At the end of 1959 it was voted to admit engineering as well as deck officers, and Herbert C. McAlister and Kenneth L. Webber became members on 16 February 1960. This called for a bit of dry humor in the Log later on.
In the minutes for 21 April 1964 it was recorded that "Captain McDowell prefabricated a fine chowder at 2:00 P.M. before leaving on a business trip, and Mr. Herbert McAlister under the power of his chief engineer's license, steam, and third assistant engineer, diesel, threw the necessary switches and warmed up the auxiliaries which released the chowder from its state of suspended animation."
There was tragedy as well. The February 1958 meeting was cancelled due to the death of member and Portland Pilot Captain Paul Litchfield, who fell from the ladder while trying to board the M. T. Siranda. The tanker managed to rescue the two men rowing the dory, but Captain Litchfield’s body was never recovered. Another member, Captain Theodore Langzettel, was left alone on board the pilot schooner but managed to bring her into port the next morning.
In 1969 the Society began awarding scholarships to students at Maine Maritime Academy, and the following year awarded a scholarship at Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (now Southern Maine Technical College). These scholarships have continued to the present, though the Marine Sciences program at the college is temporarily in abeyance. At the Society’s Bicentennial there are presently no members or their families in need of aid.
On 19 October 1971 the Society held its first meeting at new rooms on the second floor of the Canal National Bank building on Long Wharf. At this time the Society discarded its old chairs and each member was given the option of buying a chair for himself or purchasing one in memory of a fellow member with an engraved brass plate. Four years later it was voted to install a telephone on the grounds that some members were "on call" and that emergencies could happen. The phone was installed in the galley, where until his retirement as the Society’s "chef" in 1980 Captain Kenneth McDowell presided over the making of the traditional fish chowder, a task performed by a rotating group of volunteers. In recent years Captains Wilbur Brown and Charles Whalen presided.
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