Fall Colors, Second Report

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Today we drove to the Maine Maritime Museum.  We also did a river cruise on the Kennebec River.  At the museum site is an area where up to 5,000 large wooden ships had been built in early U.S. history.  Many of these schooners were 4,5 and six masted.  The site had mock ups of a front of a ship and its rear along with long poles representing masts.  Many of these ships were monsters in size and would carry coal from the southern U.S.A. to the industrial north to fuel the many factories in this area.  To feed this ship building area, Maine was nuded of much of its trees and then they had to be imported from the southern U.S.  A favorite wood from the south was white oak and southern pine.  The wooden ship named Wyoming was the largest schooner made here and could transport up to 6,000 long tons of coal at a time.  Each ton weighed 240 pounds capacity.  The ship had a 13 ½ million pounds of coal capacity.  This ship made the trip from Norfolk to Boston 10 to 11 times a year. The masts for this large wooden ship was 150 feet long.  The masts were constructed of Oregon furs and took 3 railroad cars to be transported from Oregon.  The ships had a 14-year life and it had taking 8 ½ months to build the Wyoming.  It was launched in 1909 and in 1924 went down with all hands in a storm off of Cape Cod.  The ship had an 8-inch thick skin.  The river banks were considered ideal for launching the ships based on the gradual slopes here. 

We also were taken on a nice hour long river cruise of the Kennebec River in the vicinity of the merrymmeeting Bay which is 11 miles from the ocean.  On the cruise we saw light towers, and a bell tower.  We also did a slow pass of the Bath Iron Works where we saw a number of U.S.A. war ships being worked on.  One ship had a capacity of 91 missiles.  The Zumwalt Class warship which is very modern looking was also being worked on and had a capacity of 86 missiles.  The Zumwalt is designed to cut through waves. 

We then went to the L.L. Bean store for shopping.  In the evening we had an included lobster dinner.  I intend to break a 13 year non meat eating record with my first shell fish lobster meal.  Hope I do not get sick.

To see the pictures go to binghamevent.blogspot.com