Maine Memory Network

Blue Hill, Maine - Friendship vessel, Blue Hill, 1907

"… Blue Hill Public Library Description A sailing vessel named Friendship in Blue Hill. View additional information about this item on the…"

Thomaston: The Town that Went to Sea - Shipbuilding During and after the Civil War - 1861 to 1900

"Sail damage was guaranteed in the horrendous storms in passages around Cape Horn. The sail loft they built in 1875 still stands in its original…"

Thomaston: The Town that Went to Sea - Shipbuilding Industry Expands - 1850 to 1857

"Sails were cut and sewn at the sail lofts of Washburn & Sons and William Campbell. Shipyard owners and builders, Robinson, McCallum and Counce, sold…"

Thomaston: The Town that Went to Sea - The Carr O'Brien Block

"… building has served as a bank, commercial shops, sail loft, boot and shoe factory, clothing factory, and now houses the Prison Showroom, a retail…"

Historic Hallowell - Transportation Challenge

"The Jeremiah T. Smith, pictured below drying sails at granite wharf, was named after a Connecticut oyster king and skippered by Captain Lyman W."

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - Twentieth-Century Community Life

"… Society Islanders still fished, but instead of sailing to Labrador, they stayed more local. Foremost, of course, were lobsters, but other…"

Historic Hallowell - Industrial Recources

"The ships also needed sails so that they could move. As they progressed in technology, the ships relied more on oil and an engine than wind power."

Thomaston: The Town that Went to Sea - The End of Wooden Shipbuilding - 1910 to 1950

"… steam replaced wind power, most of the stately sailing ships were stripped of their spars and rigging and turned into barges for hauling coal and…"

Maine Maritime Museum

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - In the beginning, there were the Wabanaki…

"… years ago, Wabanakis spotted the first European sailing ships cruising along their seacoast. The Wabanaki or Dawnland People* had lived in Maine…"

Historic Hallowell - Meeting at Koussinok

"They had sailed from the Plymouth Plantation with a cargo of corn, the product of one of the new colony’s first successful harvests, hoping to…"

Historic Hallowell - Seaport on the Kennebec

"… early April to late November, ocean-going vessels sailed up the Kennebec, forty-six miles from the open Atlantic, bringing Pennsylvania flour, West…"

Historic Hallowell - “Maine’s Century” Ends

"… the 19th century -- Maine’s magnificent era under sail -- came to an end, Hallowell’s heyday in maritime commerce also drew to a close."

Historic Hallowell - Ship Parts

"Sails were made by long, thin strips of cloth that were woven together by hand (until the invention of the sewing machine.) Anchors were commonly…"

Historic Hallowell - Hallowell Ship Captains

"For more that forty years, Agry sailed from Boston to England, France, and Mediterranean ports.  Agry’s wife accompanied him on many of his voyages…"

Historic Hallowell - Transportation

"… Cotton Mill on the Kennebec river to Hallowell by sailing ship. Once the ship was at the dock, the cotton was brought up to the mill by horse and…"

Scarborough: They Called It Owascoag - Maritime Tales: Shipyards and Shipwrecks - Page 1 of 2

"… and fish were bought and sold; fishing fleets sailed to the Grand Banks fishing grounds; and ships sailed to England, the West Indies and other…"

Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary - Quarrying

"Boats under sail (in the 1890s) or steam boats, soon thereafter, would come into Burnt Coat Harbor and collect brick sized cut stone."

John Martin: Expert Observer - Alonzo E. Raynes, Bangor, 1849

"… to board the bark Suliote on January 24, 1849, sailing from Bangor to California and the Gold Rush."

Early Maine Photography - Art - Page 2 of 2

"… with a maritime scene behind him, complete with a sailing vessel and a lighthouse. This setting has the look of the interior of a late nineteenth…"

Maine's Road to Statehood - The Coasting Law of 1789

"… Maine was a district of Massachusetts, a ship sailing south from Maine would not have to port until New Jersey; once separated, Maine vessels would…"

Highlighting Historical Hampden - War of 1812

"With great difficulty, he managed to sail his ship to Crosby’s Long Wharf in Hampden for repairs. Having taken Castine on September 1, 1814, British…"

Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary - Island Postmistresses

"… Desert and was brought to this island when a sail boat chanced to visit those places This was very inconvenient to the settlers and often the…"

Historic Hallowell - A Chosen Place ~ Once Again

"… 1884, nearing the end of a 40-year career under sail, he wrote to the Hallowell Register in praise of his home town: They may call Hallowell a…"