The Working Waterfront - April 2022

News from Maine’s Island and Coastal Communities volume 36, № 2

published by the island institute

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april 2022 n free circulation: 50,000

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workingwaterfront.com

Casco Bay Lines gets $3.6 million for new boat

Machigone II replacement on hold due to high bids

By Stephen Rappaport

T

he Casco Bay Island Transit District— known to most as the Casco Bay Lines that operates ferry service between Portland and a half-dozen islands in Casco Bay—has won a $3.6 million federal grant to help build a replacement for the aged Maquoit II which carries passengers and freight to the five “down bay” islands farthest from the mainland.

Casco Bay Lines applied for funding through the Federal Transit Administration’s Passenger Ferry Grant Program, which provides funding for projects that support passenger ferry systems in urbanized areas.

FTA announced the $3.6 million award to the Portlandbased ferry line in late February and Hank Berg, Casco Bay Lines’ General Manager, was delighted.

“This is a nationwide competitive grant,” Berg said shortly after the FTA announcement. “We submitted an application in late summer. We’re thrilled that a little old ferry service in Maine won this nationwide competition.”

The Casco Bay Lines Maquoit II, seen here in file photo, will be replaced by a new vessel paid for in part by a federal grant.

Casco Bay Lines operates a fleet of five ferries that carry passengers, vehicles, and freight between the mainland terminal on Portland’s Commercial Street waterfront and six unbridged islands in the bay.

Maquoit II serves as the principal passenger and freight carrier to Chebeague, Cliff, Great Diamond, Little Diamond, and Long islands, sailing the nearly 50-mile daily round trip year-round. According

to Berg, the 98-foot, twin diesel-powered ferry carried some 300,000 passengers annually in prepandemic times.

Including regular service to the year-round community on Peaks Island, primarily with the car ferry Machigone II, Casco Bay Lines carried about 1.1 million passengers annually, pre-pandemic. continued on page 5

Lobster harvest sets dollar record Fishery lands $724 million in value

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ecently updated data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources shows 2021 as the most valuable year in the history of Maine’s lobster fishery. At $724,949,426, the landed value for the iconic fishery jumped by 75 percent

over 2020, by far the single largest increase in value, year over year.

The increase in value from 2020 to 2021—$312,464,172—was more than the total landed value in 2009.

“The Maine lobster industry remains a cornerstone of our state’s coastal

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economy and identity because of the uncompromising commitment to quality that follows every lobster, from trap to table,” said Gov. Janet Mills. “I will continue to work tirelessly to support this vital Maine heritage industry.”

DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said the high dollar figure was “a clear reflection of strong consumer confidence in the Maine lobster brand and the products and people it represents.”

One dark cloud on the horizon is the announcement made in early February by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch noting it may add eastern Atlantic lobster harvests and other fisheries to its “red list” because of the risks they pose to North Atlantic right whales.

Not only was the 2021 value a record setter, but the volume of landings continued a 12-year run in which harvesters brought to shore close to or more than 100 million pounds.

At 108,048,704 pounds, landings increased by more than 10 million pounds over 2020.

Lobster management zone A, which runs from the Schoodic Peninsula to the Canadian border, saw the biggest catch with 24.7 million pounds landed.

Zone G, from the New Hampshire border to the western edge of Casco Bay, saw just 5.2 million pounds landed.

Zone C, which takes in the waters west of the Fox Islands and east of Deer Isle, saw the second largest landings at 22.9 million pounds.

“Last year was one for the books and it should be celebrated,” said Keliher, “but there are many challenges ahead, and it’s important that fishermen remain engaged in management discussions that will strive to make this stock resilient for future generations.”

Additional information on Maine lobster landings can be found at maine. gov/dmr/commercial-fishing/landings/index.html.

Landings information for all other commercially harvested Maine species will be available in March after data has been fully audited.

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Cutting up and stitching the coast back together Quilter Nora Flanagan’s ‘blue’ period charms and warms

By Tom Groening

N

ora Flanagan renders the beauty of Maine’s cool blue coast in a warm and tactile form.

Her applique quilts, born from scraps of fabric, are as evocative as any painting and, given the process by which they are created, rely on a kind of abstraction—scissor-sliced color swatches—that serves to represent scenes of sea, sky, and headland.

Her work has been commissioned by Maine celebrities, including Sen. Angus King and singersongwriter Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul & Mary fame), and a photo of one of her creations is featured in Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community

by Laureen A. LaBar. Flanagan grew up in Portland, the fifth in a family of eight children, and after high school, attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied studio art. Primarily an oil painter then, her work was mostly abstract.

“I just wanted to make things that would sell,” she recalls with a laugh.

But a more traditional medium beckoned.

“I was making quilts since high school, on the side, for friends,” she said. “I started doing some traditional ones. I got a little bored, so I started doing the applique landscape ones.” After stops in Boston and New Orleans, she returned to Maine, where the coast continues to be her muse for the quilts, most of which are treated like fine art and hung on living room walls.

Flanagan’s skill with a sewing machine and needle have led to jobs making decorative curtains and manufacturing clothing, and a stint painting furniture, but these days, it’s her custom quilt work that pays the bills.

Some 30 years ago, she began selling her work to visitors at Rockland’s Lobster Festival, and that approach continues to serve her. She has sold at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport, the Blue Hill Farmer’s Market, and the Belfast Farmer’s Market, among others, all accessible from her home just outside of Belfast.

She describes a project that now hangs in a home in Castine to illustrate how commissions come together.

While at a booth at the Blue Hill Farmer’s Market, which the Blue Hill Co-op hosts, a husband and wife, while independently wandering through the market, stopped to admire her samples. They met up and exchanged their enthusiasm about Flanagan’s wall quilts.

The couple invited her to their Castine summer home to discuss a piece that would hang on an open wall, concluding it should be 6-feet by 8-feet. Asking the couple what they enjoyed about their waterfront home, they described scenes from the window such as seals cavorting in the waves.

“Seals playing out there—now we have something to work with,” Flanagan recalled concluding, and she returned to her home studio to get to work.

Sometimes she’ll make sketches before building the quilt. For the wall hanging for Angus King’s office, she sent him three drawings of the Owls Head scene he requested, adding in a lobster boat and the Rockland breakwater. Over the years, her scenes have become more complex.

Stookey, who also came across her at the Blue Hill location where he has lived for decades, asked Flanagan to create a quilt that would be photographed for the cover of his 2018 Christmas CD, Somethin’ Special.

