Saturday, February 25, 2012

Penobscot Marine Museum Photo Archive


Number LB2005.24.17244
Collection Boutilier Collection
Description The J & E RIGGIN (89ft. LOA) Capts. Dave and Sue Allen - Skipper , Richard Robbins Sr.- January 22, 1975 at the North End Shipyard Rockland, Me. - aboard.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title J & E RIGGIN
Date January 22, 1975
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red”





LB2005.24.17275
Collection Boutilier Collection
Description The J & E RIGGIN (89ft. LOA) - August 13, 1977.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title J & E RIGGIN
Date August 13, 1977
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red




LB2005.24.17345
Collection Boutilier Collection
Description Traditional Small Craft Association - overall scene - May 16, 1982.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Small Rowing Craft
Date May 16, 1982
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red”




LB2005.24.17398
Collection Boutilier Collection
Description July 4, 1986 - Tall Ships 1986 - SAGRES II - 3 masted square .
Object Name Negative, Film
Title TALL SHIPS 1986
Date July 4, 1986
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red”



LB2005.24.17453
Collection Boutilier Collection
Description July 4, 1986 - Tall Ships 1986 - fire boat with hoses.
Object Name Negative, Film, Color
Title TALL SHIPS 1986
Date July 4, 1986
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red







LB1992.301.104
Collection Atlantic Fisherman Collection
Description The LAUREN - afloat for first time at the dock at the Webber marina in Muscongus; LOA: 35’; beam 12’-7”; draft 3’.
Object Name Print, Photographic
Place Maine/ Lincoln County/ Muscongus
City Muscongus
County Lincoln County
State Maine, ME
Date Pub.: Mar. 73
Photographer Boutilier, Everett L. ”Red”




LB1992.301.111
Collection Atlantic Fisherman Collection
Description Harbor views at Corea, ME, with many lobster boats.
Object Name Print, Photographic
Place Maine/ Hancock County/ Corea
City Corea
County Hancock County
State Maine, ME
Date Pub.: July 1960
Subjects Fishing boats
Lobsterboats
Photographer/Creator French




LB1992.301.13
Collection Atlantic Fisherman Collection
Description Getting nets ready for fall fishing.
Object Name Print, Photographic




LB1992.301.118 Weir; 4 boats pursing up herring.
Object Name Print, Photographic
Place New Brunswick/ Grand Manan?
Date Pub.: Feb. 1952



Number LB1992.301.148
Collection Atlantic Fisherman Collection
Description Unloading sardines from dory to sardine carrier. This photo was used by B.F. Goodrich to advertise their suction hose in Atlantic Fisherman when the sardine pump was introduced. R.J. Peacock had three carriers working out of Portland in the 1950s:CONQUEROR, SEAWANHAKA, and SYLVINA E. BEAL.
Pub.: Aug. 1952





LB1990.49.188
Collection Ruth Montgomery Photographic Collection
Description The wreck at Little River, East Boothbay, Maine

Original: Montgomery:’ The wreck at Little River’ Cataloger’s notes: East Boothbay
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title The wreck at Little River
Place Maine/ Lincoln County/ East Boothbay
City East Boothbay
County Lincoln County
State Maine, ME
Date ---
Photographer/Creator Montgomery, Ruth




LB1990.49.125
Collection Ruth Montgomery Photographic Collection
Description Steamer which carried group to picnic site

Original: Montgomery:’ Steamer we went on to picnic’ Cataloger’s notes:
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Steamer we went on to picnic
Date ---
Photographer/Creator Montgomery, Ruth




LB1990.49.129
Collection Ruth Montgomery Photographic Collection
Description ’Mita’ (dog) lying in chair, on board ship

Original: Montgomery:’ Mita lying down in chair’ Cataloger’s notes: ALLANWILDE alongside ?
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Mita lying down in chair
Date ---
Photographer/Creator Montgomery, Ruth




LB1990.49.175
Collection Ruth Montgomery Photographic Collection
Description Gay Head

Original: Montgomery:’ Gay head’ Cataloger’s notes:
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Gay head
Date ---
Photographer/Creator Montgomery, Ruth



LB1990.49.189
Collection Ruth Montgomery Photographic Collection
Description Arthur (Arthur Libby Race) on the Shark

Original: Montgomery:’ Arthur on the shark’ Cataloger’s notes: Arthur Libby Race
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Arthur on the shark
Date ---
Photographer/Creator Montgomery, Ruth





LB2003.61.1026
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Br ship DUNDEE off Stonecutter’s Island, Hong Kong
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Br ship DUNDEE off Stonecutter’s Island, Hong Kong
Place Hong Kong
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C.




