Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay (FOMB) on Tuesday, March 13, at 7pm in Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library for the 6th presentation of FOMB’s 15th annual Winter Speaker Series. This program, “Steamboating on the Sasanoa-Bath to Boothbay”, features nautical historian, musicologist and musician Charlie Ipcar.

Even before Maine became “Vacationland”, Boothbay Harbor was a place known for the restorative powers of its clean air and waters. Each summer during the early 1900’s, vacationers would arrive in Bath by train or steamer and perhaps eat breakfast while their trunks were loaded onto small island steamers that navigated down the Sasanoa, through the Hell Gates to Boothbay. In the early 20th century, small steamboats were the preferred way to travel in midcoast Maine. The Bath-to-Boothbay route was developed by the Eastern Steamboat Co. Ipcar's presentation will feature vintage photographs of the steamboats, their crews and their island stops along the coast. The program will be introduced with an original song that is a tribute to their history.

Charlie Ipcar has deep Maine roots and knows its waters well. He is a researcher of nautical history and music; and a singer of nautical songs he has presented around the world. Since the early 1990's he has performed sea music with Roll & Go throughout Maine and the other New England states. Ipcar accompanies most of his songs with the 5-string banjo or Anglo concertina. He has performed solo at festivals, folk clubs, coffee houses and house concerts from coast to coast in the States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia and has recorded numerous CD's. In 2008 Ipcar was a featured performer and workshop leader at the Mystic Sea Music Festival. He and his wife now live in Richmond.

The FOMB Winter Speaker Series takes place monthly from October-May on the second Tuesday or Wednesday. The series, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay with support and valuable door prizes from Patagonia Outlet in Freeport. The next FOMB presentation, on April 10th at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick entitled “Tails of the Kennebec & Sebasticook” features Nate Gray, fisheries restoration biologist with the Department of Marine Resources.

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