“He asked for a view out a window with some kids playing,” and that’s the scene that is adorning the CD case, spread over front and back.

She typically starts with the background which features larger pieces of fabric, and begins at the top of the scene and works her way down. The fine work of stitching the pieces together, which requires an exacting eighth-inch overlap, takes time. Finally, batting is included, lining the piece.

Another recent piece she shows, Moonlight Sonata, uses pieces from a tie-dyed dress.

A detail of one of Nora Flanagan’s coastal scenes.

The CD cover of Noel Paul Stookey’s Somethin’ Special which features a photograph of one of Flanagan’s quilts.



Not surprisingly, given that many of her subjects are sea-based, Flanagan is generous with her use of blue fabric.

“It is my favorite color,” she says.

Showing a work in progress, she describes one fabric choice as “lakey blue.”

But it’s not all seascapes for Flanagan. She also is fond of using architecture in her creations and cites work depicting the densely built waterfronts in Stonington and North Haven. She often is asked to produce house and camp portraits. That work, capturing home or a getaway, elicits satisfying responses.

“I like it because the people I sell to give me very good feedback. ‘That looks just like my camp,’ or ‘Just like the place I swim.’” Depictions of farms are also favorite customer requests.

She estimates that she has produced 20 large wall hangings in the last year, along with over 100 pillows and five queen-sized bedding quilts. Aprons, slipcovers, and cards round out her work.

Flanagan is modest and rather shy. She says she is content to work in her small home. In fact, the

Nora Flanagan holds one of her quilts.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY NORA FLANAGAN

living room is mostly eclipsed by her materials and sewing machines.

She downplays the fine-art label.

“I really am just a folk girl, not a fine artist. I don’t mind copying Winslow Homer and Grandma Moses,” she says, then quickly scolds herself with a laugh, saying, “Influenced. Don’t say ‘copy.’”

For more information: NoraFlanaganQuilts.com and bluebirddesign@gmail.com

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Colby takes over stewardship of Wyeth islands Allen and Benner will provide research, activity opportunities

C

olby College in Waterville has become the new steward of two historic islands where renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth painted some of his greatest works, inspired and influenced by the landscape and architecture that were curated by his wife, Betsy Wyeth.

Colby has taken ownership of Allen and Benner islands from the Up East Foundation and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art as part of an initiative to preserve these extraordinary areas and continue to utilize them as centers for learning, research, and creative inspiration.

Allen and Benner will allow the college to establish a dynamic island campus and provide Colby with a significant presence on the coast for a range of academic programs and activities, including critical research related to climate change.

Allen and Benner are adjacent private islands five miles south of Port Clyde in Penobscot Bay. Betsy Wyeth purchased Allen Island in 1979, and in 1990 acquired Benner. There, she established a model for conservation and the preservation of Maine’s working waterfront and Allen Island, with part of Benner Island visible at right. Monhegan Island is also visible at the top of the image.

PHOTO: COURTESY COLBY COLLEGE created an extraordinary built and natural environment.

Over the last five years, Colby College has partnered with the Up East Foundation to develop projects and This involved developing a landscape and forest programs on Allen that complement Colby’s academic important works on and around this island archiprogram and have involved important discoveries, pelago. Of course, my father, Andrew, not only painted management plan to highlight and preserve Allen especially in the sciences. Colby will now be able to on the islands, but he lived on them every summer. and Benner’s natural beauty; restoring and designing significantly expand its work there in a wide range Finally, my mother, Betsy, deeply loved and left an a series of buildings, including barns and fish houses; indelible mark on these unique islands and building a wharf to support the livelihoods of of disciplines including social sciences, through her great vision to protect and local lobstermen and re-establish a fishing outpost humanities, and natural sciences—from conserve them and the surrounding that had been an important part of the island’s history. sculpture and cinema to bird research Her vision influenced the art of one of the 20th community. I am convinced that Colby and long-term climate monitoring.

“My grandfather College is the perfect steward to carry century’s most important American painters and “These islands, which have been stewN.C. Wyeth on and maintain my family’s legacy on resulted in the creation of subjects for some of arded with deep respect for the land and Andrew Wyeth’s final works and inspired major the lives of those who have inhabited produced many the islands into the future.”

Allen Island has an important cultural paintings, including Jupiter, Airborne, and Pentecost, them over time, will now become laboratories for important research and places important works legacy that includes being used by the among others.

Allen and Benner islands offer year-round easy Abenaki, the Native American commuof quiet reflection and artistic creation,” on and around nity that resided in the region. It was the access and undisturbed environments that are ideal said Colby President David A. Greene. this island initial stop that British explorer George for conducting research. This has created important “Colby College will carry Betsy Wyeth’s Weymouth made in 1605 as part of his opportunities for Colby to measure and assess a series vision forward through our commitment archipelago…” expedition to the area now known as of major issues and crises, including: to the community, to the islands being • the impact of climate change on the Gulf of Maine, Maine, and it was also the site of the first centers of discovery, and to conserving a one of the fastest-warming bodies waterL:in thein Anglican service in North2/10/2021 America. natural environment that is truly inspiraCHASLE21.PLT 2:43:50 PM Scale: 1:12.83 of H: 36.252 96.247 world; Allen Island grew into a thriving tional. We are humbled by the opportu• the broad-scale impact of poor air quality and nity to create the next chapter in the incredible story of fishing community that supported a school, but atmospheric pollution that is pushed to Maine like many year-round islands off the Maine coast, Allen and Benner islands.” from pollution producers across North America; Allen and Benner will also be available for a wide the population declined until only a handful of • decreasing biodiversity and the role of genetic range of programs and activities—from Colby’s lobstermen and their families resided there. structure in how species survive or become Betsy Wyeth purchased 450-acre Allen Island and outdoor orientation trips to leadership trainings extinct.

50-acre Benner Island to create surroundings that and retreats.

The lobstering community that uses Allen Island “Allen and Benner islands are such an integral part supported and inspired her husband’s work, and of my family, our history, and our art,” said Jamie over a 40-year period, she unleashed her creativity and that Betsy Wyeth helped re-establish will continue to have access.

Wyeth. “My grandfather N.C. Wyeth produced many and thoughtfulness to resurrect them.

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Other waterfronts—

Texas works on storm protection system ‘Ike Dike’ would extend island seawall

By Craig Idlebrook

The Corps plan has been a long time coming, says Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership and the vice president of the Gulf recent Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission report Coast Protection District. He also was one of the first to lobby in support of the warned that some 3,500 acres of land in Wells, Kennebunk, and York were plan. Building grassroot support for such a project has taken years of hard work, at increased risk of flooding because of rising sea levels. The commission he said.

