Steamboats serviced Friendship year round, but traffic was heaviest in the summer, when tourists, campers, and visitors to Camp Durrell tended to come by water. Friendship residents were also far more likely to take the steamboat to Portland and beyond in warm weather.
Freight would be transported to and from Friendship in all seasons. The Monhegan was known to be good in the winter, when there might be ice in the harbor.
One of the most popular steamboats that stopped in Friendship was the Mineola. Allison M. Watts remembers her in her poem “When the Boat Came I.”
I can hear the steamboat whistle
As I used to years ago
When she came inside the island
Up the harbor, plowing slow.
I can see the folks all hurrying
To the deck down by the shore.
‘Twas the day’s event of interest
That we wouldn’t miss, you know:
That we will ever remember
From our youth of years ago.
