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Well, I started week two here at Maine Maritime Museum after a wet and chilly weekend. Let me start with a weekend recap of things outside of the Museum. I knew that L.L. Bean’s flagship store was located in Maine, so I did a little research. It is located in Freeport, Maine, which is roughly 20-25 minutes south of Bath. Once I entered Freeport, I was very surprised to not only see L.L. Bean’s 4 or 5 stores but a massive complex of outlet stores. Just about anything you could imagine was located there, including retailers that I didn’t even know had outlets. I spent most of the day there and was planning on stopping in Bath and going to Popham Beach, which is just down the Kennebec River at the mouth and check that out. The weather turned for the worst and the weather man was predicting tornadoes and high winds, which is very abnormal for the area. No tornadoes were seen but I did feel a bit at home in Kansas City with such weather. The rain and nasty weather continued into Sunday so most of the day was spent inside with some reading and relaxing.

On a side note, Bath Iron Works completed one of the ships they were working on and it was pulled out of the dry bay and into the river, ready to take on the U.S. Navy crew and hit the high seas. This took place at 0300, which I did not attend. It will encounter several months of “sea trials” with both the Navy and BIW employees working on the kinks.

While at the museum today, I continued work on BIW Hulls #15 and 16 (U.S. Navy Gunboats #11 and #12 (Engines 54/55) from the late 1890s and they were finished. These were commissioned as the Vicksburg and Newport. BIW Hull #14 (the Yacht “Illawara” was done, which were only 3 plans; primarily engine and machinery arrangements. BIW Hull #37 was completed (the Tug “Cuba”) which also only had 3 plans, but we did break into the 20^th century as it was delivered in 1901. I had previously finished Hull #21 (the Light House Tender “Mayflower”) but found more records. These were terribly out of order, so they were organized and entered into my finding aid.