“We started with everybody thinking it was a joke, ‘Never going to happen’ is working with a coalition of municipalities and organizations to plan how best to ‘It’s happening,’” Mitchell said. “It took 14 years and hundreds of to prevent flood damage to these communities. speeches.”

The communities are among many attempting to mitigate The plan now enjoys bipartisan support in the state, and Texas state the risk of increased flooding and storm surge because of lawmakers recently passed a bill to create The Gulf Coast Protection climate change, and several major ports in the U.S. are taking District, which would coordinate the raising of local funding for the a page from the engineering history of The Netherlands. That The plan would project and oversee the dike after it’s built. low-lying country created a system of barriers and sea gates to However, there still is not yet consensus on the project. Some homeprotect against storm surge after a 1953 flood killed more than extend an existing owners worry the gate system will ruin the scenic views and damage 1,800 people. seawall along tourism, while environmentalists have expressed concern about how Planners in Houston and Galveston have been working the project might disrupt fish and shrimp migration. for more than a decade to gain support for creating a similar Galveston Island There also are those who think the plan does not go far enough to system to protect the southeastern Texas coastline after a 2008 and create a protect against future storms. Jim Blackburn, co-director of the Severe hurricane devastated the area. Hurricane Ike caused storm Storm Prevention, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters Center surges of 19 feet, killing dozens in Texas and severely impacting massive gate at Rice University, is among those advocating for creating a series of the state economy for years. As bad as the storm surge was, it system. earthen structures closer to the coast to slow down storm surge that was predicted to be worse, and climate scientists warn that the the gate structure can’t handle. threat of high storm surges will only increase.

The problem, Blackburn said, is that the Army Corps of Engineers can In the immediate aftermath of the storm, William Merrell, only factor in surges from recorded storms. Climate change modeling a marine and environmental science professor with Texas suggests that storm ferocity and storm surge likely will increase in the A&M University at Galveston, drew up a plan for what has been dubbed the Ike Dike. The plan would extend an existing seawall along near future, but the Corps methodology can’t account for that, he said.

“This is a problem that everyone in the United States is going to encounter until Galveston Island and create a massive gate system in Galveston Bay to protect the Corps changes their methodology,” Blackburn said. “All engineering in the against storm surge.

In September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its proposal for the country is really based on the past. We really haven’t learned how to think about designing in the context of the storms of the future.” dike project.

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On-land shrimp farm gears up in Midwest Company plans to grow 1.3 million pounds

By Tom Walsh

processes and technology have been proven at scale at our Balaton Bay Reef pilot production facility,” the company says in its initial filing. “Balaton Bay Reef has s the herring gull flies, it’s 1,500 miles between Madison Bay Harbor and eight tidal basins, which demonstrates the vertical stacking/farming feature of our technology and incorporates all systems and processes envisioned for a fullthe nearest saltwater at Hudson Bay in the Arctic Ocean.

Maybe that’s because Madison Bay Harbor isn’t a real harbor, and there size, automated commercial production facility, including water reclamation, are neither herring gulls nor saltwater to be found anywhere on the Dakota plains. biofiltration, robotic feeding, and harvest process.”

Tru Shrimp’s business plan projects significant revenues—$21 million annuMadison Bay Harbor is a proposed aquaculture center with big plans to grow 1.3 million pounds of shrimp in land-locked Madison, S.D., population 7,000 and ally—to be realized through processing shrimp shell exoskeleton materials to produce chitosan and chitosan derivatives. As biopolychange. Construction of a new $89 million facility using mers, they are used in water treatment processes, proprietary shallow-water “tidal basin” technologies pharmaceutical and cosmetic production, as well as is expected to begin later this year, investor financing biomedical applications. permitting. The system was developed by Texas A&M Chitosan is used broadly in biomedical and pharUniversity to accommodate automated, 24/7/365 indoor “Balaton Bay Reef has eight tidal maceutical applications such as tissue and bone regenshrimp production. eration and wound care. Chitosan is also used as a Headquartered in nearby Balaton, Minn., population basins which demonstrates the nanoparticle technology carrier of drug therapies to the under 600 at last count, Tru Shrimp is now working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to vertical stacking/farming feature…” brain and other organs. One report estimates the 2019 global chitosan market at $6.4 billion. finalize its initial public offering (IPO).

Meanwhile, in Maine, the warming of the waters of If successful, proceeds from IPO stocks sales through the Gulf of Maine has mothballed the state’s once-lucrathe Nasdaq exchange will be invested in expanding the tive shrimp fishery. company’s $11 million Balaton Bay Reef, the beta-site According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pilot production plant, which Tru Shrimp says is now capable of annual production of 45,000 pounds of heads-on, shell-on shrimp targeted at Minneapolis-St. Americans consume over 1.7 billion pounds of shrimp annually. NOAA reports approximately 1.5 billion pounds of shrimp are imported into the U.S. primarily Paul grocery retailers.

The number of shares to be offered and an initial share price has yet to be deter- from India, Southeast Asia, and Ecuador. The remaining 248 million pounds are mined. Documents filed with the SEC in early February anticipate an initial IPO produced via landings from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic seaboard fisheries.

Data collected by the National Fisheries Institute show the average American price of $9 to $11 per share.

Tru Shrimp’s filing with the SEC shows approximately $70 million has been consumes 4.7 pounds of shrimp annually, which is twice the consumption invested in the development of its tidal basin aquaculture platform, which the rate of tuna and 1.5 times that of salmon, the next two most highly consumed company claims is an ideal environment for land-based shrimp production. “Our seafood species.

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5

CASCO BAY FERRY

399 passengers plus “one or two” vehicles and “we probably don’t need a higher capacity,” Berg said. Current plans, though, do call for use of Berg said the two ferries also carried some diesel-electric hybrid propulsion similar to that 500,000 pieces of freight annually to the six planned for the larger ferry. The boat would use diesel propulsion under way and battery power islands they serve.

Maquoit II is the second Casco Bay Lines ferry while in port.

Casco Bay Lines estimates that the planned slated for replacement. Last year, Casco Bay Lines sought bids to build a modern replacement hybrid propulsion system replacement will elimifor the Machigone II. Plans called for construc- nate more than 1,000 metric tons of CO2 emistion of a 164-foot double-ended ferry capable of sions annually over the vessel’s 30-year lifespan.

