LB2016.15.1520

LB2016.15.1520

The steamer VIKING with a dangerously large group of people lining her decks, on the St. Croix River, near Calais, Maine. The VIKING was, like CLARA CLARITA, built as a yacht and retained her speed while in service as the property of the Kimball Company. There was little question in the mind of Vinalhaven old-timers that she was a faster boat than the celebrated FOREST QUEEN, but the fact remains that in their only real test the VIKING took the lead and then blew a pipe or whatever it is that steamboats do when hard-pressed and allowed the QUEEN to come in victorious. In spite of that, VIKING was very popular, not only at Vinalhaven and Rockland but also at Belfast, which saw so much of her. VIKING was less than a year old when she appeared in Penobscot waters and remained there, documented at first out of Belfast in 1892 and then with Rockland as her homeport until 1896 when she was solod to Canadian interests and ran in passenger service for a considerable period in the Campobellow area. In 1909 she was laid up at Deer Island, New Brunswick and went to pieces on the bank. "2585"