Ships and ship building dominate the history of Bath, ME. Over 200 ship builders once made their living here. During WW2 over 16,000 workers produced 80 ships for the Navy, roughly turning out one every 2 weeks. Bath Iron Works has three Navy ships currently being outfitted, and contracts for 11 more, so this tradition continues. The years of ship building along the Kennebec River, along with the related industries, resulted in the river being essentially dead. No fish and no birds. The captain of our tour boat was a font of information, and he seemed most proud to say that the river has recovered and the fish and birds are back.
This wasn’t the tour I had hoped to take when I drove to the Maine Maritime Museum. I hoped to take a lighthouse cruise, but the only lighthouse on this cruise was the little one here. Little because a lighthouse along a river only needs to be seen for 3 miles. But in foggy weather ships couldn’t see the lights and still ran aground, so they built a bell tower as an added safety factor. The lighthouse keeper was required to trudge through the woods every four hours in bad weather to wind up the bell. 
This proved to be quite an interesting tour and talk, and even though it wasn’t the tour I had hoped for I was happy to have had the experience. I was a Navy wife in the summer of ’71 when I lived here while my husband’s ship was readied for it’s trip to it’s eventual port in San Diego. For a short while the plan was for the ship to cruise south around South America, stopping at all the famous (infamous) ports along the way, but clearer heads eventually prevailed and that plan was nixed, and his ship went through the Panama Canal instead. That must have been an experience in itself, though not the one whomever made the first plan probably had in mind.
This represents the Wyoming, which was built in Bath. It’s true to the size except for the masts. They were an additional 70 feet high, but the FAA wouldn’t let them build those to scale.
The other two Navy ships being built are very different from this one. This is a Zumwalt class ship, built to be stealth. On radar this ship appears to be a 40 foot fishing boat.
This little ship is the Mary E. She was built in Bath in 1906 and was in service carrying many different cargos over the years. She was eventually sunk, but was brought back to Bath and restored to her original and now carries passengers instead.
In the feature photo you see the size of the dry dock itself. It was built in China and had a long journey to Bath since it was too big to go through the Panama Canal. This isn’t a town that grew up to serve the tourist trade, and it shows. But it’s worth a trip to see.
The bus tour driver had pointed out the Hood milk bottle as we cruised to the next stop. And the yellow boat where they reenact the Boston Tea Party, throwing plastic bins of tea over the side and then hoisting them back in again. He had lots of interesting things to point out that proved too difficult to photograph. Like the glimpse down an alleyway where Boston Latin used to be. Boston Latin is the oldest public school in the country and several founding fathers graduated from there. We passed a spot of green among the buildings and it turned out to be a very old cemetery where three of the signers of the declaration of independence are buried. He even pointed out a bar where Sam Adams used to hang out, directly across the street from the cemetery where he was buried. He said you can have a cold Sam Adams while you pay your respects to an even colder Sam Adams. Lots of history in not a lot of square footage in Boston.
I got off the T at the Park Street station and walked Boston Common for a bit. The tour bus stop was in front of the State House with it’s golden dome. Then most of these were from the bus, a perfect day for an open air ride and nice for photography. I thought it was ironic that this last picture is statues in honor of the Irish immigrants who came to Boston to escape the potato famine. Ironic because it provides a place for people to sit and eat amid the various restaurants in the vicinity. The sidewalks were teaming with people, and the streets were mostly in gridlock, full of cars like something you’d see in a movie. That they were managing to get where they were going without a single accident that I saw was a miracle. The bus drivers drove and talked and pointed up little alleys at sites of very historic events at every turn. Next time I’ll take a walking tour, guided by a character in costume and representing a figure from the era. And I’ll try to remember not to wear flip flops on the cobblestone walkways.
There was nothing to see but water and sky after a while, but then I noticed a shape breaking the horizon line. I wondered if it was a lighthouse, but through the camera’s zoom I could see the triangular shape of sails. The boat was the ‘fast ferry’, and it was really moving, and of course there was some rock, so trying to get a picture seemed futile but that didn’t stop me. I probably took more shots of that than I did of anything else that day. Especially because of the blinking light. It was performing exactly as the lighthouse lights do, steadily on and off. I asked about that on the Cape Cod group also, but no one seemed to have an answer. It did not seem to be moving, it seemed to be stationary. It is still a mystery.
And then Nantucket came into view. Even the harbor seemed quaint to me as we approached. I forgot to look for the Brant Point lighthouse until we were right on top of it. I believe I heard that it’s the second oldest and and also the smallest lighthouse. But I heard so many facts about the history of Nantucket that day that I was boggled so I will have to try to do some research before I try to repeat them. I had arrived…