“It has been our hope, since we began the signifcarrying 599 passengers and 15 cars, powered by a cutting-edge diesel-electric hybrid propulsion icant undertaking of replacing these two aging system that would substantially reduce emissions. vessels, that we would have the opportunity to utilize this technology and reduce The boat likely “could be the first our climate impact in a meanpublic ferry to use this propulsion ingful way,” Berg said announcing system,” Berg said. the grant. “As we embark on the Casco Bay Lines secured The hybrid Maquoit replacement this grant more than $16 million for the propulsion system makes it possible to double-down design and construction of the on our efforts.”

Machigone II replacement, but will eliminate While the project will be the sole bid for the ferry came in more than 1,000 financed, in part, with federal substantially over the estimated funding, Casco Bay Lines must $14.2 million cost and the project metric tons of CO2 use competitive bidding to select was placed on hold. emissions annually... the designer for the new boat.

Berg said Casco Bay Lines has The process itself will begin, since done “some cost reducBerg said, with extensive public tion” and received additional FTA consultations, especially with funding through the Portland Metro planning office as well as from the Maine residents of the down bay islands to be served by the new ferry.

Department of Transportation for the project.

Berg said he hopes to have the design process “We hope to go out to bid again at the end of the for the newest boat well under way this coming month,” Berg said late in February.

The design of the Maquoit II replacement has winter with construction to begin in 2024 and yet to get under way. The existing ferry can carry delivery in 2026.

continued from page 1

App will assist lobster fishery reporting COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN now have access to a free app that simplifies required harvest reporting for both state and federally licensed fishermen.

Developed by technology company Bluefin Data under a contract with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the app, called VESL, is the result of a required increase in the percentage of lobster harvesters who must submit reports.

Currently only 10 percent of state licensed lobster harvesters in Maine must report their harvest.

However, as part of an update to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission fishery management plan for lobster, 100 percent of state licensed commercial lobstermen will have to report their harvest information, including location of fishing activity and pounds landed.

The reporting requirement, which will be implemented in Maine in 2023, is intended to provide regulators and researchers with more detail about where fishing activity takes place.

“We decided to develop a new app to make it easier for lobstermen to comply with the new reporting requirement,” said DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “Better data about fishing activity will help managers sustain Maine’s important marine resources and will help ensure informed decisions are made around issues that impact fishermen like whale regulations and offshore wind development.”

A request for proposals issued by the department required developers to not only produce an app that would work for lobstermen, but also for other state and federal fisheries that require harvester reports.

“This app was developed with fisherman input. It is easy to use, and allows harvesters to file reports quickly and efficiently,” said Keliher.

“Our goal with this product was to develop something that reduces the burden of reporting and lets fishermen focus on catching fish.”

VESL personalizes the interface, depending on the requirements of the fishery. For example, fields required will be customized based on the license, permits, and gear type used.

Data can be entered while at sea and uploaded when an internet connection is established, making the submission of accurate and timely reports easy.

VESL is compatible with mobile devices and will work across multiple platforms. The app has also been approved by NOAA for use by federally permitted harvesters, and is now available for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

“I’m very impressed with the new app,” said DMR Landings Program Manager Rob Watts, who worked with the developer. “We wanted a product that would simplify the task of reporting for fishermen and provide the data regulators and researchers need to more effectively manage, monitor, and sustain our commercial fisheries. This product does just that.”

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Book Reviews

Book introduces Maine to new neighbors Faces and stories demystify state’s newcomers

Dear Maine: The Trials and Triumphs of Maine’s 21st Century Immigrants

By Morgan Rielly and Reza Jalali (Islandport Press)

Review by Tina Cohen I’VE JUST READ online that in 2021, and 2022 so far, Maine is the “whitest” state in America, at 93.2 percent. (Not far behind are Vermont at 92.8 percent and New Hampshire at 90.1 percent.)

While Maine has a history of immigrants settling here, the country from which the largest percentage have come is Canada. But “New Mainers”

moving here are making Maine a state of the Greater Portland Immigrant with more diversity.

Welcome Center.

Maine holds the title as the “grayest They write, “As a state, we can do state” in America, with the highest a better job of warmly welcoming percentage of residents over the age of immigrants and helping to create a 50. As more retire or relocate here, new more diverse, accepting, and inclusive Mainers bring their job skills, motiva- Maine. We hope that this book will tion, education, and experience to the play at least a small role in highlighting labor market. and celebrating the common goals and But a welcome mat may not be what dreams we all share, and shine light new Mainers first encounter. Fear or on the different paths our friends and disdain of immigrants who have moved neighbors have taken to get here.” to the U.S. is, sadly, nothing new. Some The book also features stunning Americans react with full-page portraits of simplistic, paranoid each person profiled, thinking, saying “Build photographed by Lilit the wall” or “You will not Fear or disdain of Danielyan.

Born in replace us.”

Armenia and raised in immigrants who In response to the Central Kazakhstan, since challenges faced, two 2012 she has lived in the have moved to Maine writers have the U.S. is, sadly, U.S., including studying created a book aimed at at the Maine Media nothing new. dispelling stereotypes Workshops+College. and geopolitical ignoParticipants in these rance by introducing interviews speak with us to some of Maine’s candor and insight as newer arrivals, where they have come they reflect on the decisions that led from, and why they came here. to departures, the journeys that led to Dear Maine: The Trials and Triumphs America, and what was gained as well of Maine’s 21st Century Immigrants, is as lost. The experiences highlighted— authored by Morgan Rielly and Reza both before and after their immiJalai. Rielly is a Maine state representa- grating—include personal economic tive and graduate of Bowdoin College; conditions, education and work, reliJalali is a former refugee and noted gious and cultural practices, political writer, and currently executive director realities, and the role of family.

There is, understandably, a range of emotion expressed, including sadness, pride, regret, fear, courage, satisfaction, and confusion. Each chapter features one of the 22 participants and begins with their photo, and a few notes on country of origin and its distance from Maine.

There is also a small image, lacking any details, of the shape of the country.

Why not a map? I’d like to picture where it is, and see some of its physical features, cities, and regions. Another question: the U.S. is only one of three countries in the world not using the metric system. In the interest of inclusion, why not use kilometers as well as miles in denoting distance?

What I think the creators of this book got absolutely right, and for which I thank them, is the overall experience provided and how they crafted it—their choice of participants and the trust and respect the authors had in letting each of them tell their own story.

