Hippocampus

04/05/2023

01/05/2013

09/05/2012

If my old memory is not at fault, Arthur Ladd lived in Castine in his later years. I can remember in the early 1950's the Hippocampus leaving Castine in the early morning, heading to Belfast with mail. Many days, only that distinctive old engine could be heard in the early fog, but the rest never seen.

Capt. Ladd knew the way. In the evening, the mail boat would return, and Capt. Ladd would personally carry the mail in a saddlebag over one shoulder, with a shotgun over the other, up main street to the Castine post office. Verry exciting stuff for a small lad interested in pirates.
-David Rogers
Brooksville, ME

08/28/2012

Capt. Ladd had a string of of lobster traps around the monument in in Belfast Bay and once the passengers were disembarked, Ladd and his mate, Clarence Gray, would become lobster fisherman and sternman, presaging the Hippo's coming life as a fishing vessel.
- Charlie Hall

08/21/2012

In the true tradition of the sea, Capt. Ladd kept a crock of rum onboard for "medicinal" purposes. When the right amount of "medicine" had been ingested, he would show any new passengers the seaworthiness of the Hippocampus by unsheathing a large knife and driving it full force into her planking. "Just as good as the day she was built, boys," he would say. "And for a dollar a trip."

-Peter Clifford