One of my favorite people is Lillias Lewene Pendleton Nichols. She brought together two prominent Searsport families: as daughter of sea captain Phineas Pendleton, the patriarch of many Searsport sea captains, she married into the Nichols family, another prominent Searsport sea captain family. She certainly knew the merchant marine business. When the Confederates captured and set fire to the ship named for her sister Delphine, and captained by her husband, William Green Nichols, Lillias' spitfire natures came through. She gave the Confederates a tongue-lashing that lasted from the time they pulled her out of the ship's cabin, threw her husband's navigational instruments overboard, transferred her and the rest of the crew to the Confederate vessel, and handed them off Australia at the US Consulate. Her parting shot to the Confederates was breaking the gag order on not disclosing how they took the ship by pretense of being a British vessel. She defies the conventions of quiet, submissive Victorian women, tucked safely on shore awaiting the return of her husband, and represents the reality for many women who went to sea with their husbands in the merchant marine.

Daguerreotype of Lillias Pendleton Nichols. PMM# 1969.19.1

 
Another figure is George Albert Carver, son of prominent Searsport shipbuilder John Carver and relation to many Searsport Sea Captains.  Like them, he plied his trade as a shipbuilder, shipowner, and deep sea captain, before moving to New York City to be a partner in a ship owning business and ship chandlery that fitted out merchant vessels with provisions for their journey.  He and his descendents maintained ties to Searsport, our local public library is named in his honor and his descendents donated the land for Moose Point State Park, where many find refreshment in the summer.  More to the point, his descendants co-founded Penobscot Marine Museum as a repository for collections that tell the story of Maine's involvement in global trade in the 19th century.

Peleg Benson Nichols, George Albert Carver, and Andrew Sherbourne Pendleton were contemporaries growing up in Searsport. All three became sea captains. They took the first picture in 1859 when they were in their 20s, and the second 30 years later in 1889. By then Peleg was captain of the ship RR THOMAS, George had retired from sea and was working in New York City, and Andrew was captain of the bark EMMA T. CROWELL. LB2008.3.216 and LB2008.3.217, Ship Captains Collection.

Joanna and Lincoln "Link" Ross Colcord grew up at the tail end of the merchant sail era.  Joanna, born off Caledonia aboard her father's ship, was glad her parents did not follow the Searsport tradition of naming children for the place where they were born.  Link was born aboard his father's ship during a storm at the end of the 19th century a generation too late to follow the sea.  As their father, Lincoln Alden Colcord, watched the decline of the sailing ship trade with Asia in 1900, he counseled his heartbroken son to find other means of employment.  Link turned his energies to preserving the maritime history of the region through fictional sea stories, maritime histories in periodicals, and co-founding the Penobscot Marine Museum. Joanna documented her time at sea with photography, and later compiled books on sailor work songs and sea language.

Lincoln Ross Colcord and Joanna Colcord with their goat on the barkentine CLARA E. MCGILVERY.  LB2003.61.1436, Joanna C. Colcord Collection