LB2003.61.1029
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Market; Nassau, Bahamas
Object Name Negative, Film
Place Bahamas/ Nassau
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C.




LB2003.61.1051
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Botanic Station; Roseau, Dominica
Object Name Negative, Film
Place Dominica/ Roseau
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C.





LB2003.61.1084
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Figure in deck chair, aboard ship
Object Name Negative, Film
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C




LB2003.61.1099
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Street, palms, single figure
Object Name Negative, Film
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C



LB2003.61.1108
Collection Joanna C. Colcord Collection
Description Scott’s Head; Dominica
Object Name Negative, Film
Place Dominica
Photographer/Creator Colcord, Joanna C.




LB2008.15.110
Collection Elmer Montgomery Collection
Description Steamer NORTH HAVEN, Ex. ELECTRONIC, bought from Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1931, and began service in June. Sometime after 1942, went into government service out of Portland to installations in Casco Bay , then returned to Rockland briefly before joining the New York City Circle Line fleet. Being towed away.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Steamer NORTH HAVEN
Place Maine/ Knox County/ Rockland
City Rockland
County Knox County
State Maine, ME




LB2008.15.163
Collection Elmer Montgomery Collection
Description Dragger ST. GEORGE under construction. Interior view including five workmen and keel timbers.
Exhibit Label BUILDING THE ST. GEORGE, 1939

Albert Condon’s drawings for this 110’ dragger are, like all his work, very detailed. There’s no guessing the size, shape, and location of the pieces that go into building her. Snow’s Shipyard was already bustling before its wartime expansion. A new wooden dragger or seiner had slid off the ways every few months since the place was reorganized around 1936. Two other big ones like the ST. GEORGE (the NORTH STAR and BELMONT) followed in September, 1940 and April, 1941.
Before moving to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Albert Condon had supervised construction at Snow’s. After the move, he continued drawing plans for Snow’s and for the Newbert & Wallace yard in Thomaston. Mystic Seaport now owns all of Albert Condon’s drawings.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Dragger ST. GEORGE
Place Maine/ Knox County/ Rockland
City Rockland
County Knox County
State Maine, ME
Search Term shipbuilding/ fishing
Photographer Montgomery, Elmer




LB2008.15.185
Collection Elmer Montgomery Collection
Description View of DIRIGO FIRST’s deck with 12 dories on deck. Rigged for dory trawling.
DIRIGO FIRST was built in 1923 in South Freeport for the Dirigo Fish Co. on Union Wharf in Portland as a cod and mackerel boat.
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Dragger DIRIGO FIRST
Place Maine/ Knox County/ Rockland
City Rockland
County Knox County
State Maine, ME
Subjects Dories (Boats)
Rowboats
Fishing vessels
Search Terms dory
Search Term fishing
Photographer Montgomery, Elmer




LB2008.15.187
Collection Elmer Montgomery Collection
Description 78’10” Dragger PELICAN under construction and nearly complete, on deck looking forward. Rail cap being installed. Designed by Albert Condon; plans are at Mystic Seaport (catalog #35.18)
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Dragger PELICAN
Place Maine/ Knox County/ Rockland
City Rockland
County Knox County
State Maine, ME
Search Term shipbuilding/ fishing
Photographer Montgomery, Elmer



LB2008.15.226
Collection Elmer Montgomery Collection
Description Crescent Beach Fish weir in left background, Emery Island in center of photo
Object Name Negative, Film
Title Harbor scene
Place Maine/ Knox County/ Owls Head
City Owls Head
County Knox County
State Maine, ME
Search Term fishing
Photographer Montgomery, Elmer





LB2008.26.10
Collection MacEwen Collection
Description Vessels at High Head. Oct 1, 1899 (H. Floyd)
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Vessels, Highhead, Bangor
Place Maine/ Penobscot County/ Bangor
City Bangor
County Penobscot County
State Maine, ME
Date Oct. 1, 1899
Photographer/Creator Williams, Preston ?





LB2008.26.43
Collection MacEwen Collection
Description Old Bangor Suspension Bridge, Bangor-Brewer Bridge. Center span lost in spring flood Feb. 1902. View from Brewer 1903 (H. Floyd)
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Bangor-Brewer Bridge.
Place Maine/ Penobscot County/ Bangor
City Bangor
County Penobscot County
State Maine, ME
Date 1903
Photographer/Creator Williams, Preston ?



