Maine History Online

The characteristic trait which distinguishes the province of Maine is that it is at the same time an unsettled country and a maritime province. The United States has no coasts richer in bays, in roadsteads, in harbors of grandeur and beauty. ... The maritime position of the eastern province influences all the conditions of the country itself and the people who settle there. " – Talleyrand (1794)

Future French Foreign Minister Charles de Talleyrand-Périgord journeyed to Maine a few years after the American Revolution scouting economic opportunities for his employers.

While he wasn't overly impressed with some segments of Maine society –lumbermen and fishermen were particularly suspect –he was awed by its coasts, so favorable to shipping, and believed in its promise, as yet unrealized.

Hardly noticed by the rest of the country (even Massachusetts, according Talleyrand), Maine was nonetheless "destined by nature to play an important role in the American federation."

Talleyrand explained further, "One can only auger well of a great province, which combines healthfulness and fertility, whose whole coast is one vast harbor of the sea, which is watered by rivers, lakes, ponds, creeks, and streams in abundance according to the most fortunate distribution."

Maine's location provided not just the raw materials necessary for scraping a living from the land, but also connected vast natural enterprises – fishing, quarrying, lumbering among others – to global markets via Maine-built ships of extraordinary design.

Shipping brought goods into Maine just as it drew materials from its recesses for transport elsewhere. A growing network of roads, bridges, ferries, canals, and railroads facilitated those exchanges, bring more people to the region, and strengthen Maine's connections to the rest of the world. Those connections and the many enterprises they encompass help to make Maine what it is economically, socially, and culturally.

Building for the River and Sea

Smack, bateau, canoe, clipper, schooner, brigantine, gundalow, steamer, trawler, bark, sloop, destroyer, submarine, and the Down Easter are among the diversity of watercraft that Maine has launched into the world, and sluiced along its own waterways over the centuries.

Dugout canoes, then the birchbark canoe, slender, deft, lightweight, surprisingly strong, were the conveyances of choice for Maine's native peoples for centuries. The birchbark canoe was the perfect vehicle for navigating the region's multitudinous rivers and lakes, while not too difficult to portage over rough country and around cataracts.

Penobscot and Passamaquoddy canoe makers remain in high demand even now due to the artistry and quality of these graceful boats. As suitable as the canoe was to indigenous use, however, Euro-American ambitions required different craft.

A commodious vessel that could be handled by a single oarsman, the American bateau began as a pack boat for French skin and fur traders throughout the colonial northeast. Benedict Arnold and his men used bateaux for their desperate march to Quebec in their efforts to gain French support for the American cause during the Revolution. Steady and strong, these boats were later adopted by timber companies for managing the river drive, and transporting supplies to lumber camps.

During the colonial period, shipbuilding became more intensively situated along the coast and tidal waterways, developing concurrently with growing trade networks and competition among European rivals.

Largely serving English interests until the Revolution, Maine advanced its shipbuilding capabilities once freed from colonial dicta, and even more so following statehood and independence from Massachusetts in 1820. Maine shipbuilders improved on traditional techniques through local innovations to make their mark in coastal and deep-water ships of the highest order.

Although each was profitable much earlier, lumbering, shipbuilding, and shipping conjoined in Maine over the arc of the 19th century to further the nation's industrial and trading ambitions.

In the process, Maine's place in history as a premier shipbuilding site was secured. Maine's harbors, forests, and riparian landscape were absolutely essential to these allied endeavors.

The location of major shipyards –– at Kennebunkport, Bath, Yarmouth, Waldoboro, and Portland, for example — testify to the links between milled lumber, navigable rivers and coastal port cities.

In addition to log breastworks needed to support a ship's construction, wooden sailing vessels required vast quantities of peeled and cut lumber for spars, masts, hulls and planking. Fast flowing rivers not only brought the lumber downstream, they powered scores of sawmills throughout the colonial period and well into the 19th century.