We’ve been researching all of South Portland’s early shipyards this year and that research has really helped to shed light on master shipbuilders like Thomas Knight, Daniel Brewer, Joseph W. Dyer, and Benjamin W. Pickett. These men were all multi-talented, but “shipbuilder” would certainly be a defining word for them.

Today we look at Capt. Philip Doyen who, while clearly skilled in the construction of large wooden ships, spent much of his working career in other maritime and construction activities.

The launch of the steam lighter America from the Doyen Shipyard in 1914. The Hannaford supermarket is now located on this site in Mill Creek. South Portland Historical Society photo

The Doyen Shipyard was located on the piece of land where Hannaford in Mill Creek now sits. While there has been fill put in on that site, if you go behind Hannaford at low tide, you can still observe remnants of the shipyard where they were actively building wooden ships as late as World War I.

Philip Doyen was born circa 1857 and married Ella Jones in 1883. They had at least six children, starting with Effie in 1890, followed by Philip Jr., Clifford, Minnie, Lloyd and Elsie. The family lived in a home on Highland Avenue.

In 1892, Doyen had an 86-ton barge built by a shipyard in Kennebunk. He named it the Ajax and used it in his lighter and freight business and for wrecking purposes. In 1899, Doyen established his own shipyard at Mill Creek.

He set about to build a very large sloop scow, named the Atlas. Doyen oversaw the entire build, including heading out to find the lumber to be used in the construction. He hired Frank Coombs of South Portland to serve as his construction foreman; Coombs and a crew of local men took just over two months to construct the sailing barge. It was 90 feet long and had a carrying capacity of about 200 tons. A derrick on board could lift up to 25 tons.

Phil spent his entire career engaged in activities along the coast of Maine. At various times he was a lighterman (transporting freight with his lighters, scows and barges), he salvaged wrecked ships, he built stone piers, and did dredging work. His lighters were used to carry anything from paper from paper mills to the stone used in the construction of breakwaters at Bar Harbor, Isles of Shoals, and the jetty at the entrance to the Saco River.

A look at various news articles gives an idea of the variety of work that he and his company undertook. In December 1908, Doyen signed a contract for a large job up in Rockland. He took his lighters and crew and headed up there, where he built large granite retaining walls. In May of 1912, Doyen had a diver up in the Bar Harbor area inspecting an underwater sewer pipe and assessing needed repairs. In October of 1912, Doyen was in Portsmouth supervising the construction of a steel bridge that would connect Belle Isle, also known as Lady Isle, to the mainland.

In 1914, Doyen again tried his hand at shipbuilding when he built and launched the steam lighter, America. He would use this barge in his lighter business and would also lease it out as a freighter.

In late 1916, when World War I was underway overseas, Doyen met with some agents from New York who represented a group of Greek companies and negotiated shipbuilding contracts worth over $1 million. Per the first contracts, he was to build a 225-foot long, 1,800-ton capacity steam freighter and two large, wooden, ocean-going tugs. He also sold his steam lighter America to them. Thus it was that Doyen made the decision to change his business model and came to devote his business primarily to the work of shipbuilding.

Over the course of 1917, the shipyard was busy and Doyen expanded on his original contracts. The first of these contracted steamers to launch was the Bourbancy, however, the launch did not go smoothly. In an article from late December 1917, the activities at the yard were described: “In spite of several attempts that have been made lately to launch the steamer Bourbancy at the P.H. Doyen Co.’s yard, South Portland, each has been a failure. Following a good high tide a fresh attempt was made yesterday morning but the craft refused to budge an inch. Good progress is making on the two other steamers now well along in the yard, and the keel for the fourth boat, which was proposed to stretch on the ways occupied by the Bourbancy, has now been laid in another port of the yard.”

The Bourbancy ended up freezing in for the winter, but was finally launched in April 1918 after the ice was out of the cove.

The next vessel to launch was the steamer Liberty in June, 1918, built for the Liberty Steamship Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Like the Bourbancy, there were problems with launching the large ship into Mill Cove. According to an Evening Express article, “Several attempts have been made to launch the ship at the Doyen yards at Knightville, but all have failed, although in some cases the ship has moved down the ways a few feet. Last night the ship slid about eight feet when the rigging parted. Another effort on the high tide this morning was equally unsuccessful. The Liberty has to travel her own length before she will float.”

They finally got her launched around June 9, then installed her boilers in Portland and sent her to East Boston to have her machinery installed. The commander of the Liberty, Capt. P.J. Richards, was the right man for the job. According to another article in the Evening Express, Capt. Richards “had experience during the past few years in sailing through the war zone and commanded ships in the Mediterranean and has seen two U-boats go to the bottom by gun fire from the boats which he commanded. The Liberty will be equipped with large guns, special mountings having been made for them at the time the boat was built.”

Due to the difficulties with the ship launches, Doyen extended the ways several hundred feet farther into the water and arranged for a deeper channel to be dredged at his yard. The dredging was completed in early November 1918, and the steam freighter Styliani was launched successfully on Nov. 16. The Styliani was then towed over to the Deering Winslow wharf and plans were made for the installation of her machinery there.

While we are clear about the launch of the Bourbancy, the Liberty, and the Styliani, what is not clear is the fate of the steamer Salamis. The Salamis was reportedly nearly ready for launch in October, but mention is made of the proposed launch being pushed to Nov. 16. We have found no articles detailing the launch of the ship on Nov. 16, however, so our research continues. The armistice was called on Nov. 11, of course, so unless there was another ship under construction in the yard, the Salamis could have been the ship that makes up the end of the Doyen shipyard story:

According to a retrospective article about the Doyen yard, published around the time when shipbuilding picked up again in World War II, Doyen’s shipyard met its demise because Doyen wasn’t receiving payments for the ships under the Greek contracts, leaving him to pay his men out of his own pocket until he finally just shut the yard down. The last ship was left right where it was on the stocks. According to the article, the abandoned ship became a landmark in Knightville: “Section by section the frame was cut down and its smoke from the chimneys of Knightville and Portland homes answered the endless questioning of the passersby, ‘What are they going to do with it?’

Phil Doyen is an interesting figure in our community’s past. He was active politically and served as an alderman in South Portland for several years. He also enjoyed owning and racing horses at fairs across the state. His very close friend, Bobby Stanwood, who lived with the Doyen family for many years, was often the trainer and driver of Doyen’s horses.

South Portland Historical Society can be reached by phone at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or on Facebook. You can link to the society’s online museum through its website at www.sphistory.org.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.