Maritime Museum

The weather prediction is for a rainy day, so we decided to do some museum walking.  We drove into Bath, Maine for a visit to the Maritime Museum.  I wasn't very excited about this because how many hundreds of maritime museums have we visited, but this turned out to be very interesting and well-presented.

Coastal Maine life revolves around the sea, shipping, shipbuilding, lobstering and fishing.  This museum had the typical displays of charts and old ships lanterns, windlasses, and other ship tools, which were interesting, but the outdoor exhibits were great.  

The museum is located at the site of the historic Percy and Small Shipyards.  It is here that the world's largest wooden sailing ship was built, a 6 masted schooner, Wyoming.  A life-sized sculpture on the grounds gave us an idea of how huge this ship was.

The Bath shipyards have been in operation since 1740 and they still build ships--most recently 22 destroyers--in their Bath Iron Works new, huge, modern shipyard.

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After touring the entry building we went outdoors and first we took a tour of a Grand Banks fishing schooner, both on deck and below.  The crew slept in wooden bunks along each side of the hull and they had their meals in the middle.  A sample menu was posted--Salted meat, hard tack, and fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They were often at sea for extended periods.  A hard life.

The museum shows us the entire process of shipbuilding in the 19th century.  We visited the building where the raw materials were milled.  The wood used for the masts was Douglas Fir, imported from Oregon.  The fir was needed because it is very long and straight.   The mould loft and pitch oven gave us an idea of how the planks were curved and formed to the proper shape, trunnels (wooden pegs force into holes to join the planks) hammered in and then caulked and sealed with moss and rope dipped in resin.  Next we visited the paint shop where the ship was sealed and painted and then the fitting out pier.  Fitting out a ship was a complex process of forecasting the ships food and materials requirements, ordering, coordinating and managing the deliveries of the needed goods, stocking the ship and preparing the lving quarters. This whole process was very well presented and I found it very informative and interesting.

Next we visited the Donnell House,  home of the owner of the shipyard.  Great attention to detail has enhanced the display.  Original crown molding, wallpaper, and carpets have been reproduced and used in the house, the Donnell family has donated furniture and equipment on diisplay in the house, and we got a very good idea of what a wealthy family home was like.  The docent on duty was informative and interesting too.

Also on the grounds is a building with displays and videos about the life of a sea fisherman, lobstering, and the launch of s huge ship from the grounds here.

For kids there is a pirate ship to play on and a huge lobster trap they can climb into and get trapped just like a lobster.  I tried to get Don to go in, but he declined.

We ended up spending the whole day here it was so interesting.