Bangor cruise in Ship stops at new home port Friday

BANGOR – Once the world’s staging area for thousands of vessels carrying lumber and other Maine commodities, Bangor’s waterfront is poised to embark on a new era in maritime activity.

On Friday, American Cruise Lines will begin its first weeklong cruise with Bangor as a home port for one of its luxury cruise ships.

Gov. John Baldacci and Charles Robertson, president of Haddam, Conn.-based American Cruise Lines, will be aboard to celebrate the American Eagle’s arrival at the Bangor waterfront about 2 p.m. Friday, marking the vessel’s inaugural visit to its new home port.

“The importance of Bangor’s selection as home port for American Cruise Lines cannot be overstated,” Mayor Nichi Farnham said, announcing Friday’s event.

“Bangor has long been a gateway to recreational regions,” she said, “Increased traffic and activity on the waterfront work effectively to redefine our role to include being a destination, too. … This is what we envisioned as we prepared for the Bangor waterfront’s redevelopment.”

While cruise ships have docked at coastal ports in Portland and Bar Harbor for years, it has been decades since significant numbers of cruises or commercial vessels have ventured into Maine’s interior.

From 1832 to 1888, Bangor played a pivotal role in the then-emerging economy of the northern Maine woods. Millions of board feet of lumber cut from the woods in the north were floated down to Bangor, where it and other commodities were loaded onto ships destined for points around the globe. The shipping in turn led to a thriving boat-building industry.

The Penobscot River’s last passenger steamship ended a century of service between Boston and Bangor in 1935.

Jonathan Daniels, the city’s business and economic development director, credits the infrastructure investments the city has made at Bangor International Airport and on the waterfront, among other things, for making Bangor’s home-port designation possible.

According to American Cruise Lines surveys, the typical passenger spends about $1,400 on shore during each week of cruising.

While there is much to learn about economic impacts, Daniels said that Bangor’s serving as a home port will “help dispel the myth that Bangor is landlocked. This begins to restore the Penobscot River as a strong commercial and recreational waterway.”

The American Eagle, a 31-stateroom vessel, will run cruises out of Bangor from July 26 through Sept. 6 this summer.

The line’s 2004 schedule shows the Eagle’s sister vessel, the American Glory, using Bangor as its home port from July 10 through Sept. 4.

Its “Maine Coast and Harbors” cruise is a weeklong exploration along Maine’s coast that includes stops at ports of call including Castine, Bar Harbor, Rockland, Camden, Belfast and Bucksport.

During a daylong symposium on Maine’s emerging cruise industry, Robertson said that small cruise lines, such as American Cruise Lines, represent the fastest-growing niche market in the travel industry.

He said American Cruise Lines aims its marketing efforts at the top half-percent of the U.S. population in terms of wealth, education and travel experience. Most of its passengers are from California, followed by Florida, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

The American Eagle made Bangor an unexpected port of call last August when rough waters and strong winds along the coast prompted its captain to seek shelter in the calmer waters of the Penobscot River, stopping in Belfast and Bangor.

On the Bangor waterfront, city officials greeted passengers and crew with souvenirs, a brief oral history, brownies and root beer.

After that, the city and the Convention and Visitors Bureau teamed up to land the home port designation for Bangor.

While the warm welcome helped lure the vessel back to Bangor last summer, the cruise line’s decision to make Bangor a home port also was aimed at avoiding the sometimes rough waters of Casco Bay, cruise line representatives said earlier.