By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

The Kennebunk River was the first body of water 82-year-old Kennebunkport resident Cecil Benson would cross, although certainly not the last. Benson returned to Cape Porpoise in Kennebunkport in 1984, where his family has been for three generations, a United States Coast Guard licensed captain. He has spent more than one third of his life at sea as crew and commander of Navy and merchant vessels, some more than 700 feet in length.

When he was 11-years-old, Benson’s father, a blacksmith and sailor, told him he could have his own sailboat, should he successfully swim across the Kennebunk River, which Benson said he promptly did.

“It was a club boat,” Benson said. “It was small, wooden and had a centerboard. I learned to sail on it.”

Despite the potential for Benson to become a professional boat builder by learning from the many builders in the neighborhood, including his uncle, he enrolled in the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) at Castine after graduating high school in 1949.

“It was kind of a natural thing,” Benson said.

Benson graduated from MMA shortly after the end of World War II with a merchant marine license and a Navy midshipman rank. He began “working through the ranks” on merchant ships, specifically those transporting bananas to ports including Dublin, Copenhagen, Bremen and even some in Japan for the shipping company United Fruit.

“When I first started we had to load the cargo by hand, you know,” he said. “I can remember carrying boxes and boxes into the hold, now it’s all done with large containers.”

After six years on a number of different banana boats, Benson received a call from the Navy in 1954, and he spent two years as a full lieutenant during the Korean War. Benson said he never engaged in combat, but could recall a different kind of Naval battle.

“I’d been through several hurricanes, one was on a Navy tanker in 1955. She was 75 percent loaded, with only six feet of freeboard. I was the navigator, and when I discussed it with the captain, we decided to go out to sea. We didn’t want to be anywhere close to land,” he said. “Tankers are like that, it’s the name of the game.”

Benson said it’s natural for seamen to try to avoid rough weather and to stay calm when they cannot. 

It was during his time in the Navy that Benson met his wife, Ann, in Norfolk, Va. 

“We got married and had a kid right off the bat,” he said.

Benson returned to Maine with his wife and newborn after completing his tour with the Navy. He said it wasn’t an easy choice to leave the military because of its potential for his success, for at the time the Navy was in need of young officers such as Benson.

“Sometimes I didn’t think I was earning my living, there just wasn’t a whole lot to do,” he said. “I didn’t think it was a good life for a newly married bride.”

With his new family in mind, Benson said he was determined to attend the University of Maine at Orono (UMO) in 1956 for mechanical engineering.

“I was interested in mechanics. As it turns out, that’s not what mechanical engineering is. School didn’t really work out,” he said.

After spending two years in the mechanical engineering program at UMO, Benson and his wife purchased their Kennebunkport home and he returned to sea serving as an officer for American Export Lines. He earned his captains license serving as either a chief-mate or skipper on a variety of different vessels while his wife stayed in Kennebunkport to raise their three children.

“Going to sea is a tough battle, it takes a lot of patience,” he said.

Benson said he was allowed two weeks vacation a year when he first returned to the shipping business, and was out of contact with his wife and growing family when he wasn’t at home.

“Eventually, through the Union’s help the working conditions improved so we earned one vacation day for every one we worked. Six months on and six months off. That wasn’t too hard to take,” he said.

The six-month schedule required the shipping company to employ two full time crews, which would allow sailors to coordinate their time off so they could attend events at home, Benson said. The increasingly flexible schedule even allowed Benson and his family time to sail the Mei Yen, which means “beautiful woman” in Chinese, a 30-foot wooden Choy Lee ketch Benson bought in Hong Kong.

“They put the boat, in its cradle, on a ship and sent it over, free of charge,” he said. “That boat was a part of the family. All boats are family.”

During his time with the American Export fleet, Benson was chosen to serve as an officer aboard the 600-foot, 20,000-ton nuclear powered Savannah, a military cargo ship used to transport supplies. Although Benson said he never skippered the Savannah, he served as a relief master and traveled to Norway, France, England and Germany while aboard.

“That was fun, we went all over the place,” he said.

After serving on the Savannah, Benson sailed around the world on several deep-water tankers transporting oil and grain.

“I didn’t like that at all,” he said. “Traveling to third-world [countries], sometimes it seemed like fourth-world countries. I decided ‘this isn’t for me’ and had enough to retire.”

Since his retirement Benson has kept busy as an active member of the Kennebunkport Historical Society, president of the Arundel Cemetery committee and serving on the Atlantic Hall Board of Directors. You’re not likely to find him at sea, however, as he and his wife sold their Choy Lee ketch shortly after Benson retired in 1984.

“She got stuck in the garden and I got busy with golf. Golf and sailing don’t mix,” he said.

Several years ago, Benson received his father’s blacksmithing tools, including an old anvil. Benson said he originally donated them to the historical society, where they were stored for a short while before he raised $10,000 in grants to build a small structure at the museum for them.

“It was up to me to do what had to be done, I put [the tools] someplace I could see and use them,” he said.

He can be found using the tools every Wednesday in the summertime and said he is glad to share his family’s three generations of blacksmithing history for those who are interested.

“I have too many interests, I go from one medium to the other. And it gives me an excuse to go up there and putter around and bang,” he said.

To contact Nate Jones call 282-4337 x 233 or email news@kennebunkpost.com