Katahdin (Lake Boat)

Last updated

KATAHDIN (Lake Boat)
SSKatahdinII.jpg
Katahdin plies Moosehead Lake c. 1920
USA Maine location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationMoosehead Lake, Greenville, Maine
Coordinates 45°28′9″N69°37′17″W / 45.46917°N 69.62139°W / 45.46917; -69.62139
Arealess than one acre
Built by Bath Iron Works
Architectural styleLake boat
NRHP reference No. 78003435 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 13, 1978

The Katahdin is a historic steamboat berthed on Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine. Built in 1914 at the Bath Iron Works, it at first served the tourist trade on the lake before being converted to a towboat hauling lumber. It was fully restored in the 1990s by the nonprofit Moosehead Maritime Museum, and is again giving tours on the lake. One of the very few surviving early lake boats in Maine, and the oldest vessel afloat built at Bath, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [1]

Contents

Description

Katahdin is a bluff-bowed steamer, 102 feet (31 m) long, with a beam of 28 feet (8.5 m) and a hull depth of 9 feet (2.7 m). Its hull is steel, with two wooden decks. Its typical draft is 3 feet 9 inches (1.14 m). The original configuration included enclosed passenger spaces on two decks, with an open area at the stern on the lower deck, and surrounding the enclosed area on the upper deck. The pilot house is located at the front of the upper deck enclosure. The main passenger entryways are located on the lower deck on either side of the pilot house. [2]

Katahdin was built in 1914 at the Bath Iron Works for the Coburn Steamship Company, and is the oldest vessel afloat built at Bath. [3] It was shipped in sections to Greenville, where final assembly took place. The primary use when launched was to deliver tourists and supplies to the Mount Kineo Resort from Greenville Junction, but it also offered cruises on the lake. [2]

The Great Depression and the increased use of the automobile for leisure transportation led to a decline in demand, and it made the last tourist trip in 1938. In 1940 it was acquired by a paper company (later itself merged into the Scott Paper Company), and converted for use as a towboat hauling timber across the lake. This conversion included the removal of the promenade areas of the decks, and the replacement of the steam plant by a diesel engine. It continued in this use until 1976. [2]

Not long afterward, a local nonprofit, the Moosehead Marine Museum, was organized to preserve the boat. It was sufficiently restored to provide tours of the lake, and again began serving the tourist trade. After a major fundraising effort begun in 1993, it was fully restored, including a replating of the hull by the Bath Iron Works. The upper deck is now fiberglass, and the promenades have been restored. In 2012 the keel was replaced. [3]

Katahdin in 2019 Katahdin steamboat.jpg
Katahdin in 2019

Katahdin now offers cruises between June and October, traveling either 12 or 20 miles (19 or 32 km) up the lake, in cruises with durations of 3 and 4+12 hours. It is also available for hire for private events.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenville, Maine</span> Town in the state of Maine, United States

Greenville is a town in Piscataquis County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,437 at the 2020 census. The town is centered on the lower end of Moosehead Lake, the largest body of fresh water in the state. Greenville is the historic gateway to the north country and a center for outdoor recreation in the area. Greenville High School, with 89 students, was ranked as the third best high school in Maine and one of the top 1,000 in the US in 2010.

<i>Eureka</i> (ferryboat) Side-wheel paddle steamboat, built in 1890

Eureka is a side-wheel paddle steamboat, built in 1890, which is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. Originally named Ukiah to commemorate the railway's recent extension into the City of Ukiah, the boat was built by the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad Company at their Tiburon yard. Eureka has been designated a National Historic Landmark and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1973.

USS <i>Katahdin</i> (1893) American naval ship

USS Katahdin, a harbor-defense ram of innovative design, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Mount Katahdin, a mountain peak in Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katahdin Iron Works</span> United States historic place

The Katahdin Iron Works is a Maine state historic site located in the unorganized township of the same name. It is the site of an ironworks which operated from 1845 to 1890. In addition to the kilns of the ironworks, the community was served by a railroad and had a 100-room hotel. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

<i>George M. Verity</i> (towboat)

George M. Verity is a historic towboat now displayed as a museum ship in Keokuk, Iowa. Built in 1927 as SS Thorpe, she is nationally significant for being one of only three surviving steam-powered towboats in existence in the United States. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

<i>Lone Star</i> (towboat) Towboat in LeClaire, Iowa, United States

Lone Star is a wooden hull, steam-powered stern-wheeled towboat in LeClaire, Iowa, United States. She is dry docked and on display at the Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire. Built in 1868, she is the oldest of three surviving steam-powered towboats, and the only one with a wooden hull. She was declared a National Historic Landmark on 20 December 1989.

<i>Sergeant Floyd</i> (towboat)

Sergeant Floyd is a historic museum boat, serving as the Sergeant Floyd River Museum & Welcome Center at 1000 Larsen Park Road in Sioux City, Iowa. Built in 1932 as a utility vehicle and towboat, she is one of a small number of surviving vessels built specifically for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in its management of the nation's inland waterways. The boat has been restored and drydocked, and now houses exhibits about the Missouri River and local tourism information. The museum is a facility of the Sioux City Public Museum.

