Captain Richard F. Miller of Maine Maritime Academy will speak at the Castine Historical Society’s Annual Meeting

August 5th, 2021

The Castine Historical Society’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Program will be held via Zoom on Thursday August 19, at 4 p.m. The meeting is free and open to the public but pre-reservation is required.  To make a reservation either click HERE or call the office at 207-326-4118.

The program begins with a brief business meeting. During this time attendees can learn more about the Historical Society’s yearly work in the area of exhibits, collection acquisitions, care of the buildings, fundraising, and finances.

Following the meeting, Maine Maritime Academy instructor Captain Richard F. Miller will present a talk entitled “The Square Rigged Ship: Form & Function – Then and Now.” Captain Miller is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Marine Transportation at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. His classes of instruction include Terrestrial Navigation (Coastal Piloting), Celestial Navigation, Seamanship, Electronic Navigation, Meteorology, and Marine Weather Routing.

For more than 40 years he has successfully blended his academic training as an educator with his passion for sailing including sailing on a number of sail training vessels and with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. In 2008 he was master aboard Maine Maritime Academy’s schooner Bowdoin for a training expedition to the Arctic along the west coast of Greenland. Rick continues to be active as a mariner, sailing seasonally as a master of vessels transiting Pacific and Atlantic basins.

The Annual Meeting program accompanies the Castine Historical Society’s 2021 exhibit, Risky Business: Square-Rigged Ships and Salted Fish.  The exhibit reveals that risks Castine’s captains, seamen, merchants, and their families accepted in the commercial sailing business as they carried fish, cotton, and salt to and from distant ports in Castine-built square-rigged ships.

The Castine Historical Society serves as a window into Castine’s extraordinary past. The Historical Society preserves local history and hosts permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as lectures, education events, town walking tours, and house and garden tours. Exhibits are on display in its Abbott School gallery at 17 School Street, Castine. The Grindle House offices and research library are located at 13 School Street, Castine. Research appointments are limited at this time and should be made by emailing research@castinehistoricalsociety.org.

The Historical Society exhibits are free and open June 11 – October 11, Friday, Saturday, and Monday from 10 – 4; Sunday from 1-4. Free one-hour walking tours of Castine are offered Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 10:00 and Sunday at 2:00. For further information about exhibits, events, and the Historical Society visit castinehistoricalsociety.org, call 207-326-4118, or email info@castinehistoricalsociety.org