“Think of this book as a local dinner party,” we’re told. “We are introducing you to some of our neighbors. We hope you leave with a new perspective, an appreciation of the people you’ve met.

We also hope you leave inspired.”

Tina Cohen is a therapist who is a seasonal resident of Vinalhaven.

Native stories keep heritage alive Passamaquoddy tales, from fable to origins

Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us Edited by Wayne Newell and Robert M. Leavitt, Resolute Bear Press

Review by Carl Little IN HIS INTRODUCTION to Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, Wayne Newell notes that the traditional Passamaquoddy stories he and Robert Leavitt collected “create a bridge between the knowledge and memories of elders—my generation—and the world of today’s younger people.”

In the face of loss of language and cultural history, these tales also provide

a connection to a rich past filled with fantastic, often otherworldly creatures, both human and animal.

As a kind of overture to the tales, the book’s first section features an account of life in Indian Township in the 1920s written by Mary Ellen Stevens Socobasin in 1979. The diary-like “Maliyan,” Newell writes, “reveals our standards of living and how the first changes from outside came into the community.”

We read about barebones living conditions, day-to-day activities, holidays (Halloween and Christmas), and the inauguration of a new chief at Pleasant Point (the men vote by throwing their hats near the candidate they prefer). The birth of a child and the death of an elder cover the full spectrum of life.

Many of the ensuing stories read like fables. “Mahtoqehs naka Malsom” stars a wily hare and an easily duped wolf eager to eat him—a blend, if you will, of Aesop and “Little Red Riding Hood,” but with its own engaging twists and turns. Faye Hoban’s charming illustrations recall George Herriman’s Krazy Kat comic strip.

A number of stories involve Koluskap, a powerful figure sent by the Creator to teach the Wabanaki people

how to survive. “Koluskap naka ‘Siwiyi” recounts his journey to free his grandmother Muwinesq, the she-bear, and his younger brother, Nimaqsuwehs, the sable, from kidnappers. At one point in this marvelous tale, a large whale carries Koluskap across the ocean to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He eventually rescues his relatives—and is merciful to their captors.

Other stories have a less happy ending. Scary children’s stories, like Grimm’s fairy tales, can help youngsters better deal with a sometimescruel world—and to be cautious when faced with evil. These Passamaquoddy stories, some of them featuring violence, serve a similar purpose: to make young ones aware that the world isn’t all “peaches and cream,” writes Newell. Ghosts, devils, and wicked creatures keep us all on our toes.

The text is provided side-by-side in Passamaquoddy and English. Newell explains how the inventive storytellers would form words by combining “a number of meaningful roots.” The bilingual text gives readers an opportunity “to understand how the language creates another, parallel world.” Several stories end with a simple sign-off: “That’s all.”

The collection is richly illustrated with vintage photos and numerous

paintings and line drawings by Hoban, Carole Thomayer, Roger Gabriel, Lea Suta, and Leavitt (who also took the photos of Elizabeth Newell in the act of storytelling). The cover photograph shows the laughing Alice Sockabasin, one of the storytelling grandmothers.

The book came out in February 2021; Newell passed away in December. In her overview of Newell’s life in the Bangor Daily News, reporter Abigail Curtis highlighted his humble beginnings—he grew up in a two-room tarpaper shack on Passamaquoddy Bay—and how he overcame poverty, legal blindness, and discrimination “to become a pioneering chronicler of his heritage.”

Among many accomplishments, Newell helped develop the American Indian studies program and Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine.

He also wrote and edited several hundred books, many in his native Passamaquoddy language.

“I’ve written about 400 books,” Newell joked in 2007, “but only about 600 people can read them.” Many more people will read—and delight in—this extraordinary collection of stories.

Carl Little is regular contributor to The Working Waterfront. He lives on Mount Desert Island.

www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

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Book Reviews

Photographic proof of Portland’s hip rebirth Documentary images captured a ‘moment of moments’

Take It Easy: Portland in the 1970s

by John Duncan; Islandport Press

Review by Dana Wilde SUMMERS IN THE ’60S my father trundled from Cape Elizabeth to Portland to go to marine chandleries on the wharves. I remember Commercial Street being like something out of a badly filmed B movie.

When you got down onto it from York Street, the concrete arches of the Million Dollar Bridge were suddenly high above you, and in the shade and litter underneath were weedy refuges for homeless drunks. On hot days a dusky, rancid stink permeated the riverfront arising from the fish meal plant, a huge, looming, gray metal building that’s long since disappeared.

The roadway was made mainly of cobblestones that rattled the car and your bones. Used and useless railroad tracks crissed and crossed at angles unrelated to the directions vehicles were driving. With no clear lanes to stay in, cars and trucks veered all over trying to avoid the obstacles, which included each other. I don’t know how many times the car I was in steered to the left of oncoming traffic instead of to the right on Commercial Street in the ’60’s and into the ’70s.

In 1974, the I-295 spur off the Turnpike opened, letting traffic onto Franklin Street Arterial directly to Commercial Street. The Old Port by then was transforming from seedy waterfront dive neighborhood to nascent mini-Greenwich Village North.

Artist studios, book stores, restaurants, bars, shops, music, poetry readings, a street festival that started in 1973.

The creative energy in Portland in those days seemed so prevalent that phrases like “Paris of the ’70s” arose on the streets.

It could have been a naive delusion of grandeur suffered by youth flush with aspirations; and now, mere nostalgia. But when you look at John Duncan’s photos, you get the feeling Portland’s ’70s were a moment of moment after all.

Duncan, who grew up in Falmouth, shot the photos in Take It Easy: Portland in the 1970s with random abandon around town, often from the taxicab he drove all over the peninsula

and elsewhere. The faces, places, and smallest details in his images vibrate with energy.

If you spent much time on the streets, you crossed paths with performer Reggie Osborne, musician and clothier Beth Blood, bespectacled, skinny-necktied photographer Chris Grasse—their faces are perfectly imaged in Duncan’s photos. The young woman on the cover, Dust, you either knew or had heard hilarious stories about, in scrappy kitchens exactly like the one where she’s sipping coffee.

Congress Street from Monument to Longfellow squares was still the main commercial drag, and Duncan’s photos show exactly what and who it looked like.

Porteous, Recordland, the Hay drugstore, Paul’s Foods, the dignified elderly pedestrians of Congress Square. Cathay Garden. Boys in front of the library in the Baxter Building crowding next to Bruce Holsapple’s poetry easel, where he sat days purveying theories of art.

