Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

(upbeat music)

(energetic music)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Our journey begins at the Isles of Shoals,

off the Maine coast before crossing to the mainland

and the harbor town of Kittery.

From there, our journey heads northeast,

up the coast, past small harbors and rivers,

to Kennebunkport and the summer home

of a presidential family.

Continuing up the coast, past islands and lighthouses,

are the harbor and city of Portland.

And in the large bay to the north are the Calendar Islands

and Brunswick, home to one

of the best known 19th century writers.

Our journey ends at the nearby historic shipyard of Bath.

We start our journey six miles off the coast

at the Isles of Shoals, which straddle the border

between the states of Maine and New Hampshire.

Back in the 17th century, all the islands were

under the control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

when Maine and New Hampshire were still just provinces

and not yet American states.

The islands were first used by Native Americans

as fishing grounds before the first Europeans set foot

on them in 1623.

By the 18th century,

a fairly prosperous community was living here

until the War of Independence,

when the islanders were evacuated to the mainland.

It was not until the middle

of the 19th century (seabirds crying)

that two investors opened a popular summer hotel

and later played host to an arts community.

Since 1915, a number of the islands have belonged

to the Star Island Corporation,

a non-profit religious retreat and conference center.

During the summer, it hosts a number of week-long events,

making use of the old Oceanic Hotel.

In 1914, the local people erected an obelisk

in honor of the Reverend John Tucke,

who, in the 18th century, served the community

for over 40 years.

The largest island in the group is Appledore, at 95 acres.

It was home to a large hotel during the 19th century,

but this burned to the ground in 1914.

Today, the island is the operating station

of the Shoals Marine Laboratory.

Some of the smaller islands, like Lunging Island,

are privately owned,

and a perfect place to get away from it all.

(seabirds crying)

On the mainland, the state border divides the harbor towns

of Portsmouth, (boat horn honking)

in New Hampshire, and Kittery in Maine.

(boat engine hums)

And in the harbor entrance, ships have been warned

of dangerous rocks since 1820 by Whaleback Light.

The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1872,

following storm damage to its predecessor.

In the middle of the harbor, is Seavey Island,

and an historic naval shipyard.

(gentle music)

There has been a dispute between Maine and New Hampshire

over its ownership for nearly 200 years,

and it was only settled in Maine's favor

as recently as 2001 by the US Supreme Court.

Though now officially in Maine,

the dock yard is still called Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The present yard was established back in 1800

at the behest of America's second president, John Adams.

This makes the shipyard the oldest continuously operating

one in the United States,

and one of the first ships to be launched

was the 74-gun warship USS Washington in 1815.

A hundred years later, during the first world war,

the shipyard began to build submarines,

which continued through the second world war,

when over 70 were built.

Many of the buildings of the island are registered

as historic places, include the naval prison,

built in 1905, and dubbed The Castle.

During World War II,

it held many captured German U-boat crews.

The prison was finally closed in 1974.

Guarding the harbor and shipyard in previous centuries

was Fort McClary, built in 1808.

It was finally decommissioned in 1918.

A few miles up the coast is the town of York Harbor.

During the war of independence,

when the Isles of Shoals were abandoned,

some of the fisherman took down their small, wooden houses

and literally floated them across the bay to York Harbor,

where they were hauled ashore and rebuilt.

This once-prosperous sea port

boasts several fine 18th century mansions.

(gentle music)

One of them is upstream, overlooking the river,

the Sayward-Wheeler House, built in the 1720s.

It was the home of Jonathan Sayward, a local merchant

and respected civic leader.

He remodeled the house in the 1760s in the latest styles

from England and adapted for a colonial way of life.

After his death, his descendants decided

to change very little in the house,

probably due to a lack of money.

As a result, the house is a time capsule

of 18th century taste and one of the finest colonial houses

on America's Eastern Seaboard.

There are more than 60 lighthouses along the coast of Maine,

which in the days before radar and GPS,

were vital for keeping ships out of danger.

(gentle music)

One of the best known stands on Nubble Island

at the end of Cape Neddick

(seabirds crying)

In 1874, the US Congress appropriated $15,000

to build a light station here,

and it's still in use today. (seabird crying)

Locally known as The Nubble Light,

it's an American landmark, so much so,

that an image of the lighthouse was carried

in the Voyager Spacecraft along with the Great Wall of China

and the Taj Mahal in case it fell into the hands

of intelligent extraterrestrials.

Unusually, the stanchions of the walkway railing

around the lantern room are decorated

with four-inch brass replicas of the lighthouse itself.

The Nubble Light has appeared on more postcards,

calendars, and other souvenirs

than almost any other New England lighthouse.

(gentle music)

Many of the old fishing villages

have now become popular places to visit.

Ogunquit, which meant coastal lagoon to the Abenaki Indians,

is one of the most popular, and especially Perkins Cove,

with its much-photographed drawbridge.

(seabirds crying)

Back in the 19th century, this was the haunt of artists

who would be seen painting alongside the fishermen

as they both plied their respective trades.

At the same time, large houses were built for the rich,

which have since been turned

into hotels like Beachmere Inn, built in the 1880s.

