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Trade & Transport

(Page 3 of 4) Print Version 

Ice, cut from the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers and other sources, and packed in sawdust from Maine mills, was both a necessary refrigerant and a luxury good for sweltering southern ports. Prized by West Indies planters, ice also shipped to South Asia with surprisingly little loss from melting despite the long voyages over warm seas.

Sugar cane harvesting in Cuba, 1873
Sugar cane harvesting in Cuba, 1873
Maine Historical Society

The West Indies formed Maine's bread and butter trade, particularly during the late 18th and much of the 19th centuries when ports were opened to American ships after decades of colonial policies unfavorable to their interests. Maine took advantage of the changing political climate to supply goods critical to West Indian plantations.

The islands had been essentially deforested for planting and processing sugarcane in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their need for cut lumber was urgent and insatiable, and Maine was well positioned to supply it, often in the form of box shakes for sugar and barrel staves for rum and molasses. The islands also imported quantities of food since their own acreage was given over to cultivation of cash crops.

A few Maine-built ships even participated in the Atlantic slave trade transporting stolen African labor to tend those crops.

While Maine was busily cutting lumber and assembling ships to send out to distant ports, it also received ships and cargoes from elsewhere. Schooners returned from the sugar islands with shipments of partially refined molasses to be transformed into rum in northeastern distilleries, some in Maine.

The largest schooners brought coal from the Appalachian south to fuel the rapidly industrializing cities of the northeast corridor at the end of the 19th and into the 20th centuries. Other common import cargoes included raw cotton for northern mills, guano for fertilizer, and, surprisingly, southern lumber, so voracious was the demand for wooden ships and timber products in the 19th century.

Pepperell Workers, ca. 1900
Pepperell Workers, ca. 1900
Dyer Library/Saco Museum

Corn canneries from the northern and western portions of the state and sardine canneries from the eastern areas, paper mills from the interior, and textile and shoe industries from central and southern Maine provided finished goods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to complement the state’s lime, lumber, ice, and granite cargoes.

The Pepperell mills of Biddeford made fine cloth, mostly drills, that were popular in China and other eastern locations. At the turn of the 20th century, Pepperell was shipping large quantities of its cloth to the Orient.

Canneries closed, factories outsourced, demand for raw materials flagged, and shipping suffered accordingly over the course of the 20th century.

Into the 21st century, however, some shipping remains in Maine with active cargo ports in Eastport, Bangor, Bucksport, Searsport, and Portland.

Eastport, the easternmost port in the U.S. and hence, the closest to European markets, shipped or received 358.075 metric tons in 2006. Forest products and other goods make up much of the cargo. Bucksport, Portland and Searsport receive numerous tankers and fuel barges.

In 2001, Maine exported $1.8 billion worth of products, with paper, computer and electronics, forest and wood products, and fish leading the way.

Grand Pitch,  West Branch, Penobscot, 1921
Grand Pitch, West Branch, Penobscot, 1921
Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Getting from Here to There

Maine possesses an astonishing number of large rivers, mostly arrayed along a north-south axis and emptying into the sea. The rivers and the sea affected life patterns well in advance of colonization.

Native peoples traveled seasonally from the wooded interior to the coast, supplementing regular water travel with pathways along the shoreline and deep into the interior. These they traversed while trading, foraging and hunting; footpaths followed deglaciated terrain and meandered accordingly.

Few of these paths could accommodate horse traffic, and none could handle a wagon. Horses, carts, and other conveyances arrived with European settlement, which ultimately mandated surveys, roads, bridges, and ferries. Given the ready availability of waterways, and a sparse colonial presence, these things were exceedingly slow to develop.

Seventeenth-century colonial law mandated the creation of roads and bridges at least "sufficient for horse and man," and the maintenance of ferry service as necessary for local transport of carted goods. As difficult as these were to create, the need for serviceable roads only grew more acute as settlements moved eastward and further inland over the 18th century.


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Exhibits

J.A. Poor & the Portland-Montreal Connection

J.A. Poor & the Portland-Montreal Connection

John A. Poor's determination in 1845 to bring rail service to Maine and to make Portland the winter port for Montreal, along with the steel foundry he started to build locomotives and many other products, helped boost the economy of Portland the state.

Silk Manufacturing in Westbrook

Silk Manufacturing in Westbrook

Cultivation of silkworms and manufacture of silk thread was touted as a new agricultural boon for Maine in the early 19th century. However, only small-scale silk production followed. In 1874, the Haskell Silk Co. of Westbrook changed that, importing raw silk, and producing silk machine twist threat, then fabrics, until its demise in 1930.

History in Motion: The Era of Electric Railways

History in Motion: The Era of Electric Railways

Street railways or trolleys -- first horse-drawn and later electric -- served needs of industry, workers, tourists and others needing transportation between Maine communities. By the early decades of the 20th century, however, automobiles and gasoline-powered buses replaced the trolleys.

Film: Trolley Excursion

Film: Trolley Excursion

The Portland Division of the Electric Railroaders Association took a trolley excursion in the Lewiston-Auburn area in about 1935.

Working Women of the Old Port

Working Women of the Old Port

Women at the turn of the 20th century were increasingly involved in paid work outside the home. For wage-earning women in the Old Port section of Portland, the jobs ranged from canning fish and vegetables to setting type. A study done in 1907 found many women did not earn living wages.

Irish on the Docks of Portland

Irish on the Docks of Portland

Many of the dockworkers -- longshoremen -- in Portland were Irish immigrants, especially from County Galway. They brought with them Irish traditions and their Gaelic language.

Walter Wyman and River Power

Walter Wyman and River Power

Walter Wyman's vision to capture the power of Maine's rivers to produce electricity led to the formation of Central Maine Power Co. and to a struggle within the state over what should happen to the power produced by the state's natural resources.

Launch of the Doris Hamlin

Launch of the Doris Hamlin

The 'Doris Hamlin,' a four-masted schooner built at the Frye-Flynn Shipyard in Harrington, was one of the last vessels launched there, marking the decline of a once vigorous shipbuilding industry in Washington County.

Aroostook County Railroads

Aroostook County Railroads

Construction of the Bangor and Aroostook rail lines into northern Aroostook County in the early twentieth century opened the region to tourism and commerce from the south.

Bibliography/Further Reading





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