Working Waterfront

A dog life remembered

I was born ready, ready to love without condition. So simple were my needs that to be adopted 13 years ago by a human family represented complete fulfillment. Over the years I found a real home on this island. This is a real Dog Town. From the beginning I went… SEE MORE

A Kosti Ruohomaa photo from the Penobscot Marine Museum’s collection shows a herring fisherman.

Working Waterfront

An outsider’s sharp eye on Maine

[caption id="attachment_32007" align="alignleft" width="350"] A Kosti Ruohomaa photo from the Penobscot Marine Museum’s collection shows a herring fisherman.[/caption] A herring fisherman or “herringer” of Hugo Lehtinen’s crew pulls on a line from a purse seine while standing in a wooden skiff in Penobscot Bay in the photo featured in this… SEE MORE

James Fitzgerald, “Saltin' Mackerel ca. 1960, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches. Monhegan Museum of Art and History, promised gift of Stephen S. Fuller and Susan D. Bateson

Working Waterfront

James Fitzgerald paints Fish Beach

During his life as a painter, James Fitzgerald (1899-1971) knew firsthand a number of working waterfronts. After completing his art studies in his home city of Boston, he took to the sea, shipping out of Gloucester, ostensibly to sketch and paint. On later trips to the Grand Banks aboard the… SEE MORE

Some of the cars featured at the Seal Cove Auto Museum would have been seen on the roads of Mount Desert Island in the early 20th century, much to the consternation of some residents. From left: 1912 Ford Model T, 1904 Knox, 1915 FRP, and 1910 Pierce Arrow. PHOTO: COURTESY SEAL COVE AUTO MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Wiz chariots and sunken Broncos

“It's nothing but a big picnic ground for 'Elks,' and 'Spiritualists,' and 'Holy Ghosters.' The whole island is full of campers from Skowhegan, Bucksport, Rockland, and Ellsworth, that don't do nothin' but sit in front of their tents, eat bananas and read the Sunday papers.” —Arthur Train Mount Desert Island… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The finer points of protecting working waterfront

Most Mainers understand and appreciate the need to protect the working waterfront, those access points and infrastructure necessary to make a living on the water. But how, exactly, does it get threatened and how does it disappear? Imagine you’re a clam harvester who has an agreement with a local person… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island doctor reflects on personal costs

Island Medicine: Life, Healing, and Community on a Maine Island By Dr. Chuck Radis (Down East Books, 2022) Review by Tina Cohen Dr. Chuck Radis’s first book, Go By Boat: Stories of a Maine Island Doctor, was published in 2021. Now his second is out, Island Medicine: Life, Healing, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Looking for balm in wake of violence

Oh how I wish our country would do what New Zealand did after its last mass shooting, in Christchurch, in 2019. What if our government would reinstate its ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons and install an immediate program to buy them back? Funds that are already earmarked to buy weapons… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Prepping like it’s 1885

Remember 1999 and the big worry about the Y2K bug? Everything civilization rested on would collapse in a heap when the clocks all ticked over to 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, 2000. The world’s computers would all crash and we’d be enveloped in darkness as the grid went down and mayhem… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Caught by COVID, help in escaping

After two years, two months, and some number of days that I’m too tired to count, I finally caught COVID. Or maybe it caught me. Either way, I’m writing this from bed. I had identified a ten-day window in my schedule where it would be somewhat less inconvenient to be… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Have you taken your broadband speed test?

In July of 2020, Maine voters overwhelming passed a $15 million broadband bond. This fall, we will see $150 million in federal funds, and at least another $100 million, awarded for projects improving internet infrastructure. What follows is a recap of the status and how you can help Maine secure… SEE MORE