Ships

Aryan was the last full-rigged wooden ship built in the United States, launched at Phippsburg in 1893. Here it is photographed from a passing steamer, on a calm day. Capt. Andrew S. Pendleton of Searsport was the ship's master in 1905.

The Down Easter Clarissa B. Carver was built in Searsport, Maine in 1876 by George Carver. Here she is shown at the wharf in San Francisco, probably loading grain. The boiler on wheels on the wharf is used to power a steam winch which, used with the ship's yards and rigging, hoists grain sacks into the ship's hold.

The ship Henry B. Hyde was a splendid ship and Down Easter, captained by a number of Searsport masters during her career. Launched from John McDonald's Bath shipyard in November, 1884, she had strong Searsport connections: eleven of the fourteen owners were from Searsport, though they owned just under half of the vessel. Considered to be the finest of the Down Easters, she was the fastest three-master of the post-clipper era. She measured 2463 tons with a length of 267 feet. Her typical voyages were New York to San Francisco, then to Liverpool with grain and back to New York.

This photograph shows the large volume of a Down Easter available for cargo. There is another deck below for carrying more. The L-shaped pieces of wood called hanging knees support the deck beams and resist twisting. They are typically made from the hackmatack trees of Maine. The hackmatack (or tamarack or larch) root leaves the trunk at a right angle, creating wood with a grain that bends in an L. Similar L-shaped pieces between the deck beams are called lodging knees.

Poster advertising the clipper ship Red Jacket, reporting its fast voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne, Australia in a record 69 days. Red Jacket was built in Rockland, Maine in 1853, and after her first voyage, a record breaking passage to Liverpool in January 1854, was sold in April to Pilkington & Wilson of Liverpool. They managed her as part of the White Star Line. The White Star Line operated the chief passenger service to Australia and later became one of the main transatlantic lines, the owners of the ill-fated Titanic.

A ship has three masts, all three square-rigged. This was the typical rig for clipper ships, Down Easters, and other sailing vessels in the deep sea trades.

The diagram is from the Nova Scotia Museum informational poster, Sailing Ship Rigs.

On this 1844 voyage from Liverpool, the ship Brunswick is recording its distance traveled every two hours. Captain B.H. Melcher has found the ship's longitude by taking lunar distances to two stars, and he had found his latitude by the sun.

The St. Leon was built in Castine, Maine in 1835 at a cost of $33,462. She was owned by a consortium of Castine merchants with Witherle and Jarvis the principals. She made frequent voyages to Liverpool (where she was painted by Liverpool artist John Huges for 5 pounds sterling and 50 pence for the crate) and European ports. She worked in the New Orleans cotton trade, carrying fish and ice to New Orleans, then cotton to Liverpool and returning with salt for the Penobscot Bay fisheries. The salt came from British mines near Liverpool.

Godspeed is a reconstruction of the one of the three 1607 vessels that brought settlers to the Jamestown Colony in 1607. This vessel was completed in 2006 by Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine.

Her masts are all in place with the topmasts ready to hoist. In the foreground are her bowsprit and yardarms.

Godspeed is a reconstruction of the one of the three vessels that brought settlers to the Jamestown Colony in 1607. This ship was completed in 2006 by Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine. Here she is at dock during sea trials. Judging from the crew size, she was similar in size to George Waymouth's Archangel.