Boothbay Region High School students involved with Chip Schwehm’s shop classes and Nick Scott’s history classes will be teaming up with Mark Gimbel and Windjammer Emporium to build an exhibit. Schwehm brought students to the business Sept. 13 to get a feel for the space dedicated to Boothbay Harbor and the Midcoast’s shipbuilding and maritime history.

Among the exhibits are kiosks dedicated to the Bowdoin, shipbuilding during World Wars I and II, and the history of Hodgdon Yachts, a project Gimbel hired BRHS alumna Page Brown to research and create last summer.

“She (helped) do all the research and all the history on (Hodgdon Yachts) since they started in 1816,” Gimbel said. However, Gimbel wants students to think outside the box and come up with a project that tells history and stands out on its own.

“Photographs are great, but it doesn't have to be that. It can be something constructed and mounted … it could be something three-dimensional that steps up. There are plenty of different options.”

The business also displays a model ship based on the Titanic which Gimbel admits is a stretch, but “what would a museum be without the Titanic?”

Gimbel explained that even though the Titanic is not local, his research found there were 27 passengers aboard the ship who lived or summered in Maine between Bar Harbor and Vassalboro. That testament to thorough research is why Gimbel suggests students keep in touch with Boothbay Region Historical Society’s Barbara Rumsey and Penobscot Marine Museum as sources for information and photos.

“That's it in a nutshell,” Gimbel said at the end of his tour and presentation. “Throughout the whole day there are hundreds of people coming in here … sometimes more than once, so whatever you guys develop, I'm sure your parents, family members, and friends are all going to want to come in and check out the fruits of your investigative labor.”

Schwehm said the teachers are trying to get the ideas for the project from the students and he is already in touch with Bristol Marine and with Rumsey, who invited students to create one or two exhibits for the Historical Society. “We studied the ice industry a bit, took them to Oven's Mouth one of the first two days of classes just to see the old ice dam. So, we're trying to whet their appetite a little bit and then I think we'll zero in on what would be good exhibits.”

In the meantime, Gimbel already has several ideas brewing like a navigational timeline or a moving project showing the process of ice harvesting.

“I've got two planks that actually came from the Bowdoin when they were restoring it … I told Chip, ‘If you guys want to make something you can use those!’ … I think it's interesting. You get the kids involved, and it'll change over time.”