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Launched in 1987, the Margaret Chase Smith Ferry runs from Lincolnville to Isleboro, Maine.
Margaret Chase rows a boat at an unknown location circa 1917.
Margaret Chase Smith fishing with Sheriff Littlefield in Waldo County early one morning in 1940.
Skowhegan, Maine, the hometown of Margaret Chase Smith, grew up along the banks of the Kennebec River. This body of water was used for moving logs, generating power, harvesting ice, and fishing, in addition to transportation. The last log drive in Maine took place on the Kennebec River in 1976.
United States Representative Margaret Chase Smith steers a ship at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in May 1944. Vernon Heakley and Emmet Brandt are at her side.
Representative Smith christens the submarine USS SEA LEOPARD at the Kittery-Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1945.
From earliest times, sailors have used small crafts such as rafts and canoes to navigate rivers, streams, lakes, and even oceans. These expanded to large sailing vessels of wood and then steel, powered first by oars and wind, then by fuels like coal, diesel, and uranium, which enabled exploration, commerce, and transportation around the globe. Humans have even figured out how to travel under water in submarines.
Fun Facts:
With a long coastline and abundant forests, Maine has been an ideal location to transform the natural resources drawn from water and timber into thriving maritime industries. Stands of broad and tall pines were ideal sources of masts for large sailing ships.
From the first European explorations in the early 1600s along the coastline of what would eventually become Maine, fishing was an important industry. Over the centuries, many fisheries have become depleted. Maine, however, is still renowned as the land of lobster.
Using bateauxs, Benedict Arnold led an expedition through Skowhegan on the Kennebec River on its way to Quebec City in 1775. The plan was to carry the fighting to British territory in Canada during the early days of the American Revolutionary War. The journey met with great hardship and the planned attack fizzled. In the aftermath, a disgruntled Benedict Arnold switched allegiances and cemented his place in history as a traitor.
Shipbuilding has been a major industry in Maine. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery was established in 1800, while Bath Iron Works was founded in 1884. Both shipyards continue to service and build naval vessels that sail the world to protect the country.
Ships carried ice harvested from Maine's rivers and lakes from coast to coast and eventually around the globe during the late 1800s.
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