(upbeat music) (projector clicking) - Have you ever wondered where the television signal you're watching is coming from?

♪ I love to go a wanderin' (projector clicking) ♪ along the mountain track - Welcome to True North.

(upbeat music) (mysterious music) - Good evening and welcome to Mainewatch (upbeat music) (projector clicking) (laid-back music) - [Seaman] I'm always up seeing the morning light fall fresh on the sea.

I stand there for a time in the dawn, see how the tides and the winds are playing out their comings and goings.

Some days, the sea is sharp, cold, mean-looking, and the wind feels like it come off an iceberg.

Some days, she's calm, ruining.

Too calm, I'll say, a weather breeder.

Then there's days when she's all aglow, the warm light of the day.

Whatever the weather, the morning light fresh on the water seems to beckon.

I always go out if it's not too stormy.

♪ So the tide comes and the people come too ♪ ♪ For they see a fair land and green ♪ ♪ And they try their ways in the bright windy bays ♪ ♪ And come home to the sea again ♪ (birds squawking) - [Explorer] This place of itself from God and nature affordeth as much diversity of good commodities as any reasonable man can wish.

Here are more good harbors for ships of all burthens than England can afford and far more secure from all winds and weathers than any in England, Scotland, France, or Spain.

- [Narrator] Europeans knew about the coast of Maine by 1614.

They called it 100-Harbored Maine.

While others sailed off to Mexico and South America in search of gold, John Smith discovered a different kind of treasure off Monhegan.

- [John Smith] In March, April, May, and half June, here is cod in abundance.

In May, June, July, and August, mullet and sturgeon, whose roes do make caviar and puttargo.

Herring too if any desire them.

In the end of August, September, October, and November, you have cod again to make corn fish or Poor John.

Hake you may have when the cod fails in summer.

- [Narrator] And George Weymouth discovered yet another kind of treasure.

- [George Weymouth] The wood she beareth is not shrubbish fit only for fuel, but goodly tall pine, spruce, birch, oak.

Upon the hills grow notable trees, masts for ships of 400 ton.

The further we went, the more pleasing it was to every man.

Alluring, still with expectation of better.

- [Narrator] Back then, the same as today, it was the abundance of natural gifts that made Maine important.

Water, trees, granite, lumber, ice, fish, she had all of them, and the Europeans were learning to exploit them.

(tools thumping) It was because of these exploits that Maine was destined to become the mother of the wooden ship.

(mellow music) During the great age of sail, you could find Maine-built ships all over the world, and Maine captains would comb the ocean highways looking for profitable cargoes.

(tool banging) - [Surveyor] This is the King's Broad Arrow and reserves for the Crown this, an old white pine with a diameter of 24 inches at a foot above the ground.

A penalty of 100 pounds will be imposed upon you for felling trees without a royal license.

- [Narrator] So in the late 1600s, the Crown appointed the royal surveyor of pine and timber, who cruised the Maine woods in search of those majestic white pines.

They made excellent masts and bowsprits for the Royal Navy.

England was queen of the sea in those days, but she'd been at war, and her ships needed masts and yards desperately.

- [Commentator] There is very good news comes from four of our New England ships.

Come home safe to Falmouth with masts for the king, which is a blessing mighty unexpected and without which we might have failed next year.

(jaunty music) ♪ Your lumber that I wanted with courage bold undaunted ♪ ♪ Prepare to come to shanty before your youth's decline ♪ ♪ Spectators, they will wonder and gaze on you and ponder ♪ ♪ For the noise exceeds the thunder ♪ ♪ At the falling of the pine (water rustling) - [Commentator] Brought into a swamp to see a mast drawn about 26 inches over 28.

About two and 30 oxen before and about four yoked by the side of the mast between the fore and hinder wheels.

'Tis a notable sight.

(jaunty music) ♪ When daylight is a-breakin' ♪ From our slumber we awaken ♪ When breakfast we have taken ♪ Our axes we will grind ♪ Let the frost be e're so keen ♪ ♪ It will not keep us within ♪ We'll make the valleys ring ♪ With the falling of the pine (birds chirping) (axes thumping) - [Surveyor] Your Honor, so greedy are these men that I can no longer enforce the King's Broad Arrow policy.

For the East Wood at York, Wells, Kennebec, Saco, Scarborough, and Casco Bay, they cut and store at pleasure, send the trees where they will.

For every mast sent to England, 500 trees are being cut or destroyed.

♪ And our shanty is our station ♪ ♪ And the woods our occupation ♪ Every man unto his station ♪ With some to score and line ♪ We'll take eight foot off a block ♪ ♪ And a chip at every knock ♪ And the wolves and deer do shock ♪ ♪ At the falling of the pine (tools banging) - [Shipwright] Come fall's here in Casco Bay, a commodious and fine harbor from which to carry on the business of masting.

I can see this masting business will encourage to settle in at Falmouth as we need choppers, teamsters, mast wrights, and stevedores to handle the great trees.

