Captain Mac: The Life of Donald Baxter MacMillan, Arctic Explorer
Torth Pole ARCTIC OCEAN Green land ice Coe Columbia GREE Robertson ICELAND EN Thale Qaanang Melville Green and Baffin Bay ce Sisimiliat Baffin Island Button Bowdoin Harbor CAS IN A DA Nas brador Battle Harbo Hudson Bay And no M a i ne Ne dland Cauti Brunswick Freeport Cape Breton Big Harbour Casco Bay Mal Provincetor ATLANTIC Worcester OCEAN a Cape Cod
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a biography about a man whose life was packed with adventure became an adventure I never imagined one that involved many people to whom I am indebted The book could not have been completed without the help of Bowdoin College Experts Dr Susan Kaplan and Dr Genevieve LeMoine at the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center willingly reviewed the manuscript and with their assistants pored over hundreds of photographs with me and searched for documentation in their archives And their recent successful efforts to digitize MacMillan's old films helped me see his adventures At the Bowdoin College Library the staff of the George J Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives pulled out dozens of diaries and journals and ship's logs for me to peruse Thanks also go to the staff at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum where I selected some of the photographs included in the book Two people at Maine Maritime Academy were especially helpfulCaptain Andy Chase for his communications and Captain John Worth for taking me sailing on the Bowdoin Back in the 1980s and 1990s when I was writing my first book about MacMillan I was privileged to interview several
people some of whom are no longer living Miriam MacMillan Mac’s niece May Fogg and a few of Mac’s boys Charles Hildreth Horace Hildreth William Rand Byron Turner and James Wiles whose memories helped me construct parts of chapters I appreciated talking with Stuart Hotchkiss who sailed the Bowdoin in World War II Special thanks go to two more of Mac’s boys Dr Edward Morse for his encouragement and Dr Peter Rand for his comments and for generously donating photographs I thank the United Church of Christ at North Gorham Maine where Mac taught more than a century ago when the building was a school for donating a rare formal photograph of MacMillan I am fortunate to have supportive writer friends in a local critique group as well as colleagues at writing retreats and to each of them I am grateful It is difficult to express the deep appreciation and respect I have for my editor Carolyn P Yoder She challenged me to perfect the manuscript while guiding and supporting me along the journey Finally thanks to my family my daughter who helped me understand the electricity and magnetism segments my son and daughter in law who lent editorial ears to chapter after chapter my mother who didn't live quite long enough to see the finished product but who read revisions with her English teacher viewpoint and my sister who helped sort through photographs Most of all I thank my husband who pored through research material with me solved computer problems and assumed scores of household duties supporting me
