The Seaveys of Kennebunkport descend from William Seavey who moved to Arundel from Kittery in 1720. Like his father Captain Eli Seavey, our subject today was a ships carpenter in the shipyards for many years but Matthew eventually started building yachts on his own behalf, to operate as tourist excursion vessels.

Capt. Matthew B. Seavey’s Kennebunkport house was built at the corner of Ocean Ave. and Chestnut Street shortly before the devastating 1887 Skating Rink Fire that destroyed 13 buildings in the neighborhood. The fire scorched it in places, but fortunately Matthew’s new house was saved. Artist Abbott Graves later moved the house a little further up Chestnut Street to where it stands today, now known as Chetwynd House Inn.

Captain Seavey was regarded as a very competent sailor with bragging rights for having safely sailed his passengers out of some harrowing situations. U.S. Navy Battleship time trials from Cape Ann to Cape Porpoise were scheduled for July 12, 1899. Lots of locals were planning to watch the race from the top of Crow Hill, as was their habit but Captain Matthew Seavey offered chartered trips aboard his yacht Niobe that year to see the battleships up close and personal from outside Cape Porpoise Harbor. Miss Carita Clark, Miss Brathwaite, Miss C. G. Welch, Miss Galpin and two gentlemen signed up for the adventure.

The Niobe was about halfway between Cape Arundel and Cape Porpoise, when a sudden violent gust of wind blew in. The wire rigging on the Niobe gave way and an instant later the mast snapped off about three feet above the deck. Capt. Seavey rigged the spinnaker pole as a jury mast and hoisting his jib tried to run in the harbor but that too broke, and the Niobe, rocking and pitching in the chop, floated helplessly towards the rocks.

Mr. George Wakefield, keeper of the Cape Porpoise lighthouse, hastened in his sloop to the assistance of the disabled craft, arriving just as the squadron was passing the Niobe. One of the battleships actually slowed down as if to help but seeing that the lighthouse keeper was at hand, they steamed away.

Matthew’s son Freeman Seavey, who ran a paint shop near Union Square, also sailed tourists on Seavey vessels in and out of the Kennebunk River the early 1900s.