Our Maine Ancestors

llustration of the mast ships and the preparation of their loading. Ports in the ends of the ships allowed mast timbers to be slid into the ship without shortening them. These ports would be closed and caulked shut after the cargo was loaded.

From the book, New England Masts and the King's Broad Arrow, by Samuel F. Manning, 1979. Illustrations courtesy of the author and illustrator.

A timber surveyor and his crew cutting the King's Broad Arrow mark into a large white pine tree, marking it to be reserved for the British Royal Navy.

From the book, New England Masts and the King's Broad Arrow, by Samuel F. Manning, 1979. Illustrations courtesy of the author and illustrator.

Felling a white pine tree. Smaller trees have been cut and their boughs and trunks laid for a soft landing for the mast tree.

It's hard to imagine trees this size today, and even harder to imagine cutting them down without chain saws. It took sharp axes and strong men.

From the book, New England Masts and the King's Broad Arrow, by Samuel F. Manning, 1979. Illustrations courtesy of the author and illustrator.

John Smith was the first Englishman to make usable maps of the Maine Coast.  This map also has a good portrait of the explorer. 

Much of his mapping was based on descriptive information from the inhabitants of New England. 

This map and description was the basis for New England colonization, with its aim to encourage colonies. In it Smith coined the name New England. Some of the names for the royal family were given by Prince Charles (later Charles I). Smith named the Isles of Shoals off New Hampshire for himself.

Detail of map showing eastern New England, from Rhode Island to Penobscot Bay and Norumbega. 

From VISSCHER, Nicolaas Jansz , Map of New Belgium, New England and Virginia, first published in 1655 with editions up to 1727, published in Amsterdam. 

Like all maps of that era, titles were in Latin:

"NOVI BELGII / NOVÆQUE ANGLIÆ NEC NON / PARTIS / VIRGINIÆ TABULA / multis in locis emendata a / Nicolao Joannis Visscher"

Map of the general location of the Maine Indian tribes and the trading posts, along the Maine coast, as depicted in The Maine Bicentennial Atlas: An Historical Survey, 1976. Courtesy of Maine Historical Society.

This image of a beaver hat was provided by the web site, "White Oak Society" and their White Oak Learning Centre & White Oak Fur Post in Deer River, MN. This is a living history organization dedicated to the study of the fur trade era. Their site is www.whiteoak.org. To see more on beaver hats, click on "On-Line Learning" and then on The Beaver Hat, most of the way down the page.

Penobscot/Abenaki ocean canoe. Built for the Penobscot Marine Museum with funds from an NEH Grant by Abenaki Aaron York and his assistants Hugga Dana and Gwenhuwhet Dana of the Penobscot Nation, summer 2006. Paddled by Hugga Dana on day of launch.

Launched on 9/9/2006 in Searsport Harbor.

Photograph by and courtesy of Wayne Hamilton.

The title page shows the book's name to be "A True Relation of the most prosperous voyage made this present year 1605 by Captaine George Waymouth in the Discovery of the land of Virginia," 1605, by James Rosier.

This is the first extensive English account describing the residents of Maine.

Samuel de Champlain made 12 voyages to New England and Canada between 1603 and 1635. He mapped and published his findings and made the first useful maps of the Maine coast. On his 1603 trip he explored up and mapped the St. Lawrence River. From 1605-1606 he explored the Maine Coast. In 1608 he explored what is now Lake Champlain and in 1611 ascended the St. Lawrence to what is now Montreal.