With its incessant fogs and infamously craggy coast, Maine has long been a bane of mariners. Scores of vessels and countless lives have been lost on its rocky shores. Taryn Plumb explores the tragic history of shipwrecks in Maine, focusing on a dozen or so of the most interesting and weaving in tales of pirates, lost treasure, violent storms, and other disasters. Maine’s role in shipbuilding is legendary, and the history of vessels meeting their demise here is equally compelling.

From the first explorers, to the century of ships, to our modern fisheries and diversification, Maine's maritime story is told in engaging detail. Lincoln Paine has laid down the framework for an understanding of Maine's maritime history by relating the population and landscape of today to their historic foundations. This engaging overview of Maine’s maritime history ranges from early Native American travel and fishing to pre-Plymouth European settlements, wars, international trade, shipbuilding, boom-and-bust fisheries, immigrant quarrymen, quick-lime production, yachting, and modern port facilities, all unfolding against one of the most dramatic seascapes on the planet. Down East can be read in an evening but will be referred to again and again. When the first edition was published in 2000, Walter Cronkite—a veteran Maine coastal sailor as well as The Most Trusted Man in America—wrote that “Paine’s economy of phrase and clarity of purpose make this book a delight.” Paine went on to write his monumental opus The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (PW starred review), but now returns to his first and most abiding love, the coast of Maine, to revise and update this gem of a book. The new edition is printed in a large, full-color format with a stunning complement of historical photos, paintings, charts, and illustrations, making this a truly visual journey along a storied coast.

Featuring the accounts of twenty-five ill-starred vessels -- some notorious and some forgotten until now -- this anthology provides a fascinating history of a local maritime culture and charts how the catastrophic events along the Delmarva coast significantly affected U.S. merchant shipping as a whole.

People are inexplicably drawn to abandoned places. Believe it or not, New England is home to numerous ghost towns long abandoned, but filled with mystery, unexpected beauty, and a sense that these locations are simply biding their time, waiting for people to return. Taryn Plumb explores dozens of locations in the region, revealing the surprising histories of the towns and the reasons they were abandoned. In Maine, sites include Flagstaff, whose citizens were forced out to make way for a dam and which now sits at the bottom of Flagstaff Lake; Riceville, wiped out by cholera; and Perkins Township, which was abandoned so suddenly the remaining houses are still filled with furnishings. Locations in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut are also covered in this unique and fascinating tour.

An in-depth history of the Maine inlet’s most historic and dramatic shipwrecks. Thousands flock to the beautiful coastline along Penobscot Bay every year, but the dark sea has often turned treacherous. Temperamental skies become stormy without notice; violent gales challenge even the most seasoned captains. Craggy rocks can be virtually invisible to oncoming vessels, like the Alice E. Clark, which simply strayed off course in good weather. Other ships, like the Governor Bodwell and Royal Tar, were destroyed by fire. But not all the ships were a total loss—some were repaired and resumed life under different names. Local author Harry Gratwick explores some of Penobscot Bay’s most historic and dramatic shipwrecks, from what caused the wrecks to what happened during those fateful moments when the ships were going down.

Dramatic true stories of New England maritime history, with photos. Large, wooden-hulled schooners graced the seas of coastal Maine for more than a century as vessels of trade and commerce. With the advent of steam-powered craft, however, these elegant four-, five-, or six-masted wooden ships became obsolete and vanished from the harbors and horizons. The Edward Lawrence, the last of the six-masters, became her own funeral pyre in Portland Harbor, burning to ash before everyone’s eyes. The Carroll A. Deering washed ashore with no trace of her crew, empty as a ghost ship except for three cats and a pot of pea soup still cooking on the stove. In this testament to the beauty of the Maine coastal region, maritime history enthusiast Ingrid Grenon tells the story of these magnificent relics of the bygone Age of Sail and celebrates the people who devoted their lives to the sea.

A classic by Edward Rowe Snow, first published in 1943 and updated in 1944 and again in 1946, Storms and Shipwrecks of New England relates what William P. Quinn calls ""stories of stormy adventure."" Jeremy D'Entremont has provided annotations to Snow's chapters, covering the pirate ship Whidah, the wreck of the City of Columbus, the Portland Gale, the 1938 hurricane, and more, bringing the information about the storms and shipwrecks up to date.