NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION Maine Maritime Museum-an Incredible Place to Visit
T
he Maine Maritime Museum has its roots in a small gro up setting out to create a book about the local shipbuilding history. The Marine Research Society of Bath established a Bath Marine Museum in 1962, and the foundation they laid culminated in the acquisition of the Percy & Small Shipyard on the banks of the Kennebec River. The small gro up and its museum, renamed the Maine Maritime Museum in 1975 , has grown and evolved into a unique and wonderful institution. Its exhibits tell the story of Maine's rich shipbuilding and seafaring past through well-interpreted models, paintings, artifacts, figureheads, and dioramas. While it focuses on regional history, just as Maine's ships were launched and sailed from its jagged coastline and sailed on voyages across the world's oceans, the history the museum interprets reaches well beyond and tells the story of worldwide commerce and voyaging. From its docks on the river just twelve miles from the open ocean, the museum offers a variety of lighthouse and wildlife cruises on the Kennebec and Sasanoa Rivers and Merrymeeting Bay. A behindthe-scenes trolley tour of the famous Bath Iron Works to see the US Navy's newest high-tech destroyers being built is
something not to be missed. The museum preserves the Percy & Small Shipyard, builder of turn-of-the-century huge sailing ships, including the schooner Wyoming, the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built in the United States. The Donnell House, a shipyard owner's Victorian home, has been fully restored and is interpreted as it was in 1892. Down on the museum's waterfront docks, visitors can board the Grand Banks fishing schooner Sherman Zwicker, providing a unique hands-on experience.
The Lobstering House interprets the history of this important industry on the Maine coast. MMM welcomes over 45,000 visitors annually. It has an active events and seminar schedule and offers a wealth of history in its archives and worldclass research facility. Astounding every visitor is the newly erected sculpture of the Wyoming, with flags flying at the apex of 120 feet depicting the masts, the largest public work of art in New England. Pictures cannot do it justice-only by standing near it can
just down the street from the museum is the famous Bath Iron Works. 1he museum now offers trolley tours of the shipyard, builder of the modern US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and, most recently, of Zumwalt-class destroyers. BIW launched the lead ship of this class, USS Z umwalt (DDG- 1000), in October 2013. BIW is a secure defense establishment and access is strictly limited; the tours through MMM are the only way for the public to tour the facility.
In the summer months, visitors can join museum staff on a variety of river cruises to area lighthouses along the Kennebec River. Longer cruises visit light stations beyond the Kennebec, including this one at the Cuckolds Light Station, a rocky islet at the entrance to Boothbay Harbor. Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, the property was awarded to the Cuckolds Fog Signal and Light Station Council, a community-based organization that is restoring the structures and property for public use.
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SEA HISTORY 145, WINTER2013- 14