Adult/High School Level

Albee, Parker Bishop Jr. Letters from Sea: Joanna and Lincoln Colcord’s Seafaring Childhood. Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House; Searsport, Maine: Penobscot Marine Museum: 1999. The Colcord children were both born at sea and spent many of their childhood years on board their father’s vessels. This book incorporates letters from all the family members and explanatory text.

Black, Colonel Frederick Fraser. Searsport Sea Captains. Searsport, Maine: Penobscot Marine Museum, Second Edition, 1989. Biographical entries and pictures of over 350 Searsport captains, researched by a Searsport man. All the captains’ stories and images are online. Search the collections.

Dow, Scott J. The Story of Captain Jonathan Dow. Unpublished manuscript. Pasadena, California: 1948. Scott Dow typed this manuscript in 1948, as an elderly man. He recounts his early life on board his father’s ships, using his own recollections and diary entries written by his mother. The Dows were a Searsport family, with many sea captains.

Mortland, Donald F. Dear Ones at Home and at Sea: The Pendleton-Park Papers. Searsport, Maine: Penobscot Marine Museum, 2007. This compilation includes letters to and from many members of these two families. It includes a letter from Emma Pendleton Blanchard, who was lost in the waterspout disaster, as well as the waterspout story contained in the chapter.