The rough and tumble Rook and Pawn, the scroungy Spring Street bus station. Pizza Villa. A skyline view from Munjoy Hill. Sun-beaten Fowler’s Beach on Long Island, where poet Peter Kilgore’s family kept a cottage.

There are many smiling faces in this book, but the ’70s were far from a decade-long lark. Growth always has discomfort for a shadow, and Duncan found that too. A shot of the entryway to the old Casco Bay Lines terminal,

Commercial Street in the background, is empty-looking and bleak; two drunks jostled me in that very spot after I got off a ferry from Peaks Island late one frigid night in 1975.

One of the truest-to-life moods of the moment arises from a girl, 12 or 13 years old, sitting knees up against the corner of the Libby Building on Congress Square. Bright afternoon sunlight on the sidewalk, her head and shoulders in shadow. Moccasins turned toes-inward. The lower right quadrant of a man leaning like an ersatz Elvis looms over her.

She’s peering weary-eyed into the distance. “I love to wonder what she was mad about, or maybe she was just sitting there bored,” says Duncan’s caption, not inaccurately. But it’s not anger, exactly. She seems melancholy, beaten down. But also neatly attired, with crisply cut bangs, a pair of clogs beside her ready to go. The Libby Building is destined to disappear.

This image expresses a quintessential mood of the very moment of 1970s Portland. What art critic Ed Beem called “those dull, drab, glorious days.”

John Duncan’s photos prove the energy of the ’70s was what we thought it was, rough, chaotic, grainy, exuberant as old Commercial Street.

Dana Wilde is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

How anti-government sentiment was harnessed Half a century of political manipulation explored in book

At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump

By Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris; Columbia University Press

Review by Dana Wilde UNIVERSITY OF MAINE political science professor Amy Fried’s new book concerns a pattern in recent political history you may very well think quite familiar.

At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust

from Goldwater to Trump, co-authored with Douglas B. Harris of Loyola University, documents and details how American distrust of government has been utilized since the 1960s as part of a carefully planned political strategy intended to reap benefits in clearly defined organizational, electoral, institutional, and policy areas.

In 1964, Fried and Harris observe, Republican Barry Goldwater ran for president as, in a way, the first majorparty “conservative.” Working with resentments rooted in the 19th century, his campaign inflamed fears that big government was on the brink of creating a communist welfare state that would do away with American freedoms.

In the 1980s, as the so-called Southern strategy took hold in which Republicans cultivated the support of working-class Democrats disaffected by their party’s support of the civil rights movement, Ronald Reagan cultivated fear of government by warning of alleged stifling effects of government regulation.

In the 1990s, the Newt Gingrich-led GOP portrayed government as specifically “anti-family” and framed reform of the health care financial system as a

threat of government takeover. Then, following George W. Bush’s foreign policy debacles, spending expansions, and crashed economy, a black man, Barack Obama, was elected president and the stage was set for the Tea Party, which Republicans fostered by pretending it was a grassroots movement, which it by and large was not.

Instead, it was an orchestrated component of the same long-term strategy operational since Goldwater.

The authors show how Donald Trump’s efforts to provoke impulses to “punch government in the face” were a direct outcome of the decades-long strategy. By the time Trump launched the most staggering lie of all about election fraud, trust in government was so grievously destabilized that not only confidence in bureaucracy, but in elections themselves was cracked. The results, whose end does not appear to be in sight, include the Republican Party itself tearing apart alongside a violent effort to overthrow the government, apparently incited and abetted by the former president himself.

With Trump, “war” with government stopped being metaphorical.

Fried and Harris are not making this up, to use a phrase from a journalistic master of irony. At War with Government makes its case with painstakingly researched historical information and well-vetted studies in political science. From my perspective, they skate too quickly over anti-government resentment in the South dating from the Civil War, and mention only in passing Fox News, which appears to have played a significant, aggressive role as both a central instrument and an active participant in the strategy in the past twenty years.

But these are small criticisms of a book that lucidly explains a fact of our political history that desperately needs to be more widely understood.

Anyone interested in this particular political thread among the many leading to the mess we’re in right now, should read this book, if only to get their facts straight.

Dana Wilde is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. His recent book is Winter: Notes and Numina in the Maine Woods published by North Country Press.

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

Rock Bound

A wonderful life begins close to home Populism as a political value is complicated

By Tom Groening MUCH OF MY political philosophy— maybe too much—springs from the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life.

Policy questions are more nuanced and complex than talking heads on cable news suggest, and this film might be dismissed by some, as its villain says, as “sentimental hogwash” and overly simplistic.

I see the sentimental Hollywood ending in Frank Capra’s Christmas classic, but I also see something deeper, and it’s inculcated me with civic values that gave birth to my political philosophy.

I read Capra’s autobiography, The Name Above the Title (1971), in which he recounts growing up as an Italian immigrant in Southern California, the youngest of seven children. Capra bluffed his way into the nascent film business and his wit and confidence led him up the ladder.

During the dark days of the Depression, he directed such hits as It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), among others.

A thread of populist philosophy runs through the work, and that’s a perspective I find both sensible and dangerous— sensible, because it posits that public

policy should rise from and aim to work for “regular folk,” but dangerous because “regular folk” often are easily duped.

In these films, the wealthy are portrayed as either greedy or out of touch, and the savvy, worldly types— often politicians or reporters—are shown as cynical and corrupt. The heroes believe in the American dream and against great odds, come out on top. They also are happy in their simple, humble lives.

The It’s a Wonderful Life story sits squarely on issues we write about in this newspaper. How do we maintain functioning communities in the face of corporate sprawl? How do we make housing in our coastal towns accessible to middle- and working-class families?

And on the local and national fronts, how do we avoid being governed by the rich and powerful?

In Capra’s film, housing loans are provided by a small family-owned firm, an alternative to the heartless bank. James Stewart’s George Bailey, confronting wealthy bank executive Mr. Potter who wants to kill the building and loan, extols the community benefit.

“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.

Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?”

Indeed.

Capra was accused of being a communist, and you could make the case that he saw unfettered capitalism as a threat.

He saw himself as a defender of the American system and a patriot.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was shown in a film class I took in college. Gary Cooper plays a folksy country guy who inherits millions and, on coming to the big city, is exploited for laughs by a reporter.

The climactic scene has Cooper’s character turning the tables, and in my film class, students—most of whom took the course as an easy elective—cheered it in a somewhat ironic way.

The professor scolded the class, and asked, incredulously, why we didn’t find the film to be pandering and mawkish. So that’s one way to view Capra’s populism.

