The Portland Press Herald / The Maine Sunday Telegram

Size matters

An exhibit at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath puts the focus on the monsters of the main.

By Bob Keyes bkeyes@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

As a painter, David Campbell enjoys riding his bicycle along the roads near his home in Cape Elizabeth. He appreciates the open air, and tends to notice the details of the landscape when he has the ability to stop his bike, get off and walk around.

click image to enlarge

David Campbell's "Sprague Terminal with Stormy Sky"

Courtesy of the artist

click image to enlarge

“Sprague Terminal at Evening” by David Campbell

Courtesy of the artist

Additional Photos Below

Select images available for purchase in the
Maine Today Photo Store

IF YOU GO

"SOME BURDENSOME: BIG SHIPS, BIG CARGO"

WHERE: Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St., Bath

WHEN: Through June 28

HOURS: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily

ADMISSION: $12 adults, $11 seniors, $9 students and children; free ages 4 and younger

INFORMATION: 443-1316; www.mainemaritimemuseum.org

NOTE: Museum admission is free this coming Saturday.

 

"It's an easy way to see things. I stop when I need to, and I've got space all around," he says.

Many years ago, while riding along the waterfront in South Portland, Campbell hopped off his bike, wandered through a cemetery and made his way down to the water.

Before him were docked massive oil tankers, unloading their cargo at one of Portland Harbor's five tank farms.

"That certainly caught my attention," he said.

He had noticed them before, of course. It's hard not to. When the tankers arrive in Portland Harbor, it's almost as if time stands still. People stop to watch, because those massive ships impress with their sheer size.

But this time, Campbell was able to get reasonably close to the tankers, and the scene that played out before him was full of wonder and -- from his painterly perspective -- full of possibilities.

"I've always been attracted to complexity in whatever subject I am painting," said Campbell, who shows his paintings at Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland. "And let's face it, there's a lot of complexity in these tankers. There are a lot of elements, and a lot of things going on."

Soon after, he began making the tankers a recurring subject in his industrial-based landscape paintings. Several of those paintings are part of the current exhibition at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, "Some Burdensome: Big Ships, Big Cargoes."

CELEBRATING A CENTENNIAL

The exhibition celebrates the centennial of the launch of the wooden ship Wyoming, which was built in the shipyard that operated right out back of the museum on the Kennebec River. Launched in 1909, the sailing vessel was 350 feet long with a gross tonnage of about 3,370. (Gross tonnage is a unit-less measurement of the overall volume of ship's hull, including cabins, storerooms and mechanical spaces.)

By any measurement, the Wyoming was a monster. It was a six-masted schooner designed to carry coal. It was the largest wooden ship ever built, and a great source of pride for the Mainers who built it at the Percy and Small Shipyard.

A partial replica of the Wyoming stands outside Maine Maritime Museum today, offering visitors perspective of its hulking size.

But the Wyoming was nothing compared to the cargo ships that sail today. The boats that Campbell favors in his paintings typically are 800 or so feet long, with a gross tonnage of 62,000 or more.

But even those ships are relatively small compared to the true behemoths of sea.

Some of the truly huge tankers on the water today are more than 1,100 feet long with a gross tonnage of 163,000 or more.

The largest tanker ever built, the French-built Batillus, had a gross tonnage of 275,000. It proved too large and was economically unfeasible. It was build in 1976 and scrapped less than a decade later.

In that context, "Some Burdensome" is all about size.

Maine Maritime Museum curator Chris Hall created an exhibition designed to give visitors perspective about the ships that move through the waters of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. He tells the story of the evolution of big ships over time with photographs, models, charts, artifacts and other items.

"The centennial of the Wyoming got me thinking about big ships through history, and Maine's connection to those big ships beyond the Wyoming," he said. "Big ships are just amazing to me. What we've been able to make move through the world across the water is just amazing. Whether it sinks, swims or makes money is not the issue. At least someone is giving it a shot. There is a lot of amazement and wonder."

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

A quick word about the name of this exhibition. In nautical terms, the word "burdensome" refers to the cargo capacity of a vessel. A burdensome vessel carries a lot of cargo, and is designed not so much for speed as capacity.

For some time, the sign out front of the museum on Washington Street in Bath read "Some Burdensome exhibition," which no doubt elicited a few snickers from folks who might have mistakenly thought this show tended on the side of boring.

Not a chance.

Despite his inability to bring the boats home for this show, Hall has assembled an impressive collection of material to tell this story. Working with the companies that operate the tank farms in Portland Harbor and elsewhere in Maine and nearby in Canada, he was able to borrow many models, replicas, photographs and other material.

Beyond inspiring people to marvel at the size of these vessels, he hopes to remind us how important shipping was, and remains, to the commerce of Maine. The boats that move in and among our waters carry everything from oil and gas to road salt, paper, pulp and, more recently, wind turbines, he said. The big boats are a crucial part of the state's economic vitality, and have been for more than 400 years.

Perhaps the most human aspect of the exhibition in Bath is under glass. Hall has arranged a series of nautical charts used by Capt. Richard Quick for a New York-to-Shanghai journey in 1902.

These are not the charts used on the boat, but are charts, marked in pencil by his hand, that he used to document his route to his bosses. He had to justify his time on the water, to show his superiors where he went and why it took him 148 days to make the trip.

He departed on Oct. 6, 1902, and arrived in what must have felt like another world on March 3, 1903.

Not that such a journey was unreasonable in length -- not at all. But today, such a sail would take maybe two or three weeks, give or take.

The charts are fascinating because they show the trouble spots along the way, including a dicey passage down between Australia and New Guinea. In pencil, the captain mysteriously wrote, "No kind of luck."

Back on the waterfront in South Portland, David Campbell keeps his eyes on the water, ever curious about which boat is due in port next.

The ships that duck under the bridge are constant and vital, and have occupied his artistic vision for many years.

They are, in short, awe-inspiring. 

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:

bkeyes@pressherald.com