“Although during the 1870’s no less than three shipyards on the Kennebunk River were building three-masted schooners, square-riggers or both, by 1880 only one yard building anything larger than fishermen remained in the field. It was David Clark who contributed most to his final chapter of large vessel construction on the Kennebunk River though his contribution to the earlier era of square-rigged shipbuilding was by no means insignificant. His productive career embraced a period of a half century, all of it devoted to shipbuilding on the Kennebunk River. He contributed to its reputation as the birthplace of many fine square-riggers and for the last twenty years of his life, by building three=masted and four-masted schooners as well as tow-boats, fishermen and even a ferry, almost singlehandedly kept shipbuilding on the River alive, so far as large vessel construction is concerned. Of the many distinguished shipbuilders . . . it is David Clark who, as the outstanding local builder of schooners, is most closely associated with our story here.”
Charles S. Morgan in “Shipbuilding on the Kennebunk, The Closing Chapter”