The Schooner Rig and The Coast of Maine:
The marine history of New England is mostly the history of the Schooners, the commercial sailing vessels built from local oak and pine, that dominated the fishing and cargo trades of the northeast coast for some two hundred years. Nowhere is this heritage more alive than in Camden, Maine on Labor Day Weekend of every year when most of the remaining vessels of the great schooner fleets that once numbered in the tens of thousands all along the Atlantic coast, gather in Camden's beautiful harbor to celebrate the skills and traditions of that era.

As the old square-rig of the 17th and 18th centuries began to give way to fore-and-aft working rigs around the world, different marine regions chose rigs that best suited the winds common to that area. In the northeast United States, where the prevailing summer southwesterlies blow parallel to the northeast running coastline brought about the term DownEast.

The Beginning of the Passenger Trade:
With the onset of steamers, schooners were left to rot, but one man did something about it. Frank Swift, a veteran skipper, noted the increase in the summer tourist traffic in Maine and wondered if those who couldn't afford ther own yachts, might like the idea of a cruise among the Maine coastal islands on one of the now surplus cargo schooners. In 1936, Captain Swift tested his idea, chartering the Mabel, and re-fashioning the between-decks area with canvas.

Shipbuilding on Penobscot Bay:
The first ship built in Camden, was a schooner, and before the era of sail ended early in the 20th century, many more schooners had been built in Camden.

The Workhorses of the Coast:
Even after the construction of the railroads and before the introduction of the national highway system and the long-haul truck, the main commercial cargo vehicles between New England and Florida were the coastal schooners.
Penobscot Bay, like most other east coast waterways of the era, were dotted with hundreds of cargo schooners, waiting for the wind or tide that would allow them to begin their assigned voyage to some other coastal destination, even to as far away as South America or the Mediterranean. These vessels were full of local products of ice, fish, lumber, lime, or granite.

The Windjammer Fleet Begins to Grow:
The Depression and the WW II period were not ideal times to try to develop an new industry, but enough tourists ventured on the schooners to allow Captain Swift and his successors to survive and to keep up a number of the old boats.