But for all his sunny sentiment, there was a dark side to Capra’s films, reflecting the dark 1930s. Film critic Nathan Rabin writes that in Mr. Smith, “James Stewart plays the character’s saintliness as a form of derangement; to be that good in such a corrupt world is a form of insanity. The other characters in the film see him as naïve

and comically inexperienced, but also more than a little out of his mind. In Capra’s world, innocence falls somewhere between godliness and insanity.”

Late in the film, It’s a Wonderful Life presents a nightmarish vision of what our towns—our worlds—would look like if self-interest were chosen over cooperation, avarice over charity, vulgarity over morality. It recalls what Mario Cuomo, then governor of New York, said about successful public service—it’s like putting a shoulder to a giant millstone as it rolls along, steering it, ever so slightly, in a different direction.

Aside from populism, another thread in Capra’s films is that caring about what happens close to home is an essential democratic value. And that’s always a good place to start.

Earlier this year, Monica Hesse wrote an essay in the Washington Post arguing that George Bailey’s wife Mary is the true hero of It’s a Wonderful Life.

Find it and read it.

Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront. He may be reached at tgroening@islandinstitute.org.

Reflections

An island town looks in the mirror Long Island in Casco Bay plans for future 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 Melanie Nash The coast of Maine is an iconic place.

You say “Maine” to someone out of state, and they picture harbor-front shacks where boiled lobster and clams are sold, quaint little towns, and pine trees sprouting from a rocky shore.

Life as I have found it here is a mix of that idyllic shorefront setting and industries such as lobster fishing, which is subject to fluctuating harvests and changes in management.

Lobstering is a key industry for Maine, accounting for more than 80 percent of commercial fishing revenue for the state. Many coastal towns are reliant on the industry to maintain a healthy economy.

Maine has not always adhered to the traditional economically focused narrative in fisheries management.

Governments want to argue that to

control fisheries, they must be reined in by traditional capitalistic systems. Lobster fishers in New England have challenged this narrative by managing through regional and local governance, with zone councils and regional regulations managing the allocation of the fish stock.

The focus on local and regional management in Maine fisheries is demonstrative of the larger importance of community to the lobster industry.

The Maine coast is an undoubtedly beautiful place to live, and it is a place that evokes a strong sense of identity in those who call it home. Those who harvest lobster relate to their industry in a deeply personal way.

One lobsterman told me that many of his colleagues will never give up their licenses, even after they stop fishing, because being a lobsterman is a part of their identity. Entire communities can be tied up in these identities as well.

Many coastal towns see economic activity that is dependent on lobstering, such as boatbuilding, bait sellers, lobster dealers and processors, and marine hardware stores. Lobster fishing is a day fishery that allows people to go to sea each morning and come home

and be part of a community every evening. Through this, people connect with their communities and develop a distinct culture along the coast.

I have seen this deep connection to community in my fellowship on Long Island in Casco Bay. I have seen the dedication and loyalty to the island and to the community through my work with the Long Island Comprehensive Planning Committee. This citizen group has been working tirelessly for over a year on the island’s comprehensive plan.

The committee has done a vast amount of community engagement work, from a community survey in the summer of 2021 to a series of public forums held on specific issues relevant to the island.

Impressively, the community survey got a total of 348 responses, which is approximately 40 percent of the peak population of Long Island. People are connected with the island and its community, and there is a strong desire to be involved in planning for its future.

As industries such as lobstering face change, residents must be ready to adapt.

People can trust their neighbors to have the same goal in mind—to protect their community and plan for their future.

Maine lobsters are not just a profit center for the state. They are a cultural icon, a food source, and an identity.

People are willing to put in the work and keep the fishery alive even in the face of monumental change.

I have witnessed this firsthand through my work on the island. Already, the community has activated around the issues named as the top concerns in the survey. There is true dedication and commitment on the island to preserving the way of life and ensuring that future generations can enjoy it on the island, just as those who came before did.

Melanie Nash works with the town of Long Island helping develop a new comprehensive plan, among other projects. She grew up splitting her time between Connecticut and the Pemaquid peninsula. After graduating from Clark University in 2019 with a degree in human environmental geography, she earned a master’s degree in marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island.

www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

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WINDJAMMING— Coastal schooners, the 18-wheel trucks of the late 19th and early 20th century, were being displaced by steel-hulled, steam-powered ships by the 1930s. Before these graceful vessels—derided by proponents of the newer vessels as “wind jammers”—disappeared from the waterfront, entrepreneurs saw a use for them as excursion vessels. What’s the story that this photo tells? Let us know: write editor Tom Groening at tgroening@islandinstitute.org.

Guest Column

It’s time to fix the Indian land claim act LD 1626 represents broad consensus of stakeholders

By Maulian Dana

hours and included statements from Wabanaki chiefs, leaders, elders, and citizens. The testimony LEGISLATION AIMED AT modernizing and fixing spoke to how the land claims act has presented what is broken in the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims hardships in our communities due to its restrictive Settlement Act is working its way through the Maine language on sovereignty and self-determination.

So many of the submissions of support were from Legislature. LD 1626 came through the work of a bipartisan task force that also included tribal chiefs non-tribal allies, neighbors, friends, and Mainers from every corner of the state. There and leaders as well as representatives was only one testimony submitted from the governor’s and attorney that opposed LD 1626. The Wabanaki general’s office.

Alliance has amassed a coalition of The task force met over seven more than 50 organizations that have months and studied and discussed Every other tribe been working tirelessly in coordinafederal Indian law, the land claims in Maine, tribal self-governance, in the country has tion with the tribal nations to show up strong for this bill. and the problems that have plagued rights that the The hard work has paid off thus far, the Wabanaki tribal nations since and we need to keep the ball rolling.

1980. The task force passed a set of Maine tribes are The 1980 act is flawed in that it consensus recommendations which being denied… restricts the jurisdictional authority are now the substance of LD 1626. of the tribes and treats us like municiTribal gaming was placed in a sepapalities, which we are not. The act also rate bill, which was vetoed by Gov. undermines our relationship with Mills last year. the federal government by essentially In February, LD 1626, sponsored by House Assistant Majority Leader Rachel blocking access to federal legislation meant to benefit Talbot Ross, D-Portland, was heard by the Maine federally recognized tribes.