My own part, I'll be paid 110 pounds coin of the realm for the large mast, 48 pounds for the bowsprits, and 25 pounds for the yards.

Load 'em up, boys.

(birds chirping) (tools clamoring) (rollicking music) ♪ As the winter grows older ♪ Like wolves we do grow bolder ♪ ♪ Our axes we will shoulder ♪ All pleasures to resign ♪ To the woods we will advance ♪ With our axes clear to glance ♪ ♪ Like brothers we'll commence ♪ To fall the stately pine (tools thumping) - [Surveyor] Shingle and barrel makers are the greatest destroyers of the great white pine.

They chop into the tree to see if they split well.

Trees thus wounded soon perish to the great detriment of His Majesty's Navy.

- [Narrator] Some of these frontiersmen were so busy knocking down pine that they forgot to plant their crops.

It wasn't all that uncommon for whole families to perish for want of food.

The cutting, hauling, and loading of those trees was no simple chore.

Many of them were three feet in diameter at the base and 120 feet tall.

Once the trees were downed, they had to be guided through the woods around the rocks and down the rivers to the ports.

(jaunty music) ♪ When the winter has diminished ♪ ♪ And our shanty work is finished ♪ ♪ From the woods we are banished ♪ ♪ For a little time ♪ But at the approach of summer ♪ ♪ We will collect the timber ♪ We will collect our timber ♪ Into handsome rafts of pine (birds chirping) - [Narrator] In 1772, Maine shipped 382 masts, 69 bowsprits, and 451 spars to England.

(machinery rumbling) The masting trade provided work for a great many people.

In 16 years, the town of Falmouth grew from 250 to 3,000 souls.

And the arrival of a mast ship was a major event for a community.

It meant news, passengers, and much needed finished goods from England.

Maine was experiencing the first of many economic booms.

(birds squawking) Along with the bounty of the forests, another industry was developing, the New England silver mines, the fishery.

The first pioneers in Maine were not planters as they were in Plymouth.

They were fishers.

- [Explorer] The coast aboundeth with such multitudes of cod that the inhabitants do dung their ground with cod.

- [Narrator] John Smith, one of the first, cleared 1,500 pounds coin of the realm for one voyage of profit from Monhegan.

From Kittery Point in the Isle of Shoals, from Sagadahoc and Pemaquid, from Monhegan and Matinicus, fishing stations began to grow.

They called them truck houses.

The outer islands, like Monhegan, were close to fishing grounds that are famous now.

Matinicus, the South-Southwest Ground, Jeffreys Ledge, and the Stellwagen Banks were all within a day's sail.

The islands offered some protection from the Indians, so that was where the flake yards were built, where they split and salted cod and made crawfish from cod pickled in brine.

They also extracted oil from fish there in huge presses.

As the fisheries grew, the markets and the profits grew with them.

Right handy in the deep bays and coves was all the timber a man might need to build any kind of a vessel.

There was oaks, spruce, pine and hackmatack right there for the cutting.

(saw scraping) - [Commentator] And cause to be built several ships, boats, and vessels, which they fitted out and vittled and loaded them with the produce of the said premises for Boston and other parts.

- [Narrator] The first vessel built here by the white man was the Virginia, launched in September 1607.

She was built to carry the unsuccessful colonists from Popham back to Plymouth.

20 years later, this little vessel still plied the waters between England and Virginia.

(birds squawking) It was no less common then to see a boat in front of a house then to see a pickup truck there today.

They had no roads worth mentioning, and the goods had to get to market.

There were masts and staves and shingles, butter and vegetables, hogsheads of oil, quintiles of fish, lath and boards.

All of them had to go to market.

So they built sloops and brigs and schooners, and off they sailed.

(serene music) The big mast ships sailed for England.

- [Captain] 20 days from Falmouth.

Wind south-southwest.

No gales and we still carry a deckload of yards.

- [Narrator] And the schooners set out for- - [Captain] Boston and the Bay to bring those starving Plymouth farmers something to eat.

Perhaps I'll return with flour.

- [Captain] And I'll go to Portugal with cod.

- [Captain] And I'll to England with dock fish.

God, you let it bake under salt hay all summer, and the cat won't eat it, but in Bonnie England, it's a delicacy.

All to England!

- [Narrator] And the staves and clapboards and lumber.

- [Captain] For the West Indies man, and home with barrels of molasses.

- [Wife] You'll bring no rum home this time with ya'.

You're bound to turn the sally into a bumble.

A walk-in tavern, that's what you'll be.

I'll have none of it.

- [Captain] I said I'd bring molasses.

Didn't say nothing about rum.

- [Wife] Go to the West Indies and to your rum.

Go!

(explosions booming) - [Narrator] It couldn't last.

The boom that began in the 1600s was strong, and like a spring tide, it brought the people to Maine.

Then there was the revolution with a famous battle between the Unity and Margaretta in Machias.

And the burning of Falmouth and the Penobscot Expedition in Castine.

The British wanted their masts, so they fought for Castine on the Penobscot and burned their biggest masting port, the town of Falmouth.

