Working Waterfront

Maine Boat & Home Show showcases state’s best boats

Whether it’s to look at a boat or to buy one (or just spend a nice day out on the waterfront), the Maine Boat & Home Show, on the Rockland waterfront August 9-11, is the place to be. The show is the largest of its kind north of Newport, Rhode… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islanders and the shame of baggage

By Barbara Fernald It starts at the grocery store on the mainland. I hand my cooler and canvas bags to the cashier, who passes them to the bagger, and I start to unload a full grocery cart. I have an itching need to get the cart unloaded quickly so I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay Lines responds to booming bay, city

By Tom Groening Portland’s waterfront is booming—new hotels, restaurants, pubs, a marina—so it’s no wonder the ferry serving Casco Bay’s islands is responding to that activity, says Hank Berg. Casco Bay Lines (CBL), for which Berg is general manager, has a lengthy history on the city’s waterfront, though recently, it’s… SEE MORE

Historian Renny Stackpole poses with some of the implements used in whaling.

Working Waterfront

The dirty details of whaling’s glory days

By Nancy Griffin Hunting whales, a practice now roundly condemned by most of the world, once was an important part of New England’s economy in many places—especially so on Nantucket Island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Whaling also was a romantic notion for many young boys who yearned for the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Delaware researchers uncover ‘ghost’ crab pot problem

By Craig Idlebrook A pair of researchers said they were stunned to discover just how many recreational crab pots were abandoned or lost in Rehoboth Bay, a sheltered body of water near Delaware Bay. A survey of 100 acres of shallow water in the watershed found 160 ghost pots, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When ships don’t make it to port

By Stephanie Bouchard Buffeted by merciless winds, the schooner Joseph Luther wrecked on Whaleback Rock on a raw January day at the turn of the last century. Stranded on the rock in a miserable winter storm, the crew was in trouble. A surfboat was launched from the nearby lifesaving station at Popham… SEE MORE

The W. H. Witherle & Co. dock and salt storage building in Castine. Research suggests the casks are filled with salt. PHOTO: COURTESY NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Working Waterfront

Castine’s ‘Risky Business’ explores another side of town’s history

By Tom Groening Castine is as rich in history as any town on Maine’s coast. The island-like body of land jutting into east Penobscot Bay was occupied and fought over by the French, Dutch, English, and Americans, and even played a key, but disastrous role in the fledgling nation’s war… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bucksport’s not-so-overnight transformation

By Susan Lessard The path Bucksport took from “mill town” to something else—including becoming the planned home of a land-based salmon farm and an annex of Maine Maritime Academy—began more than 20 years ago. Local government leaders began setting aside funds for the possible “rainy day” that would come if… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Following the whale into an array of lessons

By Courtney Naliboff As an island teacher, it is often my duty and pleasure, and that of my colleagues, to take students off-island overnight. We do it for basketball games, we do it for rowing races, we do it for theater festivals. As wonderful as the island is, and as… SEE MORE

At the April 17 open house at Brunswick Landing

Working Waterfront

Maine company deploys energy technology in Alaska

By William Hall//Photos by Michele Stapleton Power-generating technology piloted in Washington County will soon provide a commercial source of electricity in Alaska. The technology’s developer, ORPC Inc., unveiled its RivGen Power System April 17 at a ceremony in Brunswick, attended by Gov. Janet Mills and 150 others. ORPC will… SEE MORE