Elmer Montgomery

This study of the bow of the Charles H. Klinck shows the old and the new. Name and paint are worn, and drooping anchors look tired.

Simple and graceful, a dory enhances any scene. Catalog Number LB2008.15.732

This is Elmer Montgomery’s post-war shot of the Bray family and their neighbor Gil Merriam running across Rockland Harbor

From Camden, on June 25, 1938, Donald MacMillan’s schooner Bowdoin headed to the arctic where she’d been voyaging annually since she was launched in 1921.

It’s end of the day at Rockland and the end of the life for the schooner Jennie A. Cheney, built in Thomaston in 1870.

With masts spaced widely apart and shipping a steam driven loading boom, the schooner Annie & Reuben stood out from the other coasters.

Bottom dwelling fish like cod and haddock used to be within the range of small powerboats rigged with baited line trawls.

Cotton seine twine will rot if not put away correctly. Tarring and salting preserved it, but so did winding it on reels so the air could blow through.

Before Ted Lang and his Mainship operation brought in the fill that became today’s Snow Marine Park, this tidal cove became a graveyard for boats of all kinds

The grounded-out lobsterboat may get her bottom painted later in the day after it dries in the sun, but before the evening’s high tide. Catalog Number LB2008.15.417

The steam tug Sommers N. Smith and the steam lighter Sophia formed the backbone of Capt. John I. Snow’s Rockland-based Snow Marine Co.

Today, the schooner Mattie, fully restored and carrying her original name Grace Bailey, looks better than ever.

Today, the schooner Mattie, fully restored and carrying her original name Grace Bailey, looks better than ever.

May 19, 1936 is launching day for the Gov. Brann, a 65’ double-ended, wooden-hulled ferry.

The year is 1936 and the day October 3rd. The 86’ seiner Mary Grace appears to be stuck on the launching ways and is about to be towed until she floats.

Ingenuity helped keep working coasters going long after their heyday.