There are historians who say that if we'd cut off the supply of masts earlier, there would have been no revolution.

There would have been no British Navy.

(gentle music) ♪ So the tides go ♪ And the people go too ♪ With little to show for their pains ♪ ♪ And ever they go and they take what they know ♪ ♪ And go home to the kinder land ♪ - [Narrator] The war cost us dearly.

Our people had left, our fisheries had come to a standstill and so had the merchant fleet.

- [Commentator] Many of our inhabitants are destitute of bread without means to procure it.

Our coasting and fishing vessels are all taken or destroyed.

Large quantities of spars and masts procured at great expense have for several years been decaying on our shores for lack of opportunity to export them.

- [Narrator] But the tide would turn.

It always does.

(gentle music) ♪ So you go outside on the raving deep ♪ ♪ And you pray the Lord your soul will keep ♪ ♪ But the wave will roll us all to sleep ♪ ♪ And the tide will be our keeper ♪ (water rustling) (birds chirping) - [Narrator] Well, the new nation was free.

Free of British shipping regulations and free to travel the Seven Seas in search of profit.

And ships were needed.

- [Merchant] I do advise and order you to sail and make the best of your way to Cape Town, South Africa.

- [Narrator] The shores of the Piscataqua, the Kennebec, and the Sheepscot Rivers came alive with shipbuilding activity.

- [Merchant] And thence to yield to France where you shall sell your cargo of candles, prunes, and other fruit.

- [Narrator] Between 1794 and 1812, shipbuilding was to grow 300%.

Over 200 new towns were incorporated along the coast and on the great timber-lined rivers.

(peaceful music) Maine vessels sailed away to the East, to China, India, and Sumatra for pepper, silk, tea, and Chinaware.

- [Merchant] You will sail to the Mediterranean by the most advantageous route and there sell your haul of 480 quintiles of cod, 225 barrels of pickled salmon.

- [Narrator] To Russia with sea otters captured on the northwest coast and back to Portland where the Russian hemp was made into rope.

- [Merchant] You're required to embrace the most favorable winds and proceed to Liverpool direct.

There you will load with dry goods.

- [Narrator] To Chile and Peru, they sailed in search of seals.

- [Merchant] 17,000 white oak staves, 5,700 barrel staves, and several hogsheads of sugar.

- [Narrator] To Canton and Sydney, Bombay and Java to bring home the bounty.

- [Merchant] You will then load with wine and specie for trade in Bombay and Calcutta and return to Boston with the finished goods.

- [Narrator] Sugar, cotton, textiles, coffee, tea, and specie.

(tools clamoring) As Maine men worked to fashion the river timber into stately cargo carriers, the owners listened carefully to the tales of their captains.

- [Captain Sturgis] Captain Sturgis reporting, sir.

At Macau Roads, I was forced to anchor in the calms.

16 pirate junks were waiting for just this opportunity.

Being a cargo vessel, we had only a few guns.

My men were able to hold the pirates off till a breeze made up and we could find the shelter of the Portuguese fort.

- [Captain Silsby] Captain Silsby reporting on the voyage of the Portland.

Captured by a French privateer and taken to Malaya.

I got her free, but we were recaptured and taken to Genoa where we were forced to become the officer's ship for Bonaparte and forced to sail for Egypt.

(explosions booming) - [Narrator] While the French took our ships for cargo, the British press gangs took our men.

England was desperate for men to man her vast navy.

Many Maine boys served as sailors in the British fleet during the French war.

(explosions rumbling) - [President Jefferson] The great and increasing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen, and merchandise are threatened on the high seas and elsewhere by the belligerent powers of Europe, it is of great importance to keep in safety these essential resources.

- [Narrator] With those words, President Jefferson informed Congress he was closing all US ports to foreign shipping.

It was our nation's first embargo.

♪ Our ships all in motion ♪ Once whitened the ocean ♪ They sailed and returned with their cargo ♪ ♪ Now doomed to decay ♪ They have all fallen prey ♪ To Jefferson, worms, and embargo ♪ ♪ A French privateer can have nothing to fear ♪ ♪ She always may here or may there go ♪ ♪ Their friendship is such and we love them so much ♪ ♪ We'll let them slip through the embargo ♪ ♪ The British should take a few men by mistake ♪ ♪ Who under false colors may then go ♪ ♪ We're manning their fleet with our tars ♪ ♪ Who retreat from poverty, sloth, and embargo ♪ (water rustling) - [Narrator] In spite of the embargo, Maine skippers knew there was a market for their goods in war-torn Europe, and some managed to circumvent the embargo.

- [Captain] I wasn't trying to circumvent nothing.

I was fishing the banks of Newfoundland, and I lost my compass overboard.

Terrible storm came up, I was blown off course.

Next thing I knew I was in Portugal.

Well, no point in carrying fish around while they rot.

So I sold my catch and sailed home.

Took aboard a few lemons for my men to prevent scurvy, don't you know.

- [Narrator] The embargo like a quiet drain tide left the vessels ashore.

