10/15/2026
Wayne Hamilton stopped lobster fishing as young man after a back injury. While growing his successful marine supply retail business, he also served for decades as the harbor master to Searsport, ME, and ferried commercial ship pilots to and from nearby Mack Point, a bustling terminal. The sights he saw captured his photographic eye. Photo archives volunteer Louise Seekins cataloged the first few hundred slides.
-Nested in sea ice, the Danish ship ATLANTIDE sits tied at the pier at Mack Point, with Sears Island behind. February 1976
-The cargo ship METTA BEWA sits docked at Mack Point. March 1973
-The Ivaran Lines cargo ship SAO PAULO is anchored in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Searsport, ME in April 1976.
-Several men stand on makeshift staging to load sacks of potatoes from a rail car and onto a conveyor, which lifts them up to a waiting cargo vessel. February 1977
-A tug noses a towering ship toward the pier at Mack Point in March 1976.
-The general cargo ship TINNES was built in 1969 by Lurssen Bardenfleth shipyard in Bardenfleth, Germany. A waiting row of rail dollies sits in the foreground, with the gantries at Mack Point visible behind. date unknown
-The general cargo ship KASTAV lies at anchor in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Searsport, with Sears Island to its right. KASTAV was built in 1969 by Fincantieri Monfalcone in Monfalcone, Italy. May 1975
-The pier in Searsport harbor sits hushed on a spring afternoon. Note the reinforced wheel tracks which lead out to the loading area and waiting cranes to facilitate heavy vehicle traffic. April 1976
-The cargo ship TUHOBIC served in the shipping line Jugolinija, based in Rijeka, Croatia. Shown during a Penobscot anchorage off Searsport, she appears to have a full load of containers. August 1974
-Workers in the hold of a ship at Mack Point unload pallets of tapioca; they and the hold are dusted liberally with the stuff. September 1973
