260 degrees from 43.9279 x -69.7908 (top) sight vector 240 degrees (below)

Rising from the outflow of Moosehead Lake, the Kennebec River travels more than one hundred and fifty miles before passing through a bottleneck of sandy tidal flats to enter the Gulf of Maine. Located at the southern end of the narrows is a small peninsula bounded to the east by the sea, and by Atkins Bay to the west. Below the tip of Sabino Head is a flat, slightly elevated piece of ground upon which in 1607 an English colony was founded by the Virginia Company.

Map of St.George’s Fort, Phippsburg. Maine 1607. Courtesy Maine Historical Society

Like Jamestown, which was settled the same year, the site was fortified against the elements and hostile acts by the French, Spanish and indigenous Abenaki, who were less than welcoming. Finding itself rudderless following the death of its governor Sir George Popham, the colony was abandoned in 1608. Due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Kennebec River, defensive positions at Popham Point were improved during every national conflict, up to and including the Second World War. Most notable among these is a two-tiered casemated Third-System forty-two-gun coastal fortification. Using local granite, construction began in 1861. Building ceased on the unfinished structure in 1869. Looking south across the mouth of the Kennebec from Drummond Point I embraced the format of a double panorama; left side on top, right side below. The blocky profile of Fort Popham appears at top right, while the Popham Colony site begins just beyond it to the right, continuing on the left side of the lower vista.

View of the gorge (rear wall facing the land) of Fort Popham. April 12, 2016. 6:10 pm

Working on the painting @ Drummond Point.
August 2, 2019. 4pm

a href=”https://www.schifferbooks.com/sketchbook-traveler-hudson-valley-6989.html”>Now available to own: Sketchbook Traveler: Hudson Valley

Explore my Quaranteam Dispatches, from April 1-June 8, 2020