Anyone who had anything to do with a ship, carpenters, blacksmiths, sail makers, lumbermen, merchants, teamsters, farmers, you could find them in the public squares, at the soup lines in 1808.

And the ships, as if washed ashore, lay at anchor, their sails unbent, their spars down, and tar barrels capping the lower mastheads.

They called these ships Jefferson's Nightcaps.

(gentle music) ♪ So the tides go and the people go too ♪ ♪ With little to show for their pains ♪ ♪ And ever they go and they take what they know ♪ ♪ And go back to the kinder land ♪ (explosions booming) - [Narrator] When the War of 1812 started, we weren't much of a match for the British.

Our whole naval force was only six frigates and as many smaller vessels against 1,000 ships of the British Royal Fleet.

So our people turned to privateering.

Private vessels were fitted out with guns and a letter of mark from the federal government, giving the owners permission to stalk prizes on the trade routes.

The prizes were sold with shares for the owner and shares for the government.

- [English Sailor] The American cruisers daily enter in among our convoys, seize prizes in sight of those that should afford protection, and if pursued, put on their sea wings and laugh at the English pursuers.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] Angered by our insolence, the British sent the Bulwark, a 74, to blockade Maine ports.

The Dash was the most famous Maine privateer.

- [Commentator] She never suffered defeat, never attacked a ship in Maine, was never injured by a hostile shot, and let me tell you, she knew no equal in speed.

(gentle music) ♪ She was manned by a crew of gallant lads ♪ ♪ As ever a vessel's deck had trod ♪ ♪ A score and 100 of them all ♪ And their fate is known to none but God ♪ ♪ They all belong to the towns around ♪ ♪ They were brothers and cousins and comrades too ♪ ♪ Full-armed and equipped, they put to sea ♪ ♪ And the skies were never a softer blue ♪ ♪ But the weeks and the months and the years sped on ♪ ♪ And hearts grew hopeless and cheeks grew pale ♪ ♪ And eyes are dim that have watched so long ♪ ♪ To catch a glimpse of her homebound sail ♪ ♪ And when any of those who loved the lads ♪ ♪ Are ready to slip their moorings here ♪ ♪ And sail away to the unknown court ♪ ♪ You'll see the dead ship gliding near ♪ - [Narrator] There, a legend was born.

The Dash became the ghost ship of Casco Bay.

She'd appear sailing up the Bay at night whenever a relative of one of her crew was dying.

(water rustling) The war ended in February 1815.

In spite of the adventures of vessels like Dash, the British blockade and the raids on our ports took their toll.

The merchants of Portland and other smaller ports either went under, or else they moved to Boston and New York.

(lyrical music) ♪ But the days get short and the year gets old ♪ ♪ And the fish won't stay where the water's cold ♪ ♪ So if you're going to fill your hold ♪ ♪ You go offshore and find them ♪ ♪ And you go outside on the raving deep ♪ ♪ And your pray the Lord your soul to keep ♪ ♪ But the wave will roll us all to sleep ♪ ♪ And the tide will be our keeper ♪ ♪ Well, I gave you one, I gave you two ♪ ♪ The best that poor old boat could do ♪ ♪ You won't be happy till I give you three ♪ ♪ But I'll be damned if you'll get me ♪ ♪ Oh, the tide, oh, the tide ♪ Oh, the dark and the bitter tide ♪ ♪ There's none would have me by her side ♪ ♪ For the tide would be my master ♪ - [Narrator] When a deep-water skipper from Maine set about building his house, he made certain of two things.

He built his house facing the sea for the sea was his gateway to the world.

And he built a big house because he wanted everyone to know of his success.

He furnished his house with the wares of other lands where he had traded.

This man had every reason to be proud.

He knew that over 10% of the nation's captains had come from his native state and that over 1/3 of the nation's merchant ships were built along Maine rivers.

He had seen the world for himself.

To him, events in Canton were as important as events in Belfast or Portland.

To his children, Singapore was as close as Boston for they had spent time in each place.

Arithmetic in school included a section on navigation, and currency exchange and other languages were commonplace.

(waves crashing) From the time Maine became a state until the outbreak of the Civil War, the tide was fair for the Maine native as long as he followed the sea.

(gentle music) ♪ The ways of man are passing strange ♪ ♪ He buys his freedom and he counts his change ♪ ♪ Then he lets the wind his days arrange ♪ ♪ And he calls the tide his master ♪ - [Seaman] I was born in December the year of 1800.

Just about the right time, the way I figure it, 'cause I was part of it all, the great age of sail, the golden years.

If you was a boy after the War of 1812, you got your sea legs in the coastin' trade.

Most young boys did.

(lyrical music) When I was in my 20s, I shipped out in the old West Indies trade aboard the Good Ship Polly.

We saw some things aboard her, and pirates wasn't the least of 'em.

I could tell you tales that'd take the hair right off from your head and set you to using your knees as nutcrackers.

The winter of '31, when I was home, they had found a market cutting ice.

So I built a nice house up along the river.

Got into the ice business, good business too.

Lasted till Frigidaire put us out.