LB2008.26.75
Collection MacEwen Collection
Description Start of fire
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Bangor Fire 1911
Place Maine/ Penobscot County/ Bangor
City Bangor
County Penobscot County
State Maine, ME
Date 04/30/1911
Photographer/Creator Williams, Preston ?



LB2008.26.96
Collection MacEwen Collection
Description Burnt district
Object Name Negative, Glass-plate
Title Bangor Fire 1911
Place Maine/ Penobscot County/ Bangor
City Bangor
County Penobscot County
State Maine, ME
Photographer/Creator Williams, Preston ?


all photos courtesy Penobscot Marine Museum




This is an amazing resource.

Ben Fuller and Kevin Johnson have been busy, very busy, in Searsport, ME. They've been keeping a small cadre of volunteers and staff members very busy as well.
Ben is the curator at the Penobscot Marine Museum, Kevin the museum's photo archivist.
The museum is celebrating it's 75th anniversary and part of the celebration is the addition, as of February 12, of 20,000 newly digitized images to the museums digital photo archive, bringing the total to about 50,000. Wow. And that's only 1/2 of the total photo archive, and their goal is to get it all online, as well as all the museums other collections. Understand this huge repository of images is available now, here, free! I have offered a small sampling of various collections to whet your appetite. One could literally spend months. It's interesting to see a small, regional institution create a world class digital photo database. Hats off to Ben, Kevin and the rest of the team, more power to ya'.
I'm sure the museum can use all the help it can get, so if you enjoy this resource, please do something about it.

Friday, February 24, 2012

AK Ilen Restoration part four: Education and the Future




LIMERICK: The Ilen mainmast at the AK Ilen Wooden Boatbuilding School


LIMERICK: An ILEN School Instructor beside an old Kenmare Punt - thelines of this beautiful boat are being recorded so that new punt can be built at some point in the future



SKIBBEREEN: Work continues on the ILEN - here an ILEN Boatyard Shipwright is creating a template in marine play so that the precise shape can be transferred to a block of hardwood


LIMERICK: An ILEN School Instructor moves rapidly ahead with the construction of a traditional Clare Curach - when all the laths are in place, he will turn the boat over and fit the frame to the gunwhale


SKIBBEREEN: ILEN Shipwrights take a welcome winter break and,in seasonal mood, share a meal in the weeks before Christmas 2011


LIMERICK 2: A trainee ILEN School Instructor plans his next project - great planks of Douglas Fir lie ready behind him for work on the spars and masts of the ILEN


SKIBBEREEN: A Shipwright works inside the timbers of the ILEN's hull - his technical skill and expertise are balanced by the beauty of the form around him


SKIBBEREEN: A Shipwright works on the foot of the ILEN's stem - the early morning light, streaming through the open window, illuminates perfectly what man can do with natural wood


LIMERICK: A young participant in the LIMERICK School absorbed in shaping the end of a lath to fit to the Curach behind him



SKIBBEREEN 6: Shipwrights preparing to fit stanchions on the ILEN's starboard side forward



SKIBBEREEN: A senior ILEN Shipwright giving instructions on how to make a template for a lodging knee



LIMERICK: Seen through a scuttle (a porthole), an ILEN School Instructor checks the internal dimensions of the ILEN's main deckhouse




All photos courtesy the AK Ilen Company



The story of the restoration of the Ilen is not just a story about saving one boat. The Ilen is at the center of the genesis of the AK Ilen Company, but the 'Maritime Adventure' is a living, growing entity, primarily involved in education but also looking broadly ahead to the future with involvement in the marine component of the EU integrated strategy for the Atlantic area. This last will explore the viability of wooden sail powered vessels as a piece of the European coastal economy... more on this later.

The AK Ilen Co. is currently engaged in three major forays.

The Big Boat BuildWorkshops in Baltimore, Cork, see my previous post for an explanation and testimonial.

The AK Ilen Wooden Boat Building School in Limerick. Dr. Martin Kay, a principle of the Co. explained to me how the school works:
"We don't offer programmes, we offer space in which to start the learning adventure. What people do in (the school) is up to them. We help them take stock: we accredit past experience and design pathways forward from vocational to academic achievement. It means that someone who has not succeeded with conventional education can come to us and say "Well I did manage to do that and I found this really interesting." Sometimes people come to us under police guard. Wherever they find themselves is where we start. And we find that their re-engagement in learning is transformational."

And there's a new project on the Aran Island of Inisheer aimed at developing the islanders understanding of their traditional curach and how to build them efficiently. This program will begin in about two months and eventually morph into a local boat building center.

