Working Waterfront

Listening to the landscape

Notes on the Landscape of Home By Susan Hand Shetterly, Down East Books Notes on the Landscape of Home confirms Susan Hand Shetterly’s status as one of Maine’s and this country’s finest environmental writers. Like Terry Tempest Williams, who lives nearby on the Blue Hill peninsula, Shetterly weaves personal life… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tasty memories from Kirstie’s kitchen

In all likelihood, Kirstie Alley was the only hostess in Dark Harbor who had a container in her kitchen of silicone worms, spiders, centipedes, and creepy crawlers with which she or her cooks could garnish platters of food. We sprinkled them in salads, and they crawled along the edges of… SEE MORE

Grindle Point Lighthouse in the fog. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Holding history: Archiving Islesboro past

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. By Olivia Lenfestey Mostly, my days on Islesboro are filled with the kind of intangible busyness distinctive to life on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Stormy times on the island home front

Two weeks before Christmas I came home from a weekend spent in Cape Elizabeth with two of our grandchildren. The next day, Bruce started to have a bad sore throat and cough. A number of others on the island were sick with the same symptoms. We heard it was bad… SEE MORE

The counter at Calderwood Hall. PHOTO: COURTESY CALDERWOOD HALL

Working Waterfront

North Haven’s Calderwood Hall evolves

It started with an email with the subject line, “This is a crazy idea.” Fortunately, Liz Lovell, the 38-year-old manager of the North Haven Brewing Company, likes crazy. Lovell and brewers Ben Lovell, her brother, and Jesse Davisson will be leasing and operating the first-floor restaurant space of North Haven’s… SEE MORE

The late Capt. David Allen photographed aboard the Sunbeam at Northeast Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Remembering Capt. David Allen

Starting in 1971, Capt. David Allen made thousands of trips visiting islands along the Maine coast, first aboard the Maine Seacoast Mission’s Sunbeam IV and later the Sunbeam V. David and his wife Betty, who joined him aboard the Sunbeam as the steward in 1978, were the personification of the… SEE MORE

Workers on Stonington’s Crotch Island in the early 20th century. PHOTO: COURTESY DEER ISLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Working Waterfront

Stonington’s past carved in granite

When Frank and Denie Weil first visited Stonington by sailboat in the mid-1960s, they fell in love with the place and were particularly fascinated by the granite quarries on nearby Crotch Island. As the decades passed, the Weils watched as the remnants of those once-booming quarries—the derricks, the power plant… SEE MORE

Ralph Stanley, as photographed by Peggy McKenna. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

One photograph, two stories

Maine boat building icon Ralph Stanley looks directly into the camera in his boat shop in Southwest Harbor. He sports a soft natural smile and his eyes still have a spark despite his 77 years. His working days were not done at this time though his boatbuilding days were mostly… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Farnsworth marks 75th, announces exhibits

The Farnsworth Art Museum has announced its 2023 schedule of major exhibitions in celebration of the museum’s 75th anniversary. From Feb. 11 through June 17 the museum will open a series of important shows that will transform every gallery and feature beloved favorites, as well as dozens of new acquisitions… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A sailing adventure enjoyed vicariously

In Slocum’s Wake By Nat Warren-White, Outskirts Press, Inc. (2022) Garrison Keillor once said something like, “We need to write because, otherwise, nobody will know who we are.” I think others write to find out who they, themselves, are. Having known Nat Warren-White since the 1960s as a casual acquaintance,… SEE MORE