When we weren't cutting ice, we was cutting hay, and if that didn't suit you, you could go to building ships.

(tools scraping) - [Narrator] From sun up to sundown, men find their living in the Maine shipyards.

For a dollar a day, they work for 14 long daylight hours during the Maine summer.

It is all hard labor.

The tanned, scarred hands of the skilled shipwrights testify that muscle is the equal of mind in this business.

On launching day, everyone in the village gathers at the shipyard to see the vessel take the water.

Slowly she moves for the first time.

She will always be alive with motion as her bottom comes and goes in the endless tide.

She will never sleep as long as her home is on the sea.

(gentle music) - [Commentator] The ship is like a living thing.

As she catches the morning breeze, the ship comes alive and begins to breathe and groan and move.

- [Seaman] Those who weren't building them were sailing them all over the world.

Or else they was in the lumber business or the lime business or the kiln wood business.

Oh, it was something, I'll tell you, plenty to do.

- [Commentator] During the middle 1800s was what they call the ship building era when they built many, many ships.

And, of course, wherever there was work, people will go.

So it doubled the population of the town during those years.

- [Seaman] First it was the clippers, built sleek and narrow.

They could go, they could fly, I'll tell you, but they couldn't carry much 'cause they were so fine and fast.

The skippers I know had some great races in them though.

After clippers came the big Down Easters.

Now they could carry tons and tons of wheat or cotton or guano.

I'll let someone else tell you what guano is.

I never went for guano.

(plaintive music) - [Captain] We are bound for the Chincha Islands for guano, the manure of birds which is much in demand in European and American ports as a strong fertilizer.

- [Captain] The guano was rotten and as fine as powder and full of ammonia.

We carry a deckload of Chinese coolies to load the vile manure.

- [Captain] On this voyage, we round the Horn.

I hope this rotten old ship will survive the pounding.

- [Captain] I don't think much of life on the ocean wave.

Even though I've had my blood stirred more in the last five months than I would have in 10 years ashore in Portland, I'm ready to cut the webs from my feet and walk on solid dirt once again.

- [Commentator] Many times then seamen wouldn't sail because they had a superstition that if rats left a ship, she would be wet before she came back to port again.

- [Captain] Last night, Morgan, Charlie, Fred, and John Smith ran away.

The night before, Andrew and Wilson took a French leave.

They saw the rats jumping ship.

- [Captain] This shall be my last voyage as captain for I am tired of hard bread, salt beef, dirty stewards, and vulgar sailors as fellow prisoners.

And that is all shipboard life is, a floatin' prison of the worst kind.

(water rustling) (peaceful music) - [Captain] Five days out from Philadelphia.

We are loaded with coal and bound for Sitka, Alaska and then San Francisco where we'll load wheat for Sydney, Australia.

- [Captain's Wife] After five days, the routine of shipboard life has been established.

- [Child] The first few days out are always hard because the sailors are more or less drunk.

Everyone gets seasick and grumbly.

But I like being back on ship with my pets, tickling my sheep Billy.

I also have a canary named Dickie and a dog and a cat.

- [Captain's Wife] When there's so little human companionship, one becomes very fond of animals.

- [Child] At exactly nine o'clock, mum begins a lesson.

It goes until noon.

(bell ringing) - [Captain] Eight bells.

- [Child] It's 12 noon.

That's my dad calling out the time from looking at the sun with the sextant.

When my dad was sick one time, mum took the sun with the sextant three days and worked out the position of the ship.

- [Captain's Wife] In the afternoon, the children work at their lessons.

I pass the time sewing or walking on deck.

Perhaps I will spend some time practicing at the piano.

No two days are alike at sea, and while life is monotonous, it is a pleasant kind of monotony.

In a way, there is variety.

Some days we engage the cook and make candy, but I do miss being with other women.

- [Child] On special days, I get to go up forward to the carpenter's shop and watch Chips work.

- [Captain] Chips is a fine carpenter, and were it not for his habit with the bottle, he could find steady employment as a carpenter onshore.

- [Captain's Wife] I think the officers and men enjoy having children on board.

Often they send gifts back for the children to play with.

- [Child] But we were never allowed to go forward of the main hatch by ourselves or to have any conversation with any sailor, and worst of all, we were never allowed to go aloft.

(water rustling) (pensive music) - [Captain] July fourth, two of the crew down with cholera.

A year ago, I was home in Maine for the picnic and parade.

The cook killed a pig, and that's the last a shellback like me will see of pork unless I kill the old man.

Oh, how I hate to smell that pork cooking when all I get is duff and bread scones and molasses.

And when we get salt beef, it still has dirt and gravel on it from the foul barrels it was stored in.

- [Captain] Oh God, two coolies fell overboard and we're lost, and now 250 pagans chatter about the deck with a language that sounds like the devil's work.

At least I can board other ships and see friends.

Spend July fourth with Penelton and family of Searsport.

- [Captain] We decided July fourth that Yankeedom is the greatest Dom except the kingdom of heaven.

