Day 14 - Portland, ME

Portland, ME, again not really a normal port for cruise ships to drop anchor. This was our poor replacement for Bar Harbor, ME when the cruise schedule was changed. We lost Newfoundland and Bar Harbor and got Portland and New London in exchange - not really a fair exchange.
This stop was OK with us even though the tours only had two things - the Portland Head Lighthouse and Kennibunkport as places to go. Instead we had a cousin of mine, Priscilla Gallant, who was gracious enough to pick us up at the dock and take us around for the day. On our way in to port I saw several lighthouses and this one turned out to be the one we went to visit.

The Portland Head Lighthouse is THE lighthouse in the neighborhood. Lighthouses are a big thing here in Maine as they are necessary for keeping boats and ships from running ashore and sinking. Of course nowdays with radar and sonar they are less valuable. This lighthouse was nice as it had an excellent little museum with it. Here we are in front of it.

This is a picture of our hosts - Priscilla Gallant and Jim Welsh. I met Priscilla through researching my Carters and Jim is also a genealogist - so we had a great time together.

This is a typical lighthouse lamp - I believe at 3/4 size. You can see that they are quite large. The design is to focus the light inside into a single beam that would be seen from far away.
This poster demonstrates how all the angles of the glass in the lamp focus the light into a single, intense beam.

This is a part of old Fort Williams, first built in 1873 right after the Civil War. This was a gun and cannon enplacement facing out into the harbor at Portland Head. Most every port on the coast has old abandoned forts like this that were used in times past for protection from naval attack and pirates. Usually there were forts on the opposite sides of the opening of the bay along with forts built in mid-bay on islands. In this way the forts could provide overlapping coverage of all the opening to the bay from their cannons. This bay has three such forts. The cannons all had ranges of a mile or more so there was no way to enter the harbor without the risk of being shelled.

At Fort Williams is also the remains of the Goddard Mansion built in 1858 as an Italian Villa. The owner, John Goddard, was a wealthy lumberman. The mansion was acquired by the military in 1896 and used as housing for married enlisted men at the fort. The mansion and fort are in disrepair since the fort was decommissioned in the 1960's.

This is the fort in the middle of the harbor with 360 degrees of fire from the middle of the bay.

Across the bay from Fort Williams are the remains of another fort making up the triple fort arrangement for this harbor's defense.