“This vessel was built as a U. S. Navy hospital ship, “The Comfort,” and served in the Pacific during World War II and later served as a U. S. Army transport to bring the troops back home. Reportedly the nurses’ lounge of the vessel had once been hit by a kamikaze in Okinawa. When the Maine Maritime Academy Students went to sea in her as “The State of Maine,” the three padded cells in the former psycho ward of the hospital ship, were still in place. Philip Rich [Philip Clifton Rich (1941-)], who attended the Academy from 1959-1962, bunked in the former isolation ward, which held only five or six cadets, during his junior year and remembers that the plumbing fixtures of the former psycho ward had levers, not regular handles. They used the padded cells on the second deck as storages closets to supplement the cadets’ small storage lockers.” – Meredith Hutchins 01/25/12
Description: “This vessel was built as a U. S. Navy hospital ship, “The Comfort,” and served in the Pacific during World War II and later served as a U. S. Army transport to bring the troops back home. Reportedly the nurses’ lounge of the vessel had once been hit by a kamikaze in Okinawa. When the Maine Maritime Academy Students went to sea in her as “The State of Maine,” the three padded cells in the former psycho ward of the hospital ship, were still in place. Philip Rich [Philip Clifton Rich (1941-)], who attended the Academy from 1959-1962, bunked in the former isolation ward, which held only five or six cadets, during his junior year and remembers that the plumbing fixtures of the former psycho ward had levers, not regular handles. They used the padded cells on the second deck as storages closets to supplement the cadets’ small storage lockers.” – Meredith Hutchins 01/25/12 [show more]
"September 9, 1878 - Fine day with a nice breeze. The "Cimbria" is getting ready to leave Southwest Harbor where she has rode at her anchors 4 months and 12 days. Probably she will never enter it again." "At a quarter to 4 o'clock the big gun flashes from her bows, the anchor is away - 3 cheers are given. She turns and steams slowly out of the Eastern Way." - Day Book of Elizabeth Cook (Carroll) Lawler - In the collection of Robert Lindsay Smallidge, Jr.
Description: "September 9, 1878 - Fine day with a nice breeze. The "Cimbria" is getting ready to leave Southwest Harbor where she has rode at her anchors 4 months and 12 days. Probably she will never enter it again." "At a quarter to 4 o'clock the big gun flashes from her bows, the anchor is away - 3 cheers are given. She turns and steams slowly out of the Eastern Way." - Day Book of Elizabeth Cook (Carroll) Lawler - In the collection of Robert Lindsay Smallidge, Jr. [show more]
“It can be appropriately said of the new and magnificent steamship Columbia, of the Hamburg Line, that she is a "gem of the ocean." The accounts of her remarkably fast runs continue to be published in leading journals at home and abroad...” Source: Ocean: Magazine of Travel, Vol. III, No. 2, September 1889, Page 42 Information from various sources including Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping.
Description: “It can be appropriately said of the new and magnificent steamship Columbia, of the Hamburg Line, that she is a "gem of the ocean." The accounts of her remarkably fast runs continue to be published in leading journals at home and abroad...” Source: Ocean: Magazine of Travel, Vol. III, No. 2, September 1889, Page 42 Information from various sources including Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping.
“Called “Great Northern’s Navy,” the Great Northern Paper Company owned a fleet of steamers used in its logging operations on several waters in the neighborhood of Chesuncook Lake, the largest… Replacing the “A.B. Smith” [side-wheel steamer built in 1902] was the “West Branch No. 2,” built May 1926 at Chesuncook Dam, now replaced by Ripogenus Dam…” - “Maine’s Steamboating Past” by Donald A. Wilson, published by Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, p. 117, c. 2007 Vessel Name – West Branch No.2 Class – logging vessel Hull - wood Designed by – O.A. Harkness (Orrin Albert Harkness) (1870-) Build date – 1926 Launched – May 5, 1927 Built by – Great Northern Paper Co. Built at – on the shore at Chesuncook Dam, ME Built for – Great Northern Paper Co. Named for – West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. Power - 30 ton diesel Gross tons - Net tons – Capacity - Length – 91’ Beam – 21’ Draught – 8’ Crew – Designer O.A. Harkness was a mechanical genius who developed an inland fleet of lumbering vessels for Great Northern and was known as the “Admiral.” West Branch No. 2 operated between the head of Chesuncook Lake and Ripogenus Dam – 24 miles, towing pulpwood in booms, sometimes as much as 5000 cords at a time. By 1933 she had towed more than half a million cords of wood. – The Lewiston Daily Sun, November 20, 1933.
Description: “Called “Great Northern’s Navy,” the Great Northern Paper Company owned a fleet of steamers used in its logging operations on several waters in the neighborhood of Chesuncook Lake, the largest… Replacing the “A.B. Smith” [side-wheel steamer built in 1902] was the “West Branch No. 2,” built May 1926 at Chesuncook Dam, now replaced by Ripogenus Dam…” - “Maine’s Steamboating Past” by Donald A. Wilson, published by Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, p. 117, c. 2007 Vessel Name – West Branch No.2 Class – logging vessel Hull - wood Designed by – O.A. Harkness (Orrin Albert Harkness) (1870-) Build date – 1926 Launched – May 5, 1927 Built by – Great Northern Paper Co. Built at – on the shore at Chesuncook Dam, ME Built for – Great Northern Paper Co. Named for – West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. Power - 30 ton diesel Gross tons - Net tons – Capacity - Length – 91’ Beam – 21’ Draught – 8’ Crew – Designer O.A. Harkness was a mechanical genius who developed an inland fleet of lumbering vessels for Great Northern and was known as the “Admiral.” West Branch No. 2 operated between the head of Chesuncook Lake and Ripogenus Dam – 24 miles, towing pulpwood in booms, sometimes as much as 5000 cords at a time. By 1933 she had towed more than half a million cords of wood. – The Lewiston Daily Sun, November 20, 1933. [show more]