CAMDEN, Maine — Camden Harbor is once again filled with tall masts, fluttering sails, and the creak of old wooden decks as the Camden Windjammer Festival returns this Labor Day weekend.

“It’s such a cool window into living history,” event organizer and Camden Parks and Recreation assistant director Grace McMullen said.

The annual two-day celebration brings together more than a dozen of some of the oldest sailing vessels in the country, giving visitors a chance to step aboard history and even lend a hand hoisting sails.

“This boat was built in 1871 to be a working vessel,” Co-Captain Nathan Sigwright said, referring to the Lewis R. French, one of the festival’s star schooners and the oldest active sailing vessel of its kind in the U.S.

“When we get all these vessels together, it gives

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