Ships & Shipbuilding:

		Evolution of Vessel Types in Maine				Maine Shipyards
		Designing and Building a Wooden Ship				Maine's Down Easters
		The Great Coal Schooners				Steam, Steel Ships and an End of Wooden Shipbuilding
		Wooden Boatbuilding

Introduction

More wooden sailing vessels were built in Maine in the nineteenth century than in any other state. Beginning in the early 17th century, ships and boats were built along Maine’s coast. Different types were built for both coastal and deepwater use. Thanks to the close relationships between shipmasters and shipbuilders, Maine builders developed expertise in design and construction resulting in the building of Maine’s characteristic large vessels: square-rigged Down Easters and fore-and-aft-rigged great schooners. Down Easters found a niche in worldwide shipment of grains and other bulky low-cost cargoes until about 1900, while the four-, five-, and six-masted schooners carried coal up and down the United States’ east coast into the early years of the 20th century.

Almost every town around Penobscot Bay built ships. Overall, approximately 3,000 sailing vessels were built on the Bay between the end of the 18th century and 1920. Even islanders built ships, though island fishermen often bought vessels from other places. Most shipbuilding went on in mainland towns, where space, lumber and skilled labor could be more easily found.

Shipbuilding was profitable, and there was a ready market.  Vessels were in demand for  fishing, and to carry fish, lumber, lime, granite, ice, and other Penobscot Bay products. After the Civil War, competitive Maine builders took much of the large shipbuilding business from cities to the south. Shipbuilders who had started by building smaller vessels took advantage of new opportunities to build ships for the deepwater trade with California, Europe, Australia, and the Orient. Mainers kept a financial interest in these ships, frequently providing captains and officers, and Maine ships were recognized in most ports of the world. Investing in them resulted in the wealth that created the attractive towns surrounding the Bay.