This image from the Captain William Abbott Collection at the Penobscot Marine Museum shows a schooner being towed by a tug.

Working Waterfront

Even schooners relied on tugs

The photo accompanying this month’s column shows the Ross Towing Co. tug Walter Ross with a four-master in tow down the Penobscot River, seen from the Stockton Springs shore, off Verona about three miles above Fort Point. Blue Hill is barely visible through the haze in the background. A fish… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Unpacking lobstering’s windfall year

The closest I have come to regretting giving up my lobster license was this past summer. My father's still an active fisherman, and as we had a beer and looked out at our wharf in Round Pond, he told me the boat price for lobsters. I was shocked! I will… SEE MORE

Bicycles on Chebeague Island's Stone Pier. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Navigating change focuses on relationships

For mainlanders like myself, a 15-minute ferry ride to Chebeague Island is a novel way to start a Thursday morning. The parking fee and the shuttlebus ride? Economic and logistical challenges faced by islanders every day, but a welcome change from my morning routine working from home in Portland. Throw… SEE MORE

Boathouses on Little Cranberry Island in late afternoon sun. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Island housing squeezes working people

Anyone who has lived, summered, or visited an island off the coast of Maine would agree that they are very special. They are incredibly beautiful, there is a strong sense of community, and they are physically separated from the chaos of crowds and cars on the mainland. Though most people… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Poetry sprouts from shift into spring

The busy season on the island begins. Lobster boats are being launched after their winter on dry land and the harbor starts to fill with familiar names and colors. All around the island stacks of lobster traps, either new or repaired, are ready to hit the water in the weeks… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

We spoil our food with best-by dates

Hung in bunches in the cellarway, our onions sprout. Apples stored in spackle buckets soften. So do beets. Our carrots sprouted feathery tops but we ate them all before they had a chance to grow hairy rootlets. Keeping an eye on the potatoes means spotting white shoots before they get… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How can I keep from singing?

A while ago, I joked to someone online that my pandemic memoir would be titled The Year Without Singing. Although nobody has asked me to write a pandemic memoir (yet!), it occurred to me in the moment that the directives prohibiting singing, or restricting it to 16 feet apart, outdoors,… SEE MORE

North Haven's waterfront. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

The key question: Where is home?

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. When I arrived on North Haven as an Island Institute Island Fellow, the first question asked of me as I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cape Cod dreams in Maine’s mud season

This time of year has me thinking about Cape Cod. I know the Cape is mostly a summer vacation destination, but for about 12 years my family spent the April school vacation there, always on the outer Cape. Let’s face it—Maine doesn’t do spring well. I become a bit dour… SEE MORE

Vinalhaven Harbor FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Understanding a man’s hidden fear

Hidden in Plain Sight: How Men’s Fears of Women Shape Their Intimate Relationships (2021) By Avrum Weiss I read Hidden in Plain Sight: Men’s Fears of Women and immediately asked myself “What is he talking about’?” I’ve not been in as many relationships as lots of men my age, but… SEE MORE