Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry: Maine's Worst Maritime Tragedy

By: Mac Smith

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Synopsis: &“Sunday, August 6, 1899, is a date that for many years will be held in memory as signalizing the most dreadful accident that has ever occurred within the boundaries of the state of Maine.&”Bangor Daily Commercial, August 7, 1899In an era when the only means of travel to the new, glamorous, and growing resort of Bar Harbor was through a small, isolated, rural-yet-elegant point of land on the mainland in the small town of Hancock, Disaster at Mount Desert Ferry tells the true story of what was, at the time, Maine&’s deadliest disaster. The heartbreaking tale starts with the arrival of a train overcrowded with passengers anxious to be among the first to cross the bay and their rush for a ferry with too few seats, turning a casual summer Sunday outing into a scene of chaos, tragedy, death and heroism, occurring as quickly as the break of a wooden gangplank. Disaster at Mount Desert Ferry tells not only the complete story of the people and the events of that day, but of a time and way of life long gone by and nearly forgotten.