Down East: An Illustrated History of Maritime Maine To modern Mainers, "Down East" refers to the Maine coast east of Penobscot Bay. Maine author and humorist John Gould wrote that Down East is "a never-never land always east of where you are." But Lincoln Paine returns the phrase to its origins two centuries ago, when Down East meant the bold, serpentine coast teeming with timber and fish that one reached by sailing downwind and east from Boston on the prevailing southwest wind. In other words, Down East is the coast of Maine.
Paine's overview of Maine's maritime history ranges from early Native American travel and fishing to pre-Plymouth European settlements, wars, international trade, shipbuilding, boom-and-bust fisheries, immigrant quarrymen, quicklime production, yachting, and modern port facilities, all unfolding against one of the most dramatic seascapes on the planet.
After Down East was first published in 2000, Paine went on to write his monumental opus The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. Now he has returned home to the coast of Maine, to revise and update this gem of a book. This edition's wide-ranging and meticulously captioned photos, paintings, maps, and illustrations complement the incisive text to provide a truly visual journey along a storied coast and through its rich history.
