Working Waterfront

Island museum celebrates Islesford’s lobster fishing heritage

ISLESFORD—When Leeman Gilley Ham, a lifelong lobster fisherman and well-loved resident of Islesford, died in 2012 at age 99, the island's entire fleet held a flotilla procession in his memory. Katrina Winfield-Howard, a summer resident, recently recalled how moved she was to hear about the ceremony. Adam Olearcek, Ham's great-grandson,… SEE MORE

An 1837 entry in Woodruff's journal describes North Islanders as "intelligent

Working Waterfront

When Mormon missionaries came to North Haven

Kathy Luke has a map of the Fox Islands on the wall of her Utah home, a souvenir of her visit to North Haven in September. "We decided to go back to where the Luce family lived and the reason that is so important is because not only did they… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesboro, Isle au Haut postpone town meetings

Islesboro and Isle au Haut have each postponed their annual town meetings. In Islesboro, residents are considering an ambitious plan that would have the town build a broadband Internet network on the island. Selectmen had proposed borrowing $3 million through a municipal bond for the project, but the article on the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Asserting ourselves locally is still an option

The traditional March town meeting in Maine, an institution that has launched many a laudatory newspaper editorial praising it as the last bastion of pure democracy, ain't what it used to be. And that's too bad. In recent decades, management of schools, law enforcement, solid waste and other government functions… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From Castine to the world—again

Picture in your mind a cargo ship and an aircraft carrier, one 900-feet and the other 1,200-feet-long and both 20 stories tall, traveling through the ocean only 100 yards away from each other. Water shoots between them, causing suction and push forces that make the two vessels want to steer… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry service agrees to study blood sample transport

ROCKLAND — A late-April ruling by the Maine State Ferry Service (MSFS) meant blood samples taken in island health care clinics could no longer be transported by ferry crews and captains. But after the May 7 meeting of the Ferry Advisory Board, the MSFS agreed to investigate how to comply… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

I don’t play island favorites

Editor's note: Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, and AmeriCorps. This always happens. I'm telling someone what I do, how I work to lower the cost of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay health good, but bears watching, says Friends group

PORTLAND — Some good news, some worrisome signs sums up the findings of a long-term comprehensive study of water quality in Casco Bay conducted by the Friends of Casco Bay. The nonprofit group unveiled its report "A Changing Casco Bay" at the Ocean Gateway on April 28. "We get asked… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry service discontinues blood sample transport

ROCKLAND — Ferry captains and crew will no longer be able to carry blood samples to the mainland, a policy change that the director of Swan's Island's health clinic says will impact her ability to serve patients. The new policy was supposed to go into effect April 20, Donna Wiegle,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering the Vinalhaven ferry, circa 1920

The following was written by my grandfather Ted Maddox, a fireman aboard these ferries: On a brisk late spring morning in 1920 the Governor Bodwell was docked at Tillson's Wharf in Rockland and preparing for departure to Vinalhaven. Several capable deckhands wheeled dollies loaded with freight down water-slicked ramps… SEE MORE