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| Belfast Maine Wharf in the 1920s |
Last year, I purchased this photo of the wharf at Belfast, Maine. Moored is the SS Camden. Really this is a large cabinet card. Although cabinet cards are said to have gone out of use by WW2, this is dated in the 1920's.
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| Eastern Steam Ship Lines Wharf |
The Camden was built in 1907 at Bath Iron Works for the Eastern Steamship Lines. “The new, steel turbine steamer Camden made her first trip on Saturday, June 22nd, arriving in Camden at 6 a.m. She had made a record-breaking run from Boston to Rockland in 8 ½ hours. A crowd of over 600 people were on hand to greet the ship, with the Camden Band providing music for the occasion." (Her twin, the Belfast, also built at Bath, was launched two years later.)
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| Back end of the SS Camden |
In that era, Belfast was a hub for steamer traffic. The steamship wharf was a busy place, with boats carrying passengers to bayside towns, as well as summer excursions and fishing grounds. By the 1930s bridges carried vehicles across rivers and the era of steamboats was coming to an end... (The Eastern steamship wharf housed a roller skating rink before being torn down.)
The Camden made the overnight run between Boston and Bangor. In 1936, the steamship was sold to the Colonial Line and renamed the Comet. and ran between NYC and Providence, RI. During WWII it was used as a troop transport in Hawaii; in 1948, the ship was towed to Asia for service on the Yangtze and was broken up shortly after that in Hong Kong.
Length: 320.5
Breadth: 40.0
Draught: 16.1
Gross tonnage: 2153.0
Speed: 18 knots
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| Captain and Quartermaster of the SS Camden in 1927 |
On the frame backing is named the captain, Charles Crockett [misspelled] of Winterport Maine. And the Quartermaster was William G White. (My guess is that this came down from the Quartermaster's estate but I could of course be wrong.)
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| ...Or was the Belfast Wharf picture from 1923? |
There are markings on two parts, and the dates are different (five years apart). On the frame backing is named the captain, Charles Crockett [misspelled] of Winterport Maine. And the Quartermaster was William G White. (My guess is that this came down from the Quartermaster's estate but I could of course be wrong.)
It is available in my Etsy shop
here.
Ah well, there are sometimes mysteries that must be left unsolved. I hope you have enjoyed this journey!
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| Large cabinet card of the steamship wharf in Belfast, Maine |
