A photo from about 1900 shows what was once Winnegance Tide Mills, near where a bridge today carries Route 209 over Winnegance Creek. PHOTO: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Tidal power is not new to Maine

Prior to advances in transportation and energy production, industry and commerce across civilizations often relied on proximity to water. In the case of the lumber industry, one of Maine’s largest industries to date, the reliance was three-fold: inland timber harvests floated down-river to mills via log drives, saw mills used… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fraying family is unwanted ballast

Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year By Elizabeth W. Garber, Toad Hall Editions (2022) Among the many weird things that were happening during the social upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s, one of the weirdest was the wholesale revolt of children against… SEE MORE

From left, the Island Institute's Eastport Island Fellow Paige Atkinson; Institute staff Alex Zipparo; Mount Desert Island Fellow Brianna Cunliffe; and Institute staffer Abby Roche.

Working Waterfront

Resilience is the response

I was on Great Cranberry Island for a community event recently and encountered a sight that will not be easily forgotten. As I stood on the dock awaiting the mailboat back to mainland, I looked to the west and saw several gravestones on a grassy enclave that were dangerously close… SEE MORE

Gov. Janet Mill, left, poses with Paul Coulombe in front of TV cameras at the Governor’s Tourism Conference in Bangor on March 28. Coulombe was honored with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Tourism for his philanthropy and commercial development work in Boothbay Harbor. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Another good year for Maine tourism

Maine’s tourism economy rarely seems to enjoy a normal year. Factors such as fluctuating gas prices and airline fares, terrorist attacks, and pandemics play their part in either inflating or deflating visitation. But despite these variables, the numbers make the case that tourism remains a major economic sector in the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Free community college gets good marks

Emma Brezovsky, 18, a senior at Bucksport High School, wants to become a teacher. To achieve that goal, she knows she needs a bachelor’s degree. “My original plan was just going to be four years at [University of Maine] Farmington,” she said. “But now I’m going to do two at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Kim Hamilton named Island Institute president

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, named Kim Hamilton as its president, effective April 1. Hamilton has served as the organization’s interim chief programs officer since September, overseeing the Institute’s climate, economic resilience, and leadership programs and serving on its senior leadership team. The Rockland-based nonprofit’s board of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The shameful history of a ‘notorious’ slave ship captain

[caption id="attachment_35121" align="alignnone" width="700"] A newspaper report on a slave ship arriving in Kittery.[/caption] Maine has a proud history of seafaring captains who braved the open ocean in pursuit of trade and fish. Capt. Frederick Drinkwater is not one of them. Drinkwater, according to research completed and presented by Kate… SEE MORE

Hoa (Flower) Truong, left, and Hoa Le prepare food.

Working Waterfront

Vietnamese street food meets Maine seafood in Brunswick

At Fishermen’s Net Seafood Restaurant & Market in Brunswick, the new owners are infusing the flavors of Vietnam in their cuisine with Bánh Mì, a traditional Vietnamese sandwich. Co-owner Hoa (Flower) Truong, 30, purchased Fishermen’s Net on Forest Avenue in Portland in 2018 with her cousin, Quang Nguyen, 33, who… SEE MORE

The Sedna, a J/46 underway near Gloucester, Mass. Brien delivered the boat from Darien, Conn., to South Freeport in 2020.

Working Waterfront

From here to there— Adventures of a yacht delivery skipper

It’s early October, still hurricane season, and Cam Brien, a professional yacht delivery captain, among other nautical gigs, is sailing a brand new 39-foot sailboat across Frying Pan Shoals, 15 miles off Cape Fear on the North Carolina coast, headed for the Annapolis Boat Show. Brien had flown from his… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Childhood by neighborhoods and houses

On Nov. 14, 1948, Mom, Dad—the man she’d married in Massachusetts four years earlier and who’d just been discharged from the army after a grueling couple of years in Germany—four-year-old me, and my two-year-old brother, moved back to her island home on Vinalhaven. We moved into a second story downtown… SEE MORE