- [Captain] The hold is full of guano.

Dust and ammonia clog our nostrils.

It'll be good to be outside where the air is fresh and clean.

(waves crashing) - [Captain] This ship is loaded to the gills with guano.

She's sluggish in the water.

God save us from heavy weather rounding the Horn.

- [Captain] The glass is falling and the wind freshening.

A gale will blow and I fear for the ship.

- [Captain] We man the pumps in 20-minute shifts.

We've lost one mast, and I fear now for my life.

- [Captain] I'll not see terra firma again, I fear.

This ship sinks in spite of our efforts.

(pensive music) ♪ So you go outside on the raving deep ♪ ♪ And you pray the Lord your soul to keep ♪ ♪ But the wave will roll us all to sleep ♪ ♪ And the tide will be our keeper ♪ - [Narrator] Ships did go down, but when the backbone of a new one is laid on the blocks, a new life begins, usually on the banks of a river convenient for launching.

The sternpost is then raised and framing out can begin.

Over 40 carpenters are employed framing out the vessel.

The great timbers are shaped by razor-sharp adzes wielded with skill and muscle that renders the rough-hewn timber smooth as glass.

The pieces of the frames are then assembled on the portable framing platform, and the frame gang twitches the assembled frame into place along the keel.

When all the frames are in place and they've been bolted to the keel along with the keelson, the stem is fitted.

The finest white oak in the yard is used here for that stem will cut water for thousands and thousands of miles.

(mellow music) - [Captain] Most of my deep-water sailing was the West Indies.

- [Commentator] They had to have barrels for their molasses and sugar, And guava jelly and rum 'cause that was a very important item.

Rum, that was part of a sailor's pay.

- [Commentator] Well, the whole West Indies trade is a circle, you see.

Man cut trees in Maine so they can build ships.

They build ships so they can go to the West Indies for molasses.

They need the molasses to feed the men who cut the trees.

Molasses is supposed to sweeten the unsweetened wilderness, you see.

- [Captain] October 15th.

Loaded with lumber, staves, hoops, and shingles bound from Bangor to St. Vincent, where we'll load for molasses and return to Maine.

- [Commentator] Between Bangor and Brewer, there would be so many schooners tied up that they could walk from one shore to the other across the decks.

They probably had to jump a little, but you could get across the river on just the decks of the schooners that were tied up.

- [Captain] We made two trips a year to the West Indies, one in October after the hurricanes and we'd be back in Maine in February.

We turned right around, go right back down again.

Then we'd be home in April.

Then it was time to go farming.

- [Captain] Young James, a capable lad from down east has come down with the dreaded yellow fever.

Contracted, I suppose, in Havana.

I fear he will not live to see his kin.

- [Captain] Yellow fever would get you and kill you real quick.

And if the fever didn't get you, it might be a hurricane, and if it wasn't a hurricane, it could be pirates.

They got old Captain Clems, I've heard tell.

First they cut off his right arm, then his left.

Then one leg, then the other.

Finally they filled his mouth with oakum saturated with oil and set it afire.

That finally killed him.

Tough old dog, he was.

(wistful music) - [Captain] Calm, calm, calm.

I fear we're stuck in the horse latitudes.

Our water is very low, there's no rain, and I fear we'll have to throw the livestock overboard.

- [Captain] If hurricanes and water are supposed to make a man jump with fear, calms will wear him to a frazzle.

In the calms with the constant sliding about and no progress, nerves gets shot and men begin to fight.

I've spent over a week in the calms.

They call them horse latitudes because when the ship runs out of water, they throw the livestock overboard.

I've heard of ships stuck for weeks.

I've heard men died of thirst or perhaps in a fight with another sailor.

- [Captain] A breeze is making up from the south.

It could mean rain but I think not for we saw a porpoise playing about the bow.

Always a good sign.

- [Captain's Wife] Yesterday, it rained so hard, it came down in sheets.

Barrels were placed everywhere on deck to catch the precious water.

- [Captain] I ordered the scuppers plugged so the deck could be washed with fresh water.

- [Child] All the sailors came out and washed their clothes on the decks.

- [Captain] Our spirits are high as we have had fair winds for the past 12 days.

Tomorrow, we begin to buck the westerlies around the Horn.

- [Captain's Wife] Rounding the Horn is cold, dark, and chilly.

- [Captain] Today, we give the men coffee instead of lime juice, as it is so cold.

Tomorrow, if the temperature drops one more degree, they'll get rum instead of coffee.

(pig squealing) - [Child] The cook killed the pig as we went around the Horn.

He always kills the pig rounding the Horn.

- [Captain's Wife] Four months out now, and the monotony of shipboard life becomes tiresome.

Our little cabin with its polished pale hardwood grows smaller and warmer as we are at the Equator in the Pacific.

- [Captain] Our ship is our home, but one does grow restless after four and a half months at sea.

- [Narrator] For a ship to be home, she had to be sound, and the men in Maine built strong vessels.

Plankers, among the highest paid men in the yard, put the skin on the vessel that would separate the crew from eternity.

