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By TOM BELL, Staff Writer August 26, 2007

Maine yards today are known for building high-quality small and midsize yachts. But before World War II, some of the biggest private yachts to sail were built in Maine.

In 1884, Bath Iron Works built the 220-foot yacht Eleanor, the largest and most luxurious American-built yacht at the time.

The Eleanor had both sails and a steam engine. It carried enough coal for it to travel 4,000 miles on steam alone.

The elegant staterooms were trimmed in oak, butternut and mahogany woods. Persian rugs covered the floors.

Each stateroom was plumbed with hot and cold water – including saltwater.

The owner's cabin was equipped with steam heat, speaking tubes for communicating with the captain, and engineer and electric bells to summon the servants.

Promptly after it was completed, the owners, William and Eleanor Slater of Connecticut, embarked on a two-year, around-the- world "grand tour" with a crew of 30.

In 1899, Bath Iron Works built an even bigger yacht, the 330- foot Aphrodite, for Oliver H. Payne, who was one of the major partners of Standard Oil.

In 1927, the yard began building steel yachts that could be competitive in price with those built in German yards.

It built 18 before the end of 1931.

The biggest was the Corsair IV, a 343-foot, steel-hulled, turbo- electric-powered yacht for J.P. Morgan Jr. It was the largest yacht in the world.

During the April 1930 launching, Bath Iron Works officials kept the crowd outside the fence because of security concerns.

This was during the Great Depression, and some people were angry that the Morgan family was spending so much money on a pleasure craft at a time when many American families were impoverished, according to a 1930 article in Time magazine.

Bath Iron Works had even received letters from people threatening to dynamite the $2.5-million yacht.

But the threat never materialized, and the yacht – with its decorative scroll work and polished mahogany cabins – "slid perfectly into the Kennebec River, where it floated nicely," according to the Time correspondent at the scene. "In the excitement, one Fred Meillieux, employee of the Iron Works, fell off a 40-foot roof."

Also that year, Bath Iron Works launched the Aras (Sara backward) for Hugh J. Chisholm, the founder of International Paper Co.

The 243-foot ship was acquired by the United States government in 1941 and later became the presidential yacht for Harry S. Truman.

The yacht, now located in Italy, has fallen into disrepair and is currently for sale for $11.8 million.

By the 1930s, America's elite began to prefer smaller yachts – schooners in the 40- to 60-foot range – that could be handled by amateur crews, according to historian Roger F. Duncan, 91, of East Boothbay.

Duncan's 1992 book "Coastal Maine" provides the most complete history of yachting in the state.

Duncan writes that naval architects, such as John Alden and Winthrop Warner, began to design vessels that could meet their clients' needs, and then they solicited bids from Maine builders.

Some of the finest builders were the Hodgdon Brothers and Rice Brothers in East Boothbay, F.F. Pendleton in Woolwich, Charles Morse in Thomaston and Wilbur Morse in Friendship.

In the 1920s and '30s, as the popularity of yachting as a status symbol spread rapidly, Maine became known as the place for "small and classy" yachts, Duncan said in a telephone interview from his home.

He said architects found they could build their boats in Maine for less money than in other states.

"People began to get interested in price and style," he said. "There were a lot of experienced boatbuilders in Maine who soon adapted themselves to yacht building, and they were less expensive than the yards to the westward."

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at

tbell@pressherald.com