Today the coastline attracts visitors from far afield,

and especially in the autumn when the color

of the trees resembles an artist's palette.

The three-and-a-half mile beach is one

of the areas main attractions,

and forms a natural peninsula protecting the Ogunquit River.

(water swashing)

All along this stretch of coast, slow flowing,

meandering rivers make it a perfect place

to quietly paddle a canoe and be amazed

by the autumn colors on view. (birds singing)

This is the beautiful Mousam River.

The river flows out to sea near Kennebunkport Beach,

where expensive houses of all shapes and sizes

line the coast.

(gentle music)

Kennebunkport, itself, was named after the river in 1821.

There had been a European settlement here

since the mid-17th century,

but following Native Indian attacks,

it was largely abandoned until the 18th century.

Shipping and trade then prospered along the river,

and the town began to grow.

(birds chirping)

By the 19th century, the town had developed

into a summer destination,

and it's been growing in popularity ever since.

Kennebunkport is also well known for its seafood,

and one restaurant guide voted the takeaway Clam Shack

one of the top 10 in the United States.

Over the years, it has served two presidents

and several world leaders who did not have to wait in line,

because just up the coast, on Walker's Point,

is the Bush compound.

Here they entertained world leaders,

including Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev,

Vladimir Putin, and Nicolas Sarkozy,

and the Secret Service detail on duty would have to go

and pick up the order of lobster rolls and fries

from The Clam Shack.

(birds chirping)

A few miles up the Kennebunk river

is the Wedding Cake House.

It was begun by the ship builder, George Bourne, in 1825

in a style which became known as Carpenter Gothic.

He had traveled to Italy and been very impressed

by the Gothic beauty of Milan Cathedral.

On his return, and using only hand tools,

he set about building his Gothic house.

His only help was one of the apprentices

from his shipyard.

(gentle music)

George Borne spent the rest

of his life adding embellishments,

and it was said of him that he knew no limits to his skill.

(birds chirping)

10 miles up the coast is Biddeford Pool

and the site of the first recorded, permanent settlement

in Maine during the early 17th century.

(gentle music)

Back in those days, it was called Winter Harbor,

and the growing village suffered several attacks

from Indians for the next hundred years.

Today, Biddeford Pool is invaded

by more peaceful visitors who come from

across the United States as well as from Canada

to enjoy the spectacular coastline.

And from the golf club on the north side,

the players get a good view of Wood Island

and a 19th century story of murder, suicides, and ghosts.

(gentle music)

Wood Island Lighthouse is the second oldest

in the state of Maine and was built in 1858.

38 years later, a drunken drifter named Howard Hobbs,

who rented a small shack on Wood Island,

was on the mainland when the local sheriff threatened

to arrest him over a row with his wife.

Hobbs shot the sheriff and fled to his shack

on Wood Island.

He confronted the lighthouse keeper, Mr. Orcutt,

at his house, who tried to persuade Hobbs

to give himself up.

He did not succeed, and Hobbs went back to his shack

and shot himself.

(water swashing)

Over the years following this incident,

groans were heard coming from the shack,

a shadow of a ghostly figure witnessed,

and locked doors were mysteriously left opened.

The next lighthouse keeper was slowly being driven mad

by it all, and one night in 1905, rode to the mainland,

and the next morning he jumped to his death.

In 2005, a paranormal research team began carrying out

an investigation into the hauntings,

which merely adds to the mystery of the strange goings-on

at Wood Island Light.

Across the bay is Prouts Neck, a small peninsula town.

(gentle music)

By the end of the 19th century,

it had became a very fashionable place

to have what was called a summer cottage,

though cottage may not exactly be the right description

of these large houses.

(birds chirping)

Today, many of the houses are still owned

by the same families who built them over 100 years earlier.

(seabird crying)

In 1883, one of America's most influential

19th century artists moved to Prouts Neck,

where he spent the rest of his life,

Winslow Homer.

He remodeled a carriage house on his parents' estate.

For the next 20 years, he struggled to sell his paintings,

but at least he had the support of his parents,

and later his brother.

By 1900, his paintings and, in particular, his seascapes,

were beginning to be sold well,

and he finally reached success as an artist

as well as gaining financial security.

Winslow Homer died in this studio in 1910

at the age of 74.

(dramatic music)

Today, the studio has been acquired

by the Portland Museum of Art in order to celebrate

one of America's greatest painters.

Cape Elizabeth stands at the southern entrance

to Portland Harbor, and before two lighthouses were built,

ships would be wrecked on the rocks

as they tried to round the point at night.

(gentle music)

The first lights were constructed back in 1828

but were later replaced with two cast iron ones in 1873.

But this two-light system was discontinued in 1924

and the inland lighthouse sold off.

Cape Elizabeth Light, nearest the coast,

is still in service.

Ships entering Portland Harbor

then encounter another light standing out

on a dangerous rocky promontory.

Portland Head Light was commissioned by George Washington

and completed in 1791.

(water swashing) (seabirds crying)

Since then, the tower has been shortened by 20 feet

and then raised again in 1864.

The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who lived in Portland,

often visited the light and was, perhaps, inspired

to write his poem "The Lighthouse."