With brute strength and a quick eye, they twist the steaming hot plank into shape on the frames.

Then come the fasteners who with the aid of clamps and spikes and hand-hewn trunnels fasten the freshly shaped plank to the frames.

The outboard joiners follow the plankers to smooth the surface of the new hull with slicks and planes.

Then come the caulkers with their mallets and irons.

They drive oakum into the beveled seams in the planks.

♪ Aha come rolling over - [Narrator] At the same time, more carpenters lay the decks and build the fo'c'sle, deckhouses, and hatch coamings.

♪ One man to raise the royal ♪ Aha come rolling over ♪ One man to raise the royal ♪ Aha come rolling - [Narrator] The tall spars are shaped by adzemen and hauled into place by teams of horses or oxen in consort with giant derricks.

The excited yells and songs of the rigging gang can be heard all over town on a hazy summer afternoon as they step first the lower masts and then the topmast.

♪ To walk the cat's turn ♪ Aha come rolling over ♪ Oh, now why don't you blow ♪ Aha come rolling over (mellow music) - [Child] Today, an albatross came on deck.

They're huge birds, and they hardly move their wings when they fly.

On deck they act like they're drunk and they get seasick.

- [Captain's Wife] No two days are alike at sea.

We've had headwinds for eight days.

- [Captain] Two weeks of headwinds.

At night I now dream of farming.

- [Captain's Wife] In San Francisco, we discharged our coal and loaded wheat for Sydney.

- [Captain] 53 days to Sydney in beautiful weather.

- [Child] I turned 13 in Sydney and was given a beautiful ring of the different kinds of Australian gold.

Sad thing happened.

Billy attacked the first mate and was voted a nuisance and left in Sydney.

- [Captain] Well, when we got home in February of '31, I decided I had my fill of shipboard life.

In Maine, they found they could cut ice all over the river for nothing and ship it south and get good money for it.

So I got into the ice business.

We had a horse-drawn cutter which we plowed the ice and worked out the strip some 50 foot in length.

Then these strips were scored crosswise so the field looked like a gigantic checkerboard.

(machinery clamoring) Sawyers cut the long lines, and men with pick poles moved the strips through conveyor belt up to the ice house.

As the strip moved up the belt, a chopper cut off big blocks, which we stored embedded in sawdust.

Many, many men were employed cutting and harvesting ice and shipping it to the south on schooners, to Baltimore and as far south as New Orleans and the West Indies.

They would cut and store the ice in the winter, and when the price got high, they would sail with it in May.

So you see, when we wasn't making ice, we was making hay.

♪ For when the gallon raises - [Narrator] While a team of riggers are at work, carvers fashion the intricate trailboards and figureheads.

Good carving work on a vessel was recognized throughout the world as a sign of the owner's pride in his fleet.

(workers chattering) (tools clamoring) The inboard joiners fashion the elegant captain's quarters aft, as well as the more modest crews' quarters forward, and the painters are at work putting copper on the bottom and painting the topsides.

In the sail loft, more men work cutting the four or 5,000 square yards of canvas that will power the vessel.

♪ Aha come rolling over ♪ Oh, now why don't - [Narrator] With great care, riggers bend on the sails.

Sails and rigging have to be strong for the ship to ply the highways of the world.

(mellow music) - [Captain's Wife] Our next stop is San Francisco.

Almost a year has passed.

I'm growing anxious to settle again in our lovely Maine.

- [Child] In San Francisco, I had the most fun riding around the deck on a velocipede.

- [Captain] From San Francisco to Dublin, if we have a good passage, the men shall paint the ship inside and out.

- [Captain's Wife] I love the city of Dublin with its wonderful zoo, but my oldest daughter is graduating from Brunswick High School, and I'd like to be with her when she receives her diploma.

- [Captain] You will board a channel steamer to Holyhead and then the ocean steamer from Liverpool to Boston.

(horn blaring) - [Narrator] The channel steamer in Europe was mimicked in Maine by the packets and the night boats.

(horn blaring) These steam-powered vessels made scheduled sailings from Boston to Portland, Rockland, Bangor, Bar Harbor, and Eastport.

(horn blaring) The steamer routes took hold about the time the big Down Easters began to disappear.

Commerce raiders during the Civil War destroyed many of the big wooden ships, and Great Britain took advantage of this situation by taking over many of the routes sailed by American vessels before the Civil War.

(water rustling) - [Captain's Wife] It was sad to leave the ship Solitaire, my home on the ocean for two years.

The next time I saw her, she'd been dismasted and was serving as a coal barge in our own state of Maine.

It seemed a desecration, but such is the fate of those fine old living ships.

At least she came home to die.

♪ But the tides go and the people go too ♪ ♪ With little to show for their pains ♪ ♪ But ever they go and they take what they know ♪ ♪ And go back to the kinder lands ♪ - [Narrator] The tide was contrary for the grand full-rigged wooden ships on the Maine coast.

But Maine would adapt, if you would look into her past and see that the schooner had always been the errand boy along the coast.

