richmond, Sagadahoc County, Maine.  He was born on January 21, 1851; his father was Lincoln G. Dale and his mother Margaret A. Rideout.

Charles M Dale married Sarah M. Doyle on April 14, 1873; his occupation was listed as that of a carpenter. Charles M. Dale was in the pages of the Bath, Maine and Sagadahoc County directories in 1892 and 1905/1906 showing him living in Richmond.  He worked on a schooner owned by a George H. Theobald around the 1890s.

I don't have an exact date of his demise but believe he probably passed on around World War I.

The chest includes 2 log books of the hours Dale worked. what he charged for the jobs he undertook and advertisements from local businesses in and around Richmond Maine.  Literature from the patented Langdon mitre box and saw, a mantle catalog, a painting brochure and a tobacco card.

Most of the tools are stamped "C. M. Dale" and are from the 1870 to around the turn of the century.  Some of the tools have another user mark, perhaps Dale bought them used or another carpenter used it after his death.

The corners are butt joints and the exterior retains its original gray paint.  The chest measures about 36.5" long X 22" wide X 21" high and weighs around 150 lbs.  The chest is constructed of pine or another soft wood.  The tills fronts are mahogany but not on the saw till (it has 4 tills and a saw till).