Searsport Captains Meet in the Chincha Islands (Ed Coffin Collection, LB2013.21.986.)
Searsport, Maine was famous for its master mariners. Over 500 merchant captains came from this small coastal town in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Considering Searsport’s population was only about 2,000 people throughout that era, it was notable that so many master mariners called it home.
Twenty or so families predominated: grandfathers, fathers, sons, sons-in-law, brothers, and cousins following the tradition of making their living on deep water. Often they married daughters or sisters of other captains. According to former Penobscot Marine Museum Historian Robert B. Applebee in Searsport Sea Captains, by Col. Frederick Black: “Searsport furnished more masters to the square mile than any other community in the United States.” Searsport Sea Captains includes, among others, multiple captains named Blanchard (16), Carver (24), Colcord (16), Curtis (12), Colson (9), Gilkey (15), Griffin (15), McGilvery (8), Merithew (8), Nichols/Nickels (40), Park (28), Pendleton (24), and many others.
“Many of these masters went to sea, as boys, in their teens, got in their five years sea experience and took command at 21. Some of them retired from the sea in their 40s and 50s, built fine homes and stayed on shore, while others, whose blood was filled with the tang of the sea, took their wives and families on their voyages and kept on for a lifetime … these early sailing ship masters deserve great credit, for in the early years the ship’s instruments were not as improved as they are today … (the captain) set his own course, matched his wits and experience with the whims of the wind and the sea and sailed to foreign shores ….”
Bark LUCY A. NICKELS (Carver Collection, 0000.453.1.)
Commanding a large wooden merchant vessel with a crew of 20 – 30 men was a difficult and sometimes dangerous task. Captains experienced storms, collisions, and wars; and had to be skilled in business and economics as well as seamanship. Their stories illustrate their lives.