What do you do with houseguests who have visited often enough so that they have seen all the local sights? Why, you take them on a cruise to Bailey Island via the Casco Bay Lines.
We had a gorgeous day – bright sun and cool temperatures – a real gift considering it was the middle of August. And the trip was fascinating, both to us and to our friends from Washington, D.C. We enjoyed the commentary from the captain as we passed by the many islands in the bay, interesting stories about Fort Scammel on House Island, Admiral Peary’s home on Eagle Island, and the home for his sled dogs on Upper Flag. Little Mark Island was intriguing with its monument built in 1809 as a memorial to shipwrecked sailors. At one time, food and water were stocked in the base of the shaft to aid marooned seamen.
Lunch at Cook’s on Bailey Island was delicious and we had time to view the famous cribwork bridge connecting Bailey with Orr’s Island. It is hard to imagine that the great slabs of granite are held together solely by gravity. We also saw the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe and I vowed to re-read “The Pearl of Orr’s Island, A Story of the Coast of Maine,” originally published in 1862, but still in print.
On our return trip we glimpsed dolphins, harbor seals and ospreys, and watched lobstermen setting their traps. And to our amazement, the air was so clear, we also saw the looming silhouette of Mount Washington, 70 miles off in the state of New Hampshire -the perfect ending to a great day on the waters of Casco Bay.
A wonderful piece of history came gliding into Portland Harbor on Aug. 16. The S.S. John W. Brown, one of only two remaining Liberty ships built during World War II, came steaming by us as we stood on the hill at Fort Preble. A small group had gathered to watch as the ship passed Portland Head Light and advanced up the channel. The Portland Harbor Museum was well represented – director Mark Thompson, curator Hadley Schmoyer, administrator Rebecca Lamet and several volunteers, including Al Jackson, were all there. Kathy DiPhillipo from the South Portland Historical Society and her two young daughters were also present. My husband, born in South Portland, remembers well what it was like to have an enormous shipyard constructed practically in his back yard. We all agreed that establishing that shipyard, and building almost 300 Liberty ships with 30,000 workers, all within five years, was an incredible feat and one that deserves complete documentation by historians and museums.
Another exciting historical event occurred 400 years ago on a peninsular jutting down from what is now the town of Bath. Friends of the Maine State Museum gathered at the Sebasco Harbor Resort to commemorate the first English settlement in New England, the Popham Colony, 1607-1608. After indulging in a delicious buffet brunch, more than 100 Friends listened to Dr. Jeffrey Brain and his archeological team explain the results of a series of yearly digs that began in 1994. Guided by a map of the fortified settlement, found in the Spanish Archives in 1891, Brain decided to dig on a point of land across the Kennebec River from Fort Popham at what is now known as Sabino Head. He and his team found the remains of Fort St. George, including many of the structures indicated on the ancient map – a ditch and rampart wall enclosing a storehouse, a chapel, a guardhouse and a buttery. (Did you know that a buttery has nothing to do with butter? It holds the “butts” or casks that contained the rum and wine drunk by the settlers.) Also uncovered was the residence of Raleigh Gilbert, nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh, and second-in-command of the expedition.
The group of 120 men arrived at Popham in two ships, the Gift of God and the Mary and John. They survived the winter in good shape and perhaps would have been the first permanent settlement in New England if two deaths had not occurred. George Popham, the leader of the expedition who enjoyed the backing of Sir John Popham, the powerful Lord Chief Justice of England, succumbed to old age, and Raleigh Gilbert heard that a death in his family had left him a large estate that required his presence back in England. Fourteen months after their arrival, and after claiming New England in the name of King James II, the colonists raised anchor and sailed back to England.
The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath is currently exhibiting many of the artifacts recovered on the site, including pieces of armament and body armor, a gold bead, pieces of pottery and glass and fragments of the buildings. On Nov. 10, the display will re-open at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, where it will continue to inform the public about this earliest English settlement in North America.
The paintings of Edward Hopper have always intrigued me and I was delighted when the Portland Museum of Art docents ran a bus trip down to Boston to visit the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. Many of his paintings are famous – who has not seen the celebrated “Nighthawks” with its eerily lit all-night diner populated by four unforgettable figures of a russet-haired lady in a red dress, two men in dark suits with fedoras and a counter man in a white uniform, lit up like actors on a stage. But I have always loved his paintings of Maine, especially those of our own local lighthouses. Hopper spent nine summers in Maine, between 1914 and 1929, in Ogunquit and Rockland, on Monhegan Island and finally, in Cape Elizabeth. He painted many views of Two Lights, often emphasizing the captivating lines of the Captain Upton house at the base of the light. He was also inspired by the fog signal house at Two Lights, with its tall chimney and hipped roof, and painted three watercolors of this white, one-story structure over several years. But my absolute favorite is “Lighthouse and Buildings, Portland Head, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, 1927,” perhaps because nothing much seems to have changed over the last 80 years.
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