Windjammer fleet to grace Camden Harbor Ships cap weekend-long celebration

CAMDEN – About 20 windjammers are expected to fill the harbor Labor Day weekend to celebrate a time a century ago when hundreds of coastal schooners and wooden masts lined the town’s waterfront.

The 12th annual Windjammer Weekend will include a visit by the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a Navy frigate from Mayport, Fla., to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the original William Conway Day.

Conway, a Navy quartermaster from Camden, is remembered because he refused to haul down his country’s flag at the surrender of Pensacola Navy Yard to the Confederacy Jan. 12, 1861.

In 1906, the town erected a boulder at Elm and Union streets and inscribed a memorial plaque in recognition of Conway’s “sturdy loyalty.”

The weekend activities, workshops, food and music will draw about 2,000 visitors from the time the windjammer fleet arrives at noon Friday until the Sunday concert at 9:30 p.m.

“This is the first time a Navy vessel has been in Camden Harbor in the past half century,” said Jim Leonard, marketing director for the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce.

The port visit also serves as a kind of homecoming for the Samuel B. Roberts’ captain, Cmdr. Marc Weeks, a native of Caribou and 1983 graduate of Caribou High School. The 200-member crew of the frigate will participate in the festival weekend and annual Conway Day parade and festivities, Leonard said.

The nonprofit Windjammer Committee puts on the festival with help from the town, which allows a rider and pays the wages for the harbor department during the festival, Leonard said.

Festival founder and organizer Annie Higbee, a former “schooner bum,” or worker on the schooners, said she thought of the idea 12 years ago as a way to enable schooner workers to meet the people who sailed on the ships.

Also, she said, not much was happening in Camden on Labor Day.

“The history of the area is phenomenal and romantic,” she said. “It gave us a chance to show it to the world.”

The owner of Annie Higbee Imagewright, Higbee said she spends all year organizing the event.

Windjammers for the weekend include ships from Belfast, Rockland, Rockport, and Castine.

The schooners will form at 1 p.m. Friday at Curtis Island to be escorted into the harbor by Harbor Master Steve Pixley. Visitors will be able to watch the show from the Camden Public Landing and listen to stories about the historic vessels.

“All events are free,” said Pixley.

At 5 p.m., there is a captain’s call followed by a Schooner Bum Talent Show with crews and passengers at Harbor Park at 6:30 p.m.

Fireworks put together by Blue Hill Pyrotechnics will be displayed from a barge in the harbor at 9 p.m. Local resident Arthur Tibbetts donated the barge, Pixley said.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, a blessing of the fleet and a flag raising will occur at the harbor master’s shack at the Camden Public Landing. Then organizers will have a parade through downtown starting at 9 a.m. and a ceremony at Harbor Park at 10 a.m. to commemorate Conway Day.

Also at 10 a.m., a build-a-boat contest, treasure hunt and demonstrations and nautical crafts begin at the public landing.

The annual Chowdah Challenge will begin at 11 a.m. with a group of local chefs competing against the U.S. Navy’s cooks making chowder. The event will end Sunday afternoon or until the chowder runs out.

This year’s winner will be featured in Edible Coastal Magazine, a sponsor of the event, Leonard said. The winner will be announced at a free concert in Harbor Park at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Civil War enactment will begin at noon at the Conway Homestead, one mile south of Camden village on U.S. Route 1. Other events include and open house aboard participating windjammers and boats at 2 p.m., the Harbor Hounds Dog Show at Harbor Park at 3 p.m., and military drills and demonstrations, field music, and evening colors at Conway Homestead beginning at 5 p.m.

The 1937 version of “Captains Courageous” will be shown free at 4 p.m. at the Bay View Cinema.

On Sunday, a Civil War encampment will be open at the Conway Homestead from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., consisting of a field church service at 9:30 and military drills and demonstrations.

Other events include a Schooner Pie Baking Contest at 1 p.m. at the public landing, open house aboard participating windjammers and boats at 2 p.m., and a Dirigo vintage baseball game to be played at Camden Snow Bowl diamond on Hosmer Pond Road at 2:15 p.m.

The Harbor Boat Parade marking the 100th anniversary of the Camden Yacht Club begins at 4 p.m. followed by a free concert at Harbor park at 7 p.m. and a concert sea music at Gilbert’s Publick House at 9:30 p.m.