<i>Donald B.</i> (towboat)

Standard, also known historically as Donald B and Barbara H, is a paddlewheel towboat that has been named a US National Historic Landmark and is now based at Bellaire in eastern Ohio. Built in 1923, she is the oldest surviving unaltered rear-wheel towboat afloat. The boat was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

<i>Grace Bailey</i> (schooner)

Grace Bailey, also known for many years as Mattie, is a two-masted schooner whose home port is Camden Harbor, Camden, Maine. Built in 1882 in Patchogue, New York, she is one of four surviving two-masted wooden-hulled schooners, once the most common vessel in the American coasting trade. She was one of the first ships in the fleet of historic vessels known as "Maine windjammers", which offer cruises in Penobscot Bay and the Maine coast, entering that service in 1939. She last underwent major restoration in 1989–90. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

<i>Mercantile</i> (schooner)

Mercantile is a two-masted schooner berthed in Camden Harbor, Camden, Maine. Built in the 1914-16 on Little Deer Isle, Maine, she is one of a small number of such vessels still afloat from a time when they were one of the most common cargo vessels of the coasting trade. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, she now serves as a "Maine windjammer", offering multi-day sailing cruises to tourists.

<i>Luna</i> (tugboat)

Luna is a historic tugboat normally berthed in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Luna was designed in 1930 by John G. Alden and built by M.M. Davis and Bethlehem Steel. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1985, the Luna was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.

<i>W. P. Snyder Jr.</i> (towboat) Stern-wheel boat, docked in Marietta, Ohio

W. P. Snyder Jr., also known as W. H. Clingerman, W. P. Snyder Jr. State Memorial, or J. L. Perry, is a historic towboat moored on the Muskingum River in Marietta, Ohio, at the Ohio River Museum. A National Historic Landmark, she is the only intact, steam-driven sternwheel towboat still on the nation's river system.

USS <i>Aphrodite</i> Steam yacht, patrol vessel, and merchant ship

Aphrodite was a steam yacht that was launched in 1898. When completed in 1899 she was the largest steam yacht yet built in the US. In 1917 she was commissioned into the United States Navy as the patrol vessel USS Aphrodite (SP-135). She was based in France from 1917 to 1918; in England from 1918 to 1919; and then returned to her private owner.

Lake steamers of North America include large, steam-powered non-government vessels with displacement hulls on American freshwater lakes excluding the Great Lakes. They may have served as passenger boats, freighters, mail-boats, log-boom vessels or a combination thereof. The construction of such vessels posed unique problems on water bodies located away from established dry-docks and marine railways, or connecting canals to such facilities.

SS <i>Atlantic</i> (1953)

SS Atlantic was an American-built vessel that operated for 42 years in various capacities. First designated SS Badger Mariner, she was originally built as a freighter in 1953. However, her career as a cargo vessel was relatively short. In 1958, she was rebuilt as a passenger liner. Renamed SS Atlantic, this ship became familiar to many American tourists during the 1960s, making cruises to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William M. Shaw House</span> Historic house in Maine, United States

The William M. Shaw House is a historic house located at 40 Norris Street in Greenville, Maine, which now houses the Greenville Inn. Built in 1895, it is a handsome and elaborate example of Queen Anne architecture in a rural small-town setting. The house was designed by Edwin E. Lewis of Gardiner, with alterations by Wilfred E. Mansur of Bangor. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 for its architecture, and for its association with William Shaw, a leading lumber businessman active in Greenville in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose business interests also included ownership of the steamer Katahdin.

<i>Surprise</i> (schooner) United States historic place

Surprise is a two-masted former racing schooner berthed in Camden, Maine. Built in 1917–18 in Rockport, Massachusetts, she is one of a small number of surviving schooners designed by noted naval architect Thomas F. McManus. She currently serves as a "windjammer", providing daily cruises in Penobscot Bay. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timberwind (schooner)</span> United States historic place

The schooner Timberwind is a historic former pilot boat, now berthed in Portland, Maine. Built in 1931, she served as a pilot boat in Portland Harbor until 1969, and was then converted into a schooner as part of the Maine "windjammer" tourist fleet. She is one of a very small number of early 20th-century purpose-built pilot boats that has survived major alteration, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. She moved to Rockport in 1969 and then to Belfast in 2015. She was purchased by the Portland Schooner Company in 2018.

<i>Sport</i> (shipwreck) Tugboat wrecked in Lake Huron

The Sport was a tugboat, built in 1873 and wrecked in 1920 in Lake Huron, in the United States. The wreck site, designated 20UH105, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

SY Tern Steam yacht on Windermere

SY Tern, now operating as MY Tern[a], is a passenger vessel on Windermere, England. Launched in 1891 she was built for the steamer service carrying passengers from the Furness Railway. She underwent several changes in owner as companies were merged throughout the twentieth century, and spent time as a sea cadet training ship during the Second World War. Refitted several times, her original steam engines have been replaced with diesel engines. Tern is the oldest vessel operating on Windermere, and is a member of the National Historic Fleet. She is currently operated by Windermere Lake Cruises as the flagship of their fleet.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "NRHP nomination for Katahdin (Lake Boat)". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
  3. 1 2 "Maine Museums Newsletter, Volume 17 #2 (May 2014)" (PDF). Maine Museums. Retrieved 2015-02-02.