Maine Memory Network

Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum

Description

People waited to meet passengers or board the steamboat “Southport” as it docked at Five Islands wharf sometime between 1911 and 1920. In an era before vacation travel by automobile was common, most summer visitors arrived by boat. Across the water was Malden Island, a summer colony.

“Southport” was one of the smaller steamers operated by the Eastern Steamship Company, initially with Capt. Nahum Brewer at the helm. This vessel and its sister ship “Westport,” each 125 feet long and powered by a 450 hp engine, were built in Boston in 1911 to service the Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers. In 1920 they were transferred to the Rockland-Blue Hill route. In the mid-1930s “Southport” went to Virginia and became a car ferry on the Potomac River in Virginia. It last saw service in the 1950s as an excursion boat in New York City

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About This Item

• Title: "Southport" steamship at Five Islands, Georgetown, ca. 1915
• Creator: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
• Creation Date: circa 1915
• Subject Date: circa 1915
• Location: Five Islands, Georgetown, Sagadahoc County, ME
• Media: Glass Plate Negative
• Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm
• Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
• Object Type: Image

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Cross Reference Searches

Standardized Subject Headings

• Boats
• Carriages & coaches
• Crowds
• Horses
• Marine terminals
• Queues
• Steamboats
• Wharves & piers

People

• Brewer, Nahum

Other Keywords

• Dory
• Eastern Steamship Company
• Fish market
• Sheepscot River
• Steamboat captains
• Steamboat landings
• Steamboat routes

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For more information about this item, contact:

Penobscot Marine Museum
PO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
(207) 548-2529
Website

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