Additionally, last summer the Co. formed a boatbuilding partnership with the Northwest Schoolof Wooden Boat Building. This is essentially an exhange program for instructors. Tim Lee,an instructor at the School was over last summer and will be coming again this year.

Quite recently the Company decided to go into the mobile-classroom-and-workshop business which will work across Munster (initially across Cork, Kerry and Limerick but we shall extend it in time to Waterford, Clare and Tipperary).

I asked Gary MacMahon, Director of the Co. about the formation and function of the Company and he replied on a couple of levels:

"The 'Company' was incorporated so that we could (be) associated at a corporate organizational level within Ireland. At it's most irreducible we follow an educational mission for the purpose of - enquiry and creativity. By way of clearer elaboration: (from a talk given by Gary on the occasion of the opening of the Boat Building School's new facility in Limerick last June).

On this educational floor where we build wooden boats we witness the transformative effect of working with timber. This tangible, creative and awakening education of the heart, gives vitality to all who partake, and enables them to address other aspects of life with energy and confidence.

And we awaken in two ways – the way of knowledge which is cognitive and of the head and the way of intuition which is perennial and of the heart.

We have seen young people come in here, people who have never before had the privilege of engaging with their surroundings in a structured cultural manner, suddenly awaken, with courage and joy as they work with mallet and chisel.

What is happening here works and we hope to maintain and expand it. Next week, master boat builder Timothy Lee comes from the United States, the current home of wooden boat building, to work with us for the summer, as visitor, teacher, external examiner and peer, to keep us in touch with the best there is.

Happiness is endemic to existence. We look forward to working with you to achieve that tumble home, or default position, of prosperity and harmony for life."

Stated goals of the school are to foster the building of character, the taking of personal responsibility, the development of leadership skills and contributing to the community.

Looking abroad and ahead are some exciting developments. Dr. Kay in particular is investing a great deal of energy in developing the AK Ilen Company's international presence and influence on European policy. In expressing to me his vision of how wooden boats can figure in the marine economy as a key component of the EU integrated strategy for the Atlantic area, Dr. Kay wrote:

"Wooden boats driven principally by sail (i.e. with an auxiliary engine) can take part in the exciting new maritime economy and the projects being commissioned. They are ideally suited to servicing off-shore installations and aquaculture platforms. And having a low magnetic signature, they are ideal for carrying scientific projects, surveillance and so on. Wooden sailing boats are sustainable, in the sense that they are constructed from replenishable resources, they have a low carbon footprint and are powered by the wind. Wooden sailing boats are known to add value to the visitor experience - in other words, people like looking at them and will spend time and money coming to see where they are made. Local employment follows both the employment of wooden boats and increased tourism, and is accompanied by investment in coastal infrastructure and more business opportunities in turn. Wooden boats can even add options to coastal economies by providing alternatives for local sea routes where non-time sensitive cargoes are concerned. The arguments are strong but there is, I sense, some resistance to them even though naval specialists will concede that they are now having to consider using sails to power patrolling ships because the costs of diesel are so high.
Voicing those arguments is why I started the Atlantic Wooden Boat Builders & Operators Group. My co-chairmen are the EU Commission (DG MARE) and the former chairman of the EU DORNA Project (preserving the nautical heritage) which concluded last autumn in Spain. His name is Lino Lema and he works for the Galician Maritime Council. DG MARE will now stand back and allow Lino and I to grow the involvement of Boat Builders and Operators from Portugal to Scotland. We shall be presenting the case for including sail power and wooden boats in rotuine coastal operations. We shall present projects promote local boatyard capacity. And I personally will help sail the Auxiliary Ketch ILEN into the ports of Cork, Falmouth, Douarnenez and so on, to bring products and people on their own adventures around our coasts."

Seen as a whole, the various activities of the AK Ilen Company represent a coherent business-oriented team which is delivering a highly innovative programme of education, working at the community, the vocational, the academic and policy levels. Truly, An Irish Maritime Adventure!
Please join me in supporting their ongoing work.

The Team

Br. Anthony Keane
Liam McElligott
Gary Mac Mahon
Eugene Pratt
Paul Murphy
Dr. Martin Kay
Dr. Andrew Hodgers

As I mentioned in the previous post I have been investigating the feasibility of organizing a group from North America to venture over to Baltimore and get in on the action, while there's time left to do it. Gary MacMahon has indicated that the AK Ilen Company would be very receptive to such a group. Any readers who think they might be interested in such an adventure should contact me via e-mail, zekeur at netzero dot net. Could be a great experience. I have no details yet, but would like to test the waters, let me know.


Originally published by Thomas Armstrong in 70.8%