For many years there have been copies of an image at the museum that I was uneasy about. The shot supposedly showed a fleet of battleships in the outer harbor, yet traditional local sources did not seem to mention visits by such impressive vessels. I would have thought it was a banner event for the region, and I'd wanted to write about it for a long time. With no scrap of detail about the shot to confirm or correct it, I couldn't write, and I was aware that a fraction of photos were badly mislabeled. I hoped it was a Boothbay photo, but needed location, vessel identifications and a date.

The white fleet?

In March of 2013 I decided to take the photo out of the limbo of being identified, but possibly wrongly. You stumble over the limbo stuff too often as you go about your day. The shot was reputed to show the North Atlantic fleet off Squirrel Island in 1915.

I'd heard, as had many people, of "the great white fleet" (16 battleships and 14,000 men) that Teddy Roosevelt sent around the world in 1907 on a 14-month goodwill mission, combined with a demonstration of our power. Yet these ships were reputed to have been here in 1915. Hmm.

Our resident local expert on boatbuilding and vessels, including Navy vessels, is Robert Rice. As we focused in on the photo, he remarked that the ships just didn't look like the wide-hulled white fleet. That seemed to throw out the 1907-1909 white fleet. I read about that fleet and found it did not come to Maine, so it was settled two ways.

Another lead on one photo caption was that the battleships were attending the tennis tournaments on Squirrel Island. Yet there was no mention of a visit in Squirrel's printed histories, of which we have a couple. Nor in writing Squirrel people could they help.

I told Robert I'd go back to the local society sources: Clifford's 1906-1960 region history; filed documents on vessels; and the Boothbay Register notes I'd taken on all surviving issues to 1944, with focus on those from 1876 up through 1915.

I did so, though I'd been through those sources countless times; I found no mention, but that didn't mean it hadn't happened. The sources cherry-picked info.

Robert Rice gets to work

Handicaps in identifying the photo were: the haze when the shot was taken, and the ships' coal smoke obscuring features. Other problems — ships of the same class looked identical and vessel names were repeated in successive generations of ships.

There have been eight Naval vessels called Massachusetts. Talking about them had to include added details. Also, since some traveled together or never did, there was constant mixing and matching, "If this one, then not that one." It was a puzzle requiring that many variables be kept in mind.

Robert could only afford a little time to consult his books on Naval vessels, and came up with tentative identifications of the ships by their features, including how many stacks, visible guns, turrets and so on. He guessed at least the Kansas, Virginia, Indiana and Massachusetts in the aughts, maybe between 1907 and 1910. He said he'd confirm their identities when he could.

Jonathan Eno helps out

Back in January 2013, Jonathan Eno of the Bar Harbor area wrote asking for images of World War II rescue tugs and aircraft rescue boats built by Sample's and Norman Hodgdon shipyards, which we had. He was working on a book on Naval vessels that came into Frenchman's Bay from 1876 to 2003, and hoped for images of all of them.

Remembering his deep knowledge of Naval vessel that steamed that far down east, I asked for his help. Ships that went to Bar Harbor had to go by Boothbay.

Jonathan was generous with his knowledge and time to answer my question, "Can you account for battleships on the coast of Maine in the early 1900s — aughts or teens?"

His response shows his depth of knowledge: "My best guess is that your photo is early 1900, perhaps before. In the photo enclosed, there are five ships. The only dates that put them all together are 1897, 1899 and 1900. That said, 1903 saw the visit here of the entire North Atlantic Fleet, roughly 40-50 ships including support vessels. There would be a fair possibility that your photo relates to that time. 1904 was not a big year here, most battleships went to the Med on a cruise. 1905 was again a big year for battleships so this too is a possibility."

Additionally, he had a copy of the very image we were working on, sent to him by Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

I may not know much about Navy vessels, but I know who to get to help — Robert and Jonathan!

Next week: the effort to nail down the battleships' identities, date and location continues.