BRUNSWICK

While neighboring communities in Harpswell and Phippsburg are known for their extensive shorelines, Brunswick’s physical connection to the sea is much more limited. Yet, as historian William Hutchinson Rowe notes in his history of shipbuilding in Casco Bay, Brunswick “had a shipping history in inverse proportion to her shore line.”

Brunswick was a powerhouse of shipbuilding from the late 18th century through the late 19th century, second only to Bath in the region. For comparison, William Baker notes in “A Maritime History of Bath, Maine and the Kennebec River Region” that 253 vessels were launched in Bath from 1815-1840, 97 were launched in Brunswick.

Though largely forgotten, that shipping history owes greatly to the entrepreneurship of one family — the Pennells — and their shipyards in Middle Bay.

The Pennells’ story begin in the late 18th century when they settled in Brunswick, which was not their original plan.

“They came from the Isle of Jersey in England,” said Bob Biette, who grew up in Pennellville and knew several Pennells growing up. Biette, now retired, occasionally gives walking tours of the area.

“They were shipwrights,” he added. “They settled in the United States in Glocester. From Glocester, two of the guys came to Portland (in the Stroudwater area). From their, two of the brothers came over here and settled.”

“They first thought they would settles south of here, in the Westbrook area,” said Nancy Pennell, a descendant of the famous shipwrights who also gives walking tours of the area.

They actually bought land in Westbrook and went to register it, only to find that the land belonged to somebody else. The same process repeated itself with a plot of land in Falmouth. Finally, they tried to purchase land in Brunswick.

“When they bought the land (in Brunswick) and took it to the court, they accepted that one,” said Pennell.

Thomas Pennell settled in Brunswick around 1760, and his son William Pennell was soon to follow, settling in 1780.

“They were shipwrights,” said Bob Biette. “And behind (Tomas Pennell’s house) and to the east is Middle Bay, and that’s where they started. Now the end of Middle Bay is not very good for launching a ship — they were rather large. So they started a second place down the road.”

Conditions at Middle Bay pushed them further down to deeper and deeper waters.

“Over the years the cove filled in quite a bit with silt,” said Pennell. “So the second ship was behind James Pennell’s house. And then the final shipyard was down at the end of Pennellville point.”

“The ships kept getting bigger so they needed deeper water, but at the same time the water got shallower because the silt kept going in,” explained Pennell.

Shipbuilding was generational with the Pennells. Some would go to work for other shipyards, but most stayed with the family shipyard on Middle Bay where they launched their ships.

It’s difficult to know for certain how many ships the Pennells built after moving to Brunswick, but before the creation of the Pennell Brothers shipyard in 1822. Much of the documentation of those early shipbuilding days was lost in a fire in Portland. A list put together by John D. Pennell shows as many as 19 ships being built by Pennells before 1822. That was the year that William Pennell established the family’s final and most prolific shipyard. He sold it to his brother, Jacob Sr., who sold it to his son, Jacob Jr. It was Jacob Jr.’s sons who would operate the shipyard from 1834 to 1874, its most successful years.

Not only were ships built in Brunswick, but they sailed to and from the coastal Maine town, connecting it to the rest of the world.

“There was a wharf right over here to the left,” notes Biette. “They used to bring in a lot of cotton and stuff from the south, dump it here and bring it to the mills in Brunswick.”

“At one time, there would be thirty carts lined up to bring their lumber or their ice or whatever to put on the ships,” said Pennell. “It was a busy little wharf there in the 1800s.”

The Pennell Brothers shipyard was not the only company thriving off of the shipbuilding industry in those days. There were a number of independent small time operations in the region, and a few shipbuilders, like the Skofield family’s shipyard, that also produced dozens of ships.

Still, Biette noted, the Pennell Brothers ships stood a step above the others when it came to quality.

“This was the Cadillac of them all,” said Biette.

Of course, not all of the influx of wealth stayed at the very top. The shipyards brought in hundreds of workers seeking wealth in the trades or out on the seven seas.

“From 1825 up to 1865, there was about 900 people working at the shipyard,” said Pennell, citing research done by Bowdoin professor Sarah McMahon.

“They would go from shipyard to shipyard. When the Skofields had a ship ready for the caulking, they would go over there. And then when the Pennells had one at the right stage, they would go over there,” she explained.

The Civil War was a difficult period for the area, when that trade with the South was interrupted by an embargo. Less than 10 years after the Civil War ended, Pennell Brothers launched their last ship — the Benjamin Sewell — in 1874.

It’s difficult to say what killed off the shipbuilding industry in Brunswick, but there’s a couple factors that seemed to have factored in prominently.

“There was progress made in shipbuilding, so they wanted something faster, so the steamship came around. Then they began to do metal ships,” said Biette. “Then the railroad, of course, took away most of the business.”

Pennell also pointed to the death of James Pennell as another cause for the shipyard’s downfall.

“It is said that it was due to the death of James Pennell,” said Pennell. “There was nobody at the right age to come along after him, and that’s what really caused the end. But that’s speculation.”

“I think there was not enough cohesiveness in the family to make a good plan,” she added. “Evidently, (James) was sort of the unifier. I think a lot of family businesses are like that.”

For whatever reason, 1874 was the last year to see a ship launch from the Pennell Brothers. And with the end of shipbuilding in Brunswick, so came the end of the vast wealth that flowed into Pennellville for the better part of a century.

“When the Pennells stopped the shipyard, people took their tools and went home and there was nothing. The homes were left to the owners, but there was no actual cash to keep these houses up,” said Biette. “But Mainers are always very clever and they managed to keep the houses up.”

“But where did this wealth go? Nobody knows! They died in poverty,” said Biette.

Biette, who grew up in Pennellville, contrasts the vast wealth in the 19th century to the poverty surrounding him growing up.

“In the 1930s, this was like nothing. Poverty,” said Biette. “There was a lot of poverty. There was nothing … just nothing.”

The shipyard has long since disappeared, with just a few stray cross beams visible in the mud at low tide. The only evidence that this was once a wealthy area and the hub of Midcoast shipbuilding is the mansions built or owned by the Pennell family that dot the road leading to the site of the former shipyard. The area is still known, appropriately, as Pennellville.

Brunswick can be characterized as a number of things — as a mill town, as a college town or as a service center for the surrounding communities. A drive through Pennellville, however, reminds one that Brunswick was, at one time, first and foremost a shipbuilder.

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