Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

PENOBSCOT RIVER AND BAY.    439

formed with a capital of $500,000. The Sanford and the Boston, while
under lease to the government, during the late war, were lost, the first
on the Florida Keys and the second in one of the South Carolina bayous.
The Penobscot was sold to private parties, and the Kennebec,
while under charter to government, was lost or distrbled so that she
never returned to the company. The boats now on the line are the
Cambridge, commanded by Capt. Otis Ingraham, the Katahdin, Capt.
W. R. Roix, and the New Brunswick, Capt. F. C. Homer. Trips each
way are now made daily, Sundays excepted, during the summer, be-
tween Boston and the Penobscot, also Mount Desert, five days in the
week, by connection with another line of steamers at Rockland. A
new steamer of 1,500 tons is now building in the yard of Messrs. Smith
& Townsend, at East Boston. Though the river closes by ice at Ban-
gor, for 125 days on an average, each year, it is rarely frozen over so
as to stop steam navigation below Bucksport, which being connected
with Bangor by railroad, becomes a convenient winter-port for this
noble city. Only from a balloon could a better view of Penobscot
Bay he obtained of the shores than from the fine steamers that ply this
river and along the coast. After passing Cape Ann eastward to the
Penobscot the first land to be seen is the high and solitary Monhegan
Island, visible to early risers on the boats; next Whitehead Point is
noticed, and several islands, of which Dix Island, remarkable for its
granite, is most interesting. Away to the right now are the ancient
“ Fox Islands,” the two principal ones constituting the towns of Vinal-
liaven and North Haven ; the rugged and historic promontory of Owl’s
Head is passed, whose fog-bells are silent and whose flashing light
grows more and more spirit-like in the dawning day ; and then the
city of Rockland gleams along the level line of her shore ; and among
the hills perchance arises the scarcely-visible smoke from her numer-
ous lime-kilns. Next Camden, nestling in a nook of the hills on a
deep angle of the bay, is seen ; and north of the village Mount Battie and
high Megunticook send their spurs down to the very shore. North-
port, with its camp-meeting cottages and oak groves, is next noted
—pressing out its bold shores; then the hill-side city of Belfast is^seen
smiling over its expansive bay. Beyond this, Sear’s Island thrusts its
level plain across the steamer’s course, and breezy Fort Point, with its
summer hotels, quickly hides the gleaming village of Stockton. Oppo-
site the head of the high, barren Wetmore Isle (town of Verona), the
granite walls of Fort Knox, with their dark port-holes, command re-
spectful attention. Then the steamer feels the swifter current of Bucks-
port Narrows, and a sudden turn reveals on the right the bright village
of Bucksport, with the Methodist East Maine Conference Seminary at
the height of the eminence, attracting the eye by its bold relief. The
river now becomes more narrow and picturesquely sinuous, and vessels
lumber-laden glide sea-ward leaving fresh odors of pine and cedar upon
the breeze ; while on the left towers the granite mass of Mount Waldo,
with Mounts Heagan and Mosquito nearly in line. Then the buxom
village of Winterport presents itself to the eye, and we turn from it,
. and round the intrusive capes above ; then watch Hampden’s long
narrow village until we catch glimpses of Bangor and Brewer on their
commanding hills, where our voyage ends. Descending the river, the
same objects engage our attention until we reach the bold bluff of the
Castine promontory on our left, with its sea-ward looking village on