The brand-spanking new destroyer USS Zumwald (DDG-1000) sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river in Maine, on it’s way to sea trials. All images by Ed Rice.
If you are curious, Fort Popham dates back to the 1850s when the granite block coastal defense post was constructed over what was an old American Revolution and later War of 1812-era battery. Named for Popham colony leader George Popham, the Fort was armed in time for the Civil War (though never fully completed) and mounted 36 Rodman guns and some 10-inch Parrott rifles arranged in two tiers of vaulted casemates.
In latter part of the 19th Century these were replaced by some 15-inch Rodman “shipkillers” and a single 8-inch M1888 breechloader and the fort was maintained through the early 1900s when it was placed into caretaker status with the construction of more modern nearby Fort Baldwin (who in turn mounted 3x 6-inch M1900/M1905 guns and 2x 3-inch M1903s for use against minesweepers for her locally planted fields; later replaced by four 155 mm M1918 guns on Panama Mounts in WWII).
Both Baldwin and Popham were fully decommissioned by the Army by 1949 and turned over to the state of Maine who maintains them as historic sites.
