Thousands of Mainers went to sea in the nineteenth century. Some were fishermen, responsible for handling their craft as well as bringing home a good catch. Others sailed between Maine ports and eastern cities carrying lumber, lime or granite. Still others ventured further, taking lumber and salt fish to the West Indies and bringing back molasses and rum. Maine mariners sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to England, the Baltic region, and the Mediterranean Sea. By the mid-1800s, Maine sailing vessels were making long voyages into and across the Pacific Ocean.
Oil painting of YANKEE CLIPPER made by Philip von Saltza. (Objects Collection, 1955.14.001.)
Shipping was a business, as it is now, and merchant vessels carried both goods and passengers. Although seafaring could be beautiful, life on board ship lacked most of the amenities found ashore or on vessels today. There were often cold storms or periods of intense heat with no wind. A round-trip voyage from New York to China in 1880 took at least a year and more likely two. Before the telegraph, communication with home depended on letters mailed from ports around the world.
Photograph of Joanna and Lincoln Colcord aboard CLARA E. MCGILVERY (Sweetser Collection, LB2003.61.1.)
Maine captains sometimes took their families along on voyages. Although this life had many hardships, it offered a chance to learn about other cultures and to have many unique experiences. Joanna and Lincoln Colcord were two Searsport children who were born at sea and spent much of their childhood aboard their father’s vessels. Joanna later called her brother and herself “children of the world.”
Text in this post is adapted from the former Penobscot Bay History Online Website.