Welcome to Windjammer Days.

We hope you will enjoy a celebration of our maritime heritage.

We also hope you will spend some time wandering through our community. Our restaurants and inns offer some of the best, nay, the best, seafood on the East Coast. Our shops offer items you won’t find in the city.

Let me tell you a little about our festival, for Windjammer Days is more than a celebration of commerce. It is a celebration of us and our heritage.

When the schooners, young and old, hoist their sails and glide into the harbor, it is more than a magnificent sight, for once these vessels were the heart of our community.

Before Christopher Columbus let Europe know of the “new world,” brave sailors stepped onto small wooden sailing ships and headed West. Using the stars and primitive instruments, they navigated the dangerous waters of the North Atlantic.

Somehow, without radar, radio, GPS, or smartphones, they found North America. Some of them found the island off Boothbay Harbor we know as Damariscove. There they found a fortune.

No, it was not gold, silver, or diamonds. It was a fish we call cod, a fish that was abundant, easy to catch, and, best of all, in an age before electricity and refrigeration, a fish which could be dried, salted and preserved for transport back to the markets of Europe.

Why don’t the history books tell us about how these brave sailors and fishermen discovered America? Why did Columbus get all the credit?

Think about it for a minute. They were fishermen, fishermen who found the best fishing hole the world had ever seen. Did you ever know a fisherman who would tell you the location of his special spot? Of course not.

When the Pilgrims found Plymouth Rock and set up shop, they gave thanks and started to scratch out a living. They quickly discovered they were fond of eating but were not very good at farming. So, as winter approached, they asked the Damariscove fishermen for help.

Being good folks, the fishermen gave the Pilgrims some food that helped the settlers get through the winter.

According to some accounts, the Pilgrims came back the next year asking for another handout. This time, the Damariscove fishermen provided them with fish, but this time, they sold it to them.

In 1607, not far from here, at the mouth of the Kennebec River, a group of English settlers built a fort. They didn’t stay long, and some say, became Maine’s first summer people. But, they crafted a boat, a sailing ship. It was the first of hundreds of sailing ships crafted on our shores.

Look around at the forests that line our streets and hills. A hundred years ago, these hillsides were naked, as we chopped the trees down to build the sailing ships, our homes, and fuel our fireplaces.

Sailing ships, like those in our harbor today, were the engines of commerce, bringing our wares — fish, wood and even ice, yes, ice, to Boston, New York and beyond.

Sailing these vessels was tough, backbreaking work. It was also dangerous and deadly.

If you wander through the small cemeteries that dot our hillsides and woodlands, you will find headstones with the names of those who sailed away and didn’t return. Under their names, you will find the phrase “Lost at Sea.”

A key element of the Windjammer Days event calendar is the “Blessing of the Fleet.” As part of that event, the reading of the names of those lost at sea is the most poignant moment of the festival. That is also when our fishermen parade their vessels past the local clergy seeking the blessings of the Almighty.

Hardworking fishermen, now equipped with radar, GPs, Loran and other electronic devices, sail out of our harbor in boats, wooden and composite, seeking the fruits of the ocean. However, today, those vast stocks of cod are gone as are other species.

Now, our hardy fishermen seek the Maine lobster, once a common food for the poor. In posh eateries around the world, from Boothbay to China, you can find it on the menu, followed by the phrase “market price.”

FYI, you can, and should try one while you are here.

These lobsters are hauled from the bottom in metal traps by fishermen. Unlike their grandfathers, they no longer depend on sailing schooners to feed their children.

But, despite all their modern equipment, diesel engines, and practiced skills, these Boothbay fishermen, and their families, always keep one eye on the weather and the other on the sea. As they pull lobsters from the bottom, they know they are at peril from the sea.

So, welcome to Boothbay Harbor’s Windjammer Days. We hope you enjoy the historic schooners. They are a living reminder that our nation and our community are forever linked to the sea.