“Richard Stanley, Wooden Boatbuilder” by Lou Stanley (2025), oil on mounted linen panel, 22 x 28 in. COURTESY: ARTIST AND THE GALLERY AT SOMES SOUND

Working Waterfront

Stanley paints a Stanley

Lou Stanley remembers the day she came across Richard Stanley. Richard was in his father Ralph Stanley’s boatyard in Tremont, working on Westwind, a 40-foot Friendship sloop built in 1902 by Charles Morse. It was late fall, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, “the full sun’s warmth,” she writes, “just barely keeping ahead of the chill in the air.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A lesson in island living

Everything is harder when you live in a remote, rural town. Especially on an island. Especially in summer. When George Gershwin wrote about the easy livin’ of summertime, he wasn’t on a Maine island. Your houseguest’s forgotten prescription? The missing ingredient in the recipe you are making? (It was on… SEE MORE

Ben Dinsmore, the new general manager and CEO of Casco Bay Lines.

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay Lines names new GM

Casco Bay Island Transit District, also known as Casco Bay Lines, announces the appointment of Ben Dinsmore as its next general manager and chief executive officer. A seasoned maritime professional with over 25 years of global experience, Dinsmore brings deep operational expertise, strategic leadership, and a personal understanding of Maine’s island communities. SEE MORE

From left, David Wyman, Donald Small, Steve Brookman, and Walt Murphy pose with their 1/16th scale model of the privateer Defence.

Working Waterfront

Remembering the ill-fated Defence

Wyman remembers the students working at making the sonar able to identify objects to the side rather than just downward. Passing over the location where the fisherman snagged his net, an unusual shape was identified. SEE MORE

This packing table is a featured original artifact that is part of Penobscot Marine Museum’s Sardineland exhibit.

Working Waterfront

Marine museum celebrates the humble sardine

The Penobscot Marine Museum invites the community to SardineFest 2025—a free, all-day celebration of Maine’s rich sardine industry history—on Saturday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m in downtown Searsport. SardineFest has been generously sponsored by Hamilton Marine. SEE MORE

Boats gather off Frenchboro to memorialize and remember the late David Lunt. PHOTO: PETER RALSTON

Working Waterfront

An island patriarch is laid to rest

Dean Lunt, David’s youngest son, presided over the solemn event, with spiritual comfort provided by the Maine Seacoast Mission pastor who arrived on the Sunbeam. Following the committal in the small cemetery that the Lunt family had donated to the town, guests boarded a solemn procession of lobster boats... SEE MORE

Filmmaker Laura Hamilton interviews Capt. Matt Ridgway general manager of the Chebeague Transportation Co. PHOTO: SUSAN STRANAHAN

Working Waterfront

An island lifeline at 50

CTC operates 4,000 regularly scheduled trips a year. In addition to transporting islanders, off-island workers, summer residents, visitors and school students, CTC also provides 24-hour emergency service, working closely with Chebeague's volunteer rescue squad. SEE MORE

Colby Adolphsen with “Harbor Town” PHOTO: COURTESY COLBY ADOLPHSEN

Working Waterfront

Colby Adolphsen’s LEGO harbor town

The detail is astounding, from a wall of hardware store tools and a diner grill to a lobster boat in drydock. Fishermen work on the wharf, a girl walks a dog, a boy fishes off the bridge. Vintage dollhouse stickers provided the aesthetic Adolphsen wanted for the signage: “Town Talk Bread,” “Burdan’s Ice Cream,” “Princes Lobster,” etc. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Talking scallops with Sam Belknap

NAME: Sam Belknap TITLE: Director of Island Institute’s Center for Marine Economy FOCUS I direct work aimed at protecting and sustaining Maine’s working waterfronts, as well as advancing the use of electric outboards for our commercial fleet, and expanding aquaculture businesses. IN THIS PHOTO: Seen at far right, I’m moderating a… SEE MORE

A view of the harbor, framed by trees. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

When life gives you a library

Now the library is poised for a new chapter. It holds over 15,000 volumes and finds its home in a spacious and modern facility that would never have come to be without the 2008 tragedy. After many successful years as “just a library,” we feel like we can dream bigger. SEE MORE