To the strains of martial music and blasting cannons, thousands of history buffs gathered one summer day a century ago on the river that flows from Thomaston into Muscongus Bay for what must have been the biggest tercentenary of the year – perhaps of the century.

The celebration of the 300th anniversary of George Waymouth’s voyage to the coast of Maine in 1605 was timed with the tide so the flotilla carrying dignitaries and onlookers could comfortably navigate the St. George River to and from Thomaston. That was the river that Waymouth had supposedly “discovered,” and nothing less than a fleet of warships, yachts, commercial steamboats, sailing vessels and other craft was enough to carry all the people who wanted to be part of the festivities.

Promptly at 9:45 a.m. on July 6, 1905, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Woodbury, which had been placed at the disposal of the Maine Historical Society, began steaming down the river from the Thomaston wharf to tunes played by the Camden Concert Band. Close behind were the steamers Castine, Bristol and W.G. Butman and the launches Hiawatha and Medomak, all loaded with “excursionists.”

Along the shores of the little river, crowds of onlookers cheered, while additional seafarers set sail as the procession passed. At the mouth of the river the 255-foot USS Arkansas joined the flotilla loaded with still more celebrants.

At 11:30 a.m., the group arrived at the small harbor on the north end of Allen’s Island. Festivities centered on the unveiling of a granite cross, courtesy of Booth Bros. & Hurricane Island Granite Co., representing the cross Waymouth had erected there. The Arkansas’ guns boomed as the crowd cheered.

What was all this hubbub about? Few people today could tell you who George Waymouth was. Yet thousands turned out back then to honor this obscure English sea captain.

Waymouth’s 29-day visit to the Maine coast was a major link in a chain of events leading to the settlement of New England, according to historians. While it has long been a matter of debate whether he sailed up the St. George River or the Penobscot River or even the Kennebec or the Sheepscot rivers, his connection with Allen’s Island has remained uncontested along with his significance as an early explorer of the Maine coast.

The major reason we know much about Waymouth’s trip is the account of the voyage written by James Rosier. It is “one of the earliest written accounts of the natural resources of northern New England and gives the first description of the Native people who resided here,” according to David C. Morey in his new book on the subject.

But Rosier left his descriptions of the terrain maddeningly vague so as not to tip off the French or the Spanish in case he had stumbled upon the Northwest Passage or perhaps the fabled golden city of Norumbega. Regional boosters began taking advantage of the confusion. By 1905, however, historians believed the question had been settled. They awarded the St. George River folks bragging rights.

Sometimes the debate had been heated. The Thomaston Herald chortled gleefully, “Never mind what others say, the Maine Historical Society and all in this region thoroughly believe that Waymouth came up the St. Georges, and the 300th anniversary will be celebrated this summer. So put that in your diary of coming events.”

Before the opening of exercises in 1905, before the speeches began, a dozen men dressed up as Waymouth and his crew of Elizabethan seadogs appeared from the bushes to greet the celebrants. While these fake Englishmen presented themselves in a forthright manner, three phony “Indians” – white men dressed up as American Indians – “skulked along the rocky shore,” according to the Industrial Journal, a Bangor newspaper. Back then it was fully expected that Indians would disappear completely in a few years, so of course none had been invited to the festivities.

But back in 1605, Waymouth had wanted the real thing to take back to England as “specimens.” So he kidnapped five, returning them to England where they were questioned in great detail about their country. The moral ramifications of this act has grown like a cancer in the historical imagination as the years have passed, increasingly detracting from Waymouth’s accomplishments as an explorer. It even bothered people in 1905, but they were good at wiggling out of such dilemmas.

“The one ‘taint,’ if such it may be called, on Waymouth’s character, the five ‘kidnapped’ Indians, is now generally regarded as an act providential; the end sought not being mercenary but for the furtherance of the scheme of English colonization, and subsequent events proved that the end justified the means,” rationalized the Industrial Journal in its July 1905 issue.

The United States recently had won the Spanish-American War, inheriting a minor empire. America’s confidence in its abilities was in full sway – the Philippines today, tomorrow the world. So the speeches that July day in 1905 by influential men such as Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, Gov. William T. Cobb, U.S. Rep. Charles E. Littlefield and others reflected this heady merger of imperialism and the white man’s burden that had started with Waymouth and similar men.

Rep. Littlefield summed it up: “We believe that our form of government, and our conception of what is essential to civilization, is the highest form and conception yet discovered and made known to the sons of men. If we are correct in this belief, why is it not then true that the highest results throughout Christendom will not be attained until this civilization shall be all prevailing?”

I doubt that any scholar or politician in this, the 400th anniversary of the Waymouth voyage, has dared to set forth this controversial tenet of European exploration and later of American foreign policy so bluntly as Littlefield did that day. But I am also unaware of any current Waymouth observances accompanied by martial music and blasting cannons.

Meanwhile, for those with less of a political bent – perhaps those who have never heard of George Waymouth, but would like to know more – there is a new film being shown at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport in which a reproduction of the explorer’s scouting vessel – called a lighthorseman – was used by re-enactors to test whether the river described by James Rosier was the Penobscot or the St. George. The Penobscot won out in this particular contest, but I’ll bet this debate will still be going on a century hence when another group of history buffs will celebrate Waymouth’s 500th anniversary in yet a different way.

Wayne E. Reilly has edited two books of Civil War era diaries and letters including “The Diaries of Sarah Jane and Emma Ann Foster: A Year in Maine During the Civil War.” He can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net