What was life like for a Maine schooner captain in the late 1800s? At the age of 16, Anders Anderson left his family farm in Sweden and sailed around the world for six years. In 1886 he settled in Stonington, Maine for the difficult and dangerous work of the granite quarries. When he returned to sea he worked his way up to become captain and married a lighthouse keeper’s daughter. Capt. Anderson sailed schooners out of Rockland, Maine until 1932 and through four shipwrecks he never lost a crewman. During one of those shipwrecks he kept his crew alive for two days and nights in an open dory in frigid February weather.

The compelling story of this remarkable man will be told by his grandson John R. Anderson in the illustrated talk “Capt. Anders Anderson, Penobscot Bay Captain of Maine Granite Schooners” on Thursday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. at Boothbay Railway Village. Admission is free, a $5 donation is appreciated. This lecture is part of the month-long Maine Coast Stone Symposium at Boothbay Railway Village.

Rockland, Maine native John R. Anderson has transcribed and published over 30 years of his grandfather’s journals. Capt. Anderson sailed mostly three-masted schooners along the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean and for much of his career he sailed Maine granite southbound from quarries including Clark Island, Vinalhaven, and Somes Sound.  John’s research on his grandfather has taken him to a Maine island to recover pieces of his grandfather’s ship and the granite it was carrying.  He has recently completed a biography of Capt. Anderson “Borne on the Wind; The Life and Journals of Captain Anders Anderson."

Boothbay Railway Village is located at 586 Wiscasset Road (Route 27), Boothbay. For more information call 633-4727 or go to www.railwayvillage.org.