A Connection between Maine Axes and the Golden Gate of California
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
It’s rare, but on occasion my love of diving finds an intersection with my love of axes, and in this case, that intersection is well worth sharing. This particular historical match up involves Mr. Gardner Floyd, a known axe maker of Portland, Maine. Though not a commonly noted maker from Maine like Emerson & Stevens or the ever popular Dunn Edge Tool Company, Floyd is noted in Yeaton and Gaffar’s “Axe Makers of Maine”, and can be noted in the Maine Registers for a number of years as well as the Portland business directories.
Born on April 2nd of 1827 at Falmouth, Cumberland County, Maine, to Isaac Floyd and Eliza Glines, Gardner was noted as having moved into Portland proper by the age of 20. He was noted as following the trade of a blacksmith, and in October of 1851 married Miss Hannah E. Black, the daughter of Josiah Black. Josiah was a horse breeder and a dealer of lumber, and along with blacksmithing, Gardner was noted as dealing in both of those trades for a time. In 1855, he partnered with Henry Stanwood in a business based on the manufacture of edge tools such as axes, scorps, adzes, and chisels. This business lasted through mid-1858, at which time Floyd bought into the company of “Josiah Black and Company”, the wood dealership of his father-in-law. At that same time, he was also involved in the business of “Floyd and Bailey”, a breeding and livery stable business that dissolved in 1859. The early 60s were not a good time for Gardner, and the papers of Portland noted a number of lawsuits and issues with foreclosures on his assets.
After the close of the American Civil War, Floyd was noted once again in the local media and business directories as concentrating on blacksmith work, but also for adding engineering work to his resume. In 1869 he was noted as working with Edward Moore on excavating work for the Knox and Lincoln Railroad Company near the Kennebec River at Bath, Maine. This work included removing earth from the land as well as the river, and may have introduced Floyd to industrial diving.
During the times that Floyd would have been learning his underwater trade, diving was an archaic experiment, and included heavy suits of metal and leather that were topped with the stereotypical helmet that likely comes to mind to most divers when we think of historic diving. Hoses were run to the helmets and suits of these diving rigs, with air pumped from the surface to the diver below. Even for those not familiar with modern diving, the hazards are likely obvious. That’s probably apparent even before the thought of geographic location comes to mind. This was in Maine, where the average inshore water temperature at Casco Bay in June is 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Dark, frigid water, with 100 pounds of iron and leather holding you under. Diving was, at that time, as noted, an archaic experiment, and those who undertook that experiment while doing heavy labor were a kind to their own. For the remainder of his life, through his death in 1892, Floyd was noted as one of the best divers in Maine. Records note him doing underwater excavation work in the river harbors of Bangor and repairing the harbor gates at Cape Elizabeth. He was noted as being the man to call for body recoveries in aquatic environments, and in 1887 was referred to as the state expert in such. By the late 1800s, Gardner Floyd was THE name in diving in the state of Maine.
While Floyd was beginning to assist in clearing the underwater landscape of Maine, the west coast was quickly developing due to the discovery of gold in California and the realization that timber, the currency of American development, was amazingly plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, allowing for easier access to the western side of the growing nation, but large caches of goods were still in need of ship based transportation to get those goods to the east coast or to the “Orient”. The port of San Francisco was quickly growing, and the harbor it was associated with had been deemed the “Golden Gate” to trade with the lands across the Pacific by Captain John C. Fremont in 1846. Unfortunately, that Golden Gate was wrought with hazards, mainly in the form of rocky outcroppings lying just below the surface of the sea.
Two of the main hazards for ship traffic in the area were Blossom Rock and Noonday Rock. Blossom Rock was removed early in the clearing of the harbor, but Noonday was still a present danger in 1875. Noonday Rock, a moderately sized portion of what is known as the Farallon Islands outside of the mouth of San Francisco Bay, was comprised of both terrestrial and subaquatic rock formations. In 1863, the New Hampshire built Clipper Ship “Noonday” collided with an underwater portion of the rocky formation, causing her to sink. From there forward, the rocky mass was known as Noonday Rock, and was noted as a severe hazard for shipping traffic. The cold, choppy waters around the Farallon Islands made the area a difficult job for excavation work, but in 1875, while working on numerous projects in the Gulf of the Farallones, the Army Corp of Engineers found a contractor who was willing to take on the challenge of Noonday Rock. His name was Edward Moore, and his chief engineer was named Gardner Floyd.
Moore was awarded the contract for removing Noonday Rock in February of 1875, and soon after, he and Floyd traveled to the area to deal with the issue at hand. During the summer of that year, per the recounting of the Army Corp of Engineers, Floyd and a team of divers bore hundreds of holes into the body of Noonday Rock. After the holes were formed, they were filled with around 800 pound of nitroglycerin. Once the area was cleared, the explosive substance was detonated, with the following being the description of the results: “….a solid column of sea water shot straight up for 600 feet before bursting, while clouds of saline spray were carried many hundreds of feet higher. A portion of the rock, estimated at 200 tons, was thrown to a height of 500 feet and then struck the ocean with tremendous impact……” The act cleared the way of the hazard of Noonday Rock, and was quite a payday for both Moore and Floyd.
Floyd would return to Portland and continue both his blacksmith and dive work. In 1880 he became the Superintendent of the Forest City Silver Mining Company of Acton, Maine. In 1884, after the death of John W. Libby, he worked for a short time in conjunction with Elbridge G. Bolton in the firm of Bolton and Floyd, a known producer of axes. Gardner Floyd was noted as continuing his diving and blacksmith work until his death on May 19th, of 1892. After an amazing life, during which he crafted axes in Maine and cleared the “Golden Gate” of shipping hazards, he was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, Maine, to be remembered always as an important Axe Maker of Maine.
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