Working Waterfront

South Portland’s history is in good hands

Like many of its counterparts around the country, the South Portland Historical Society’s museum has been closed since the onset of the pandemic. The small size of the building in Bug Light Park, combined with the older age of the society’s volunteers, make keeping the museum’s doors open a risk.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A return to the joy of cooking and eating

Eventide: Recipes for Clambakes, Oysters, Lobster Rolls, and More From a Modern Maine Seafood Shack Arlin Smith, Andrew Taylor, Mike Wiley with Sam Hiersteiner Is it because of COVID and quarantining, not dining in restaurants, or cooking special meals to share with family and friends for months now that I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Election gives Maine environmental opportunities

As the Maine Climate Council works out recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (scheduled to go to the governor’s office and the legislature on Dec. 1), and with President-elect Joe Biden’s commitment to reenter the Paris climate accord, Maine conservationists are considering what the election results mean for climate and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island Institute deploys Island Fellows Downeast

Over the past 20 years, the Island Institute’s Island Fellows program has invested in island and coastal communities from Casco Bay to Eastport. Though the program is well known on the 15 year-round island communities, expanding the organization’s impact into other regions is an important part of creating a thriving… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Children’s author brings worker rights champion to life

It was clothing and a tragedy that brought Jennifer Merz and Frances Perkins together. Merz, who recently retired to Phippsburg with her husband, is a collage artist and writer who has published three children’s books; the third, in September, is Steadfast: Frances Perkins, Champion of Workers’ Rights. Perkins (1880-1965) was… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The sublime joy of sailing, courtesy the Apprenticeshop

When power boats supplanted sailboats, the argument could be made that mariners were free of the reliance on the vagaries of the wind. But does that freedom to travel wherever and whenever outweigh the freedom one feels when gliding across the water in a sailboat? Those at the Apprenticeshop in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

One veteran’s bewilderment

As a veteran, I have never gotten over the fact that, in spite of his having made such crass and appalling statements as calling John McCain a loser for having been captured and in spite of having implied many times before and during the 2016 campaign that those of us… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A very long swim, a new view of my island

I was one of those kids who always managed to find her way into the water. At Sea World, I leaned so far into a dogfish petting tank that I got soaked head to toe, resulting in the purchase of a very expensive souvenir sweatshirt. Wading in the shallows of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

World War II-era tower is island family heirloom

You may be forgiven for thinking a 65-foot-tall tower on a Casco Bay island has something to do with warning mariners away from danger. But the tower in Brad Brown’s side yard on Long Island actually was built to harm mariners. Well, invading mariners, anyway. At any rate, it’s not… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The man is gone, but the story remains

I never met Stephen H. Robbins Jr., a legendary offshore lobsterman of Stonington who passed away in July of this year. However, I do know Randy Olson, a marine-biologist-turned-filmmaker, who made one of his first movies about Stevie and his family, nearly 30 years ago. I watched this film again… SEE MORE