Mariners' Memory Project
Their Stories. Our Heritage.
The Mariners' Memory Project preserves the voices, voyages, and living memory of maritime communities — through oral histories, archival records, and the stories passed down through generations.
From the collection
Stories Worth Keeping
New England1940s–1980s · 12 min read
Forty Years Before the Mast
Thomas Aldridge shipped out of Gloucester at sixteen and didn't set foot on land for more than a month at a time until he was fifty-six. His daughter recorded his memories over three winter evenings in 1987.
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Chesapeake Bay · 1920s–1960s
The Women Who Waited
An oral history of the wives, mothers, and daughters of the Chesapeake Bay watermen — the shore-side community that held everything together.
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New Bedford, MA · 1950s–1970s
Last of the Wooden Hulls
Shipwright Elias Correia recalls the final years of wooden boat construction in New Bedford, and the men who refused to let the craft die.
Read more →The archive
Records from the Deep
Logbooks
340+
Original ship's logs spanning two centuries of Atlantic and Pacific voyages, many donated by mariner families.
Photographs
2,400+
Oral Histories
180+
Recorded interviews with mariners, their families, and coastal community members.
Charts & Maps
520+
Navigational charts, coastal surveys, and hand-annotated route maps from working vessels.
From the logbook
Recent Entries
F/V Mary Constance
Georges Bank, 41°N
"Wind NNE, force 6. Hauled 800 fathoms of longline. Crew in good spirits despite the cold. Sighted three other vessels on the horizon at dawn — none we recognized."
— Donated by the Correia family, 2019
SS Aldridge Star
Gulf of Mexico
"Calm seas, visibility excellent. Passed through a school of dolphins at 0600 — the men took it as a good omen. Cargo holds secure. ETA New Orleans: two days."
— Donated by Thomas Aldridge Jr., 2021
Schooner Patience
Chesapeake Bay
"Heavy fog since midnight. Anchored off Tangier Island to wait it out. The cook made chowder. Nobody complained."
— Donated by the Watermen's Heritage Society, 2018
Join us
Your Memory Belongs Here
Every family has a story. A photograph tucked in a drawer. A name in a logbook. A voice that should have been recorded but wasn't — until now. The Mariners' Memory Project is built by the communities it serves. If your family has a connection to the sea, we want to hear from you.