The Maine Maritime Museum

by Bonnie Wilkinson, ACBS Board of Directors Member

 Before the turn of the century, shipyards could be found along every waterway and in every coastal town up and down Maine’s coast. It was ships from Maine that plied the waterways all over the world, from the South Georgia coast to the Falkland Islands and the Arctic Ocean. To try and understand the depth of Maine’s maritime history, a group of seven Bath residents formed the Marine Research Society of Bath in 1962.
 

History
Within two years, the Society had collected 250 years of sea stories, oral histories and artifacts of Bath and the Kennebec River region. These artifacts became part of a new museum that opened up in a storefront at 38 Centre Street in Bath. Close by is the Bath Iron Works, providing a backdrop for shipbuilding.

A year later, outgrowing their small space, the Maine Research Society moved to the former home of Harold Marsh Sewell, a member of the Sewall family of shipbuilders and ship owners. Then in 1975, the donation of the Percy and Small Shipyard by the L. M. C. Smith Family secured the future of the Marine Research Society of Bath. With the Sewall property at one end of the site the Society began a program to restore the shipyard buildings at the other end to their original appearance in order to provide a complete picture of boat building in the Kennebec region.

On November 14, 1975, while restoration was underway, the name of the Museum was officially changed to the Maine Maritime Museum. Located on 20 acres along the Kennebec River in Bath, the Maine Maritime Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve and interpret materials relating to the maritime history of Maine and to promote its understanding and appreciation. Their collections consist of 16,000 items including 300 ship models, 300 paintings, and 2,000 tools, as well as navigational instruments, scrimshaw, figureheads and 130 watercraft.

By the late 1980s, the Museum had out grown the Sewall House and the Board of Directors saw the need to expand once more. The completion of the new Maritime History Building in 1988, created exhibit space featuring the “Maritime History of Maine” and “Ports of Call”. In the summer of 2002 a new exhibit entitled “A Shipyard in Maine: The Percy & Smith Shipyard” will open. This exhibit explores the development and significance of the Percy & Smith Shipyard. (Note: the Sewall house was later sold back to the Sewall family.)

In addition to exhibits and artifacts the Maritime History Museum features museum offices, gift shop, and a research library containing nearly 10,000 bound volumes, over 40,000 periodicals, 1,580 linear feet of manuscripts, and more than 35,000 photographs of Maine’s historic images.
 

Leon L. Bean Building
In 1985 the old Apprentice Shop, originally located in a salvaged sail loft at 375 Front Street in Bath, was moved to the Donnel property on the Museum grounds and became home of the Leon L. Bean Building. Here visitors can learn about “Lobstering and the Maine Coast” and trace the history of the industry from the earliest known use by Indians of this gourmet treat to today’s “lobster pickers.” Included in the exhibit are historic examples of different types of lobster boats and how lobster canning provided a delicacy to foreign markets.
 

Sherman Zwicker

Summer visitors can climb aboard the 142-foot Grand Banks fishing schooner Sherman Zwicker. She was built in 1942 by Smith & Rhuland in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, and is currently used as a functioning sailing vessel by the Grand Banks Schooner Museum Trust. As one of the last generation of sailing vessels, the Sherman Zwicker is fitted with both sails and a 320 hp diesel engine and makes a regular summer stop at the Maine Maritime Museum.
 

Classic Boat & Antique Engine Rendezvous
If you can’t attend the ACBS annual meeting in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, come to Maine Maritime Museum’s Classic Boat & Antique Engine Rendezvous on Sept. 21 from 9:30-5:00 p.m.

The Percy & Smith Shipyard will be the site of the Museum’s Second Classic Boat and Antique Engine Rendezvous. The weekend’s events will include displays of antique and classic power and sail boats, engines and old woodie cars. Behind the scene tours will showcase the Museum’s small craft collection. On Saturday afternoon, visitors can cast their vote for the “Best in Show” with the winners taking home half-hull models crafted in the Museum’s boat shop. An “Antique Boat Parade” into Merrymeeting Bay and the camaraderie of friends will make this a great weekend.
 

If you have a boat, engine, or car and would like to be a part of the show, call the Museum at 207-443-1316, ext. 0
The Museum is open daily from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Admission fees are $9.25 for adults, $8.25 for seniors, $6.25 for children under 17 (free for children 6 years and under), and $27.00 for families. The Museum is located at 243 Washington Street in Bath, Maine. For additional information on the Museum and exhibits, you can access the website at www.bathmaine.com or call the Museum at 207-443-1316.

Photos:

A lobster boat built from scratch

at the Museum nears completion.
 

The 1906 Friendship sloop Iocaste

in the process of being fully restored

as the fishing vessel it once was.