(gentle music) Ship builders took the basic design and adapted it to new needs.

While perishable cargoes went by steam because they could go on time, bulk cargoes gave new life to the schooner.

Bangor, located on the Penobscot River, was at one time the lumber capital of the world.

It was schooners that carried the lumber, all 200 million board feet per year, to ports along the coast, Boston, New York, Philadelphia.

Boston alone received 574 schooners from Maine in 1835.

They carried firewood south, cutting a cord in Maine for a dollar and selling it in Boston for two and New York for three.

Later, they carried coal north to heat Maine homes.

These vessels were cheap to run.

The rig was simple and they only needed small crews, and they installed deck engines to help with pumping and lifting.

Schooners grew in size along with their cargoes.

The two-mastered schooners were followed by the tern or three-masters.

And then four or five and six masts.

But the small schooners never really died.

They continued to carry cords of wood to the lime kilns in Rockland, Rockport, and Thomaston.

Over 30 cords of wood were needed to fire a kiln for a week, and then the lime had to be taken to market.

Again, schooners were called to do the job.

Granite on the Maine coast had the edge over its competition because it could be transported easily by water.

And again it was the schooner, the workhorse of the Maine coast, that took the water fountains and the paving stones to New York and the columns to Philadelphia.

It is one of the ironies of history that the schooners carried granite to build railroad stations in the industrial cities of the northeast.

Suddenly there was no need for schooners.

Timber and granite left Maine by rail.

With the coming of the railroad, Maine had turned her back on the sea.

She was born facing the sea, and she gave to the world magnificent vessels, capable crews, and valuable cargoes.

(pensive music) ♪ So the tides go and the people go too ♪ ♪ With little to show for their pains ♪ ♪ And ever they go and they take what they know ♪ ♪ And go home to the kinder land ♪ - [Narrator] The railroad changed Maine forever.

No longer would the coast abound with schooners running errands daily to Boston.

No longer would scores of men go to work on the coves and bays as skilled shipwrights who mastered the adze and auger.

Today, on the banks of the Kennebec at Bath, great steel ships are being built for merchant and military use.

During World War II, the Bath Iron Works launched a fully rigged destroyer every three weeks.

But even that activity is not what it once was.

The proud skipper of 100 years ago is gone.

His house is probably filled with tourists, and if he were to look out of his windows, he would find the harbor empty, save for the fisherman who still faces the sea each morning as he watches the sunrise on the water.

(machinery squealing) The fisherman still builds his house facing the sea.

His days, like the days of the captains and the fishermen before him, are bound up in the chill winds and the endless tides.

His young family, like those families before them, have learned quickly how to pass the time.

They wait for him each and every day.

They know he will always go home to the sea for his living.

(machinery rumbling) (plaintive music) ♪ The ways of man are passing strange ♪ ♪ He buys his freedom and he counts his change ♪ ♪ Then he lets the wind his days arrange ♪ ♪ And he calls the tide his master ♪ ♪ Oh, the days, oh, the days ♪ Oh, the fine long summer days ♪ ♪ The fish come rolling in the bays ♪ ♪ And he swore he'd never leave me ♪ ♪ But the days grow short and the year gets old ♪ ♪ And the fish won't stay where the water's cold ♪ ♪ So if you're going to fill your hold ♪ ♪ You gotta go offshore and find them ♪ ♪ And you go outside on the raving deep ♪ ♪ And you pray the Lord your soul will keep ♪ ♪ But the wave will roll us all to sleep ♪ ♪ And the tide will be our keeper ♪ ♪ Oh, the tide, oh, the tide ♪ Oh, you dark and you bitter tide ♪ ♪ If I can't have him by my side ♪ ♪ Well, I guess I have to leave him ♪ ♪ Oh, the days, oh, the days ♪ Oh, the fine long summer days ♪ ♪ The fish come rolling in the bays ♪ ♪ And he swore he'd never leave me ♪ ♪ Well, I gave you one, I gave you two ♪ ♪ The best that rotten old boat could do ♪ ♪ You won't be happy till I give you three ♪ ♪ But I'll be damned if you'll get me ♪ ♪ Oh, the tide, oh, the tide ♪ Oh, you dark and you bitter tide ♪ ♪ If I can't have him by my side ♪ ♪ Well, the water's welcome to him ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, I know the day will come ♪ ♪ When one less boat comes slogging home ♪ ♪ I don't mind knowing that he'll be the one ♪ ♪ But I can't spend my whole life waiting ♪ ♪ I gave you one, I gave you two ♪ ♪ The best that poor old boat could do ♪ ♪ You'd have it all before you're through ♪ ♪ Well, I've got no more to give you ♪ ♪ Oh, the days, oh, the days ♪ Oh, the fine long summer days ♪ ♪ The fish come rolling in the bays ♪ ♪ And he swore he'd never leave me ♪ ♪ The ways of man are passing strange ♪ ♪ He buys his freedom and he counts his change ♪ ♪ Then he lets the wind his days arrange ♪ ♪ And he calls the tide his master ♪