Two verses read the rocky ledge runs far into the sea

and on its outer point some miles away,

the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,

a pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day,

(seabirds crying)

and the great ships sail outward and return,

bending and bowing over the billowy swells,

and ever joyful, as they see it burn,

they wave their silent welcome and farewells.

(water swashing)

At the entrance to Portland Harbor are two forts.

The first is Fort Scammell on House Island,

built in 1808 and modernized during the 1850s.

(military cadence music)

Between 1907 and 1937, the island and fort were used

as an immigration center and considered the north's version

of Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

In 1857, Fort George was added to the defense of the harbor.

(water swashing)

(gentle music)

Portland is the largest city in Maine,

and for 12 years, from 1820, was the capital

of the new state until the status was conferred

upon Augusta in 1832.

The city's Latin motto is Resurgam,

meaning I will rise again.

This refers to Portland's Great Fire of 1866,

which destroyed 1800 buildings

and made over 10,000 people homeless.

At the time, it was America's greatest fire.

The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

whose poem "The Lighthouse" we heard some lines from earlier

described the fire as desolation, desolation, desolation.

It reminds me of Pompeii.

Longfellow was born in Portland in 1807,

and lived in this house with his parents

until he left for college.

He was to gain great popularity in his own lifetime,

writing poems about mythology and legend,

and today is considered one

of the most distinguished poets America has ever produced.

(birds chirping)

(boat engine hums)

Portland Harbor sits on the southern end of Casco Bay

and the Calendar Islands.

(upbeat music)

The name of the islands is based on the myth

that there are 365 of them.

It was first reported back in 1700

by a British Military Engineer who said there were

as many islands as there are days of the year.

In fact, there are only 136, but the name stuck anyway.

Small ferries link the islands,

and the bay offers great sailing as well as fishing.

Most of the islands are inhabited,

but some of the smaller ones have only a few houses.

(birds chirping)

In 1912, a Mr. Leon Leonwood Bean opened a small store

in the basement of his brother's clothes shop

in Freeport.

He started to sell the Bean Boot or the Maine Hunting Shoe.

He called the store L. L. Bean, and it became so popular

that in 1951, it started to open 24 hours a day.

His stores expanded into Freeport's principal business,

and today it's a worldwide company

with sales totalling over a billion dollars a year.

(birds chirping)

A few miles outside Freeport

is an interesting natural curiosity, a desert

in the middle of Maine.

It may look like sand, but it's actually glacial silt

which was deposited 10,000 years ago,

and is around 25 meters deep.

Over the following centuries, topsoil formed a cap,

enabling trees and grass to grow.

(birds chirping)

It was exposed as a result of a local farmer

in the late 18th century who cleared the ground

and then failed to rotate his crops,

which, together with overgrazing, led to soil erosion

and this sand-like dune.

(gentle music) (birds chirping)

As the desert spread, the farmer gave up trying

to control it and let nature take its course.

The site was bought in 1919 and turned

into a tourist attraction. (birds chirping)

In the 1950s, there was a real camel on the site,

but as it spat at the tourists, it was sent to a zoo,

and a life-sized statue replaced it.

(gentle music)

A few miles to the east is the town of Brunswick

and one of America's top 10 universities, Bowdoin College.

Unlike most successful universities,

Bowdoin has remained small,

and only has a student population of 1700.

The college was founded in 1794,

and two preeminent writers graduated here

in the same year, 1825, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the novelist,

and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet.

("Battle Hymn of the Republic")

The college's connections

to the American Civil War prompted people to say

that the war began and ended in Brunswick

because a Bowdoin professor received the surrender

of the Confederate Army in 1865,

and the wife of another professor

began writing the one book

that influenced the start of it in 1852,

"Uncle Tom's Cabin".

The writer was Harriet Beecher Stowe,

who, along with her husband, was an ardent abolitionist,

and her book picturing life as a slave

sold over 300,000 copies in the first year,

making it the most successful American novel

of the 19th century.

She even housed fugitive slaves here in her Brunswick house,

where she wrote the book,

which prompted President Lincoln to say to her,

"So you are the little woman who wrote the book

"that started this great war."

From Brunswick, it's not far to our final destination

at the ship-building town of Bath on the Kennebec River.

(upbeat music)

This US Navy ship is being built at the Bath Iron Works.

The yard was founded in 1884

and has been building war ships ever since.

During World War II, ships built in the Bath Iron Works

were considered to be of superior toughness,

which gave rise to the saying Bath-built is best-built.

At the peak of production during the war,

the shipyard launched a destroyer every 17 days,

a quite remarkable feat.

Over the years,

the yard has designed and constructed battle ships,

frigates, cruisers, and destroyers,

including the latest Arleigh Burke class destroyers,

which are among the world's

most advanced surface warships.

In 2001, the yard built an enormous concrete platform

for the final assembly of these ships.

This means ships do not have to be built on a slope

in order to be launched, but constructed on the level

and then transferred to the platform.

When the ship is finished,

the platform is lowered in the water,

and the new ship floats off.

And it's here that we end this journey

along the picturesque coast of Maine.

(gentle music)

(graphics whooshing)