Searsport

Searsport is well known as the antique and flea market capital of Maine, and with good reason: the Antique Mall alone, on U.S. 1 just north of town, contains the offerings of 70 dealers, and flea markets during the visitor season line both sides of U.S. 1.

But antiques are not the town's only point of interest; Searsport also has a rich history of shipbuilding and seafaring. In the early to mid-1800s, there were 10 shipbuilding facilities in Searsport. The population of the town was about 1,000 people more than it is today because of the ready availability of jobs. By the mid-1800s, Searsport was home to more than 200 sailing ship captains, more than any other town in America, according to the Penobscot Marine Museum. It was commonly said then that when a captain took a cargo to Hong Kong, if he walked down the main street, he was more likely to meet someone from Searsport than from China.

Except for a few rotting pilings down at the waterfront, signs of the shipbuilding industry are gone now. It all disappeared after the invention of the steam engine and the growth of the steamship business. Steamships were larger, could carry more cargo, and were more efficient and safer. But thanks to those old shipyards, Searsport still has the second-deepest port on the coast of Maine, after Portland. If you read the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October, or saw the movie, you may recall that the men on the stolen submarine were looking on a sea chart for a little-used deepwater port on the Atlantic Coast where they could hide out submerged and undetected. They found it at Searsport. For further info, check the Searsport Web site: www.searsportme.net.

The seafaring history of Searsport can best be observed at Maine's largest maritime museum, the Penobscot Marine Museum. It's also evident in the many former sea captains' homes along U.S. 1, many of which have been converted to bed-and-breakfasts. Searsport's downtown area is only a block long and can easily be explored in less than an hour.