Since 1980 there have been roughly 150 such laws Legislative Judiciary Committee. Rep. Talbot Ross introduced the bill with a fiery speech full of history, passed that the tribes in Maine have not had access complexities, and a plea for justice and equity. The to. Every other tribe in the country has rights that bill garnered 1,650 written testimonies in favor and the Maine tribes are being denied because of this over 100 oral testimonies that spanned over eight outdated and flawed law.

Island Institute Board of Trustees Emily B. Lane, Chair Kristin Howard, Vice Chair Charles Owen Verrill, Jr. Secretary Douglas Henderson, Treasurer, Finance Chair Carol White, Programs Chair Megan McGinnis Dayton, Philanthropy & Communications Chair Shey Conover, Governance Chair Michael P. Boyd, Clerk Sebastian Belle David Cousens Michael Felton Nathan Johnson Bryan Lewis Michael Sant Barbara Kinney Sweet Kate Vogt Donna Wiegle John Bird (honorary)

It is time to take advantage of the task force’s good work which represents a meaningful collaboration between all parties. The settlement act has been studied time and time again. Recommendations have been made but they have failed to be implemented because Maine was not ready to restore and recognize tribal sovereignty. Maine should be ready now.

The Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot people have come back to the table in good faith and our people are hopeful, even in the face of the painful history of oppression and inequity.

The tribes are capable and ready to function like every other tribe in the country. If the Wabanaki Nations have equality not only will they be able to improve conditions and bring brighter futures, but the effects will be positive for all of Maine. We heard this message time and time again in the public hearing and no matter the outcome of the bill, that message of unity and fairness will echo throughout history.

So many of you took a stand with the Wabanaki and we are in deep gratitude.

Please help us keep our momentum going and follow the Wabanaki Alliance on social media and our website (wabanakialliance.org) for ways to stay involved.

Kci Woliwoni. (Thank you very much.)

Maulian Dana is the Penobscot Nation tribal ambassador and president of the Wabanaki Alliance.

THE WORKING WATERFRONT

Published by the Island Institute, a non-profit organization that works to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities, and exchanges ideas and experiences to further the sustainability of communities here and elsewhere.

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

WoodenBoat founder turns over the helm Magazine evolved from saving history to thriving craft

By Laurie Schreiber

I

n the early 1970s, Jon Wilson realized he wasn’t as good a boatbuilder as others whose works he admired. But he was a pretty good thinker about boatbuilding.

“At that time, wooden boats had been going out of fashion and fiberglass boats were coming in, big time,” he recalled. “I just wanted to make sure that these things didn’t go extinct so fast that we lost the understanding of the art and science of wooden boat design and construction that deserved to be preserved.”

Today, many in the boating world know Wilson as a legend who in 1974 founded WoodenBoat magazine and its later spinoffs, Professional BoatBuilder magazine, Johnand Martin, Small Boats magazine, the WoodenBoat School, the WoodenBoat Store, the Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around the woodstove at the annual town meeting.

WoodenBoat Show.

Those taking classes at the boatbuilding and traditional seamanship school are also familiar with the expansive campus—an idyllic spot of fields and woods overlooking the sea in the small coastal town of Brooklin—that has been the hub of the enterprise since 1981.

Now age 76, Wilson recently sold the business to two trusted employees who Jon Wilson today and in 1981. are as passionate about carrying forward the WoodenBoat legacy as its founder.

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, Wilson finalized the sale of the enterprise to Matt Murphy, the longtime editor of WoodenBoat magazine, and Andrew Breece, the publisher of the company’s magazine division. Wilson “I could begin to build an understanding of retained ownership of the 61-acre campus; the business will continue operations things that can go wrong if you don’t build and there on a lease. take care of the boats in a certain way,” he said.

“I had planned to die at my desk in my 90s,” said Wilson, an easygoing personAt the time, wooden boats were still just ality with the same boyish look he had in his 20s. “The pandemic made me realize “boats.” But fiberglass was gaining. Wilson that I cannot wait any longer. I could be gone next month. And there are other saw that his mentors had knowledge and skills in a segment on the wane. things I want to do, including record the history of WoodenBoat.”

“I thought, ‘We cannot let this wisdom just go extinct,’” he recalled. “I wanted to Wilson learned to build boats at Dutch Wharf, a boatyard and marina in preserve the wisdom of these boats and I believed there were others in the world Branford, Conn., dating back to 1955. who also wanted to see that wisdom preserved.”

“My life is a story of lucky breaks,” he said. “Without Dutch Wharf, there would In 1970, Wilson moved to Maine to work as a boat carpenter at the Hurricane be no WoodenBoat magazine. I would not have known enough or felt enough to Island Outward Bound School. Soon, he moved to Pembroke, in eastern Maine, start this enterprise.” where he could afford a waterfront parcel to open his own shop. The problem?

He credited the yard’s founder, Jack Jacques, with inspiring that passion.

“There was no clientele to speak of for the kind of boats I wanted to build, which “Dutch Wharf was a place you could take your wooden boat and have it refur- was small, traditional, fine wooden boats,” he said. bished, rebuilt, and repaired to the highest standards,” he said. “I hadn’t even That’s when he turned to the idea sparked at Dutch Wharf—documenting the known those standards existed when I got a job there in the mid-1960s. I took to intricacies of the wooden boat and yacht industry. He moved to Brooksville near it like a duck to water.”

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“When I realized I was going to try to do this, I wrote to a few publication printers and basically said, ‘How do you print a magazine?’” he recalled. “I did not want it to be a newsprint rag.”

There’s an iconic photo of Wilson, talking on a phone housed in a watertight box fastened to a tree three-quarters of a mile from his cabin. He and a small team got the first issue out despite the inconvenience.

“It’s crazy, because I knew nothing,” he said. “But I’m Matt Murphy thinking, ‘I’m going to give it a try.’”

Financed by the sale of his boat, the first print run was 13,000 issues.

“I had two subscribers when I went to press,” he said.

“That’s the triumph of hope over experience.”

In September 1974, the team took a few cartons of magazines to the Newport (Rhode Island) Sailboat Show and sold 400 copies and 200 subscriptions.

The content was unique in the publishing world; that initial interest was encouraging. By the end of the first year, word of mouth and a bit of advertising drew almost 9,000 subscribers.

Over the next decade, readership grew to over 100,000.

WoodenBoat became a bestseller on the newsstand and Andrew Breece developed a loyal subscriber base, thanks to a synergy with wooden boat builders, owners, and fans.

In 1981, WoodenBoat relocated to a former 61-acre seaside estate in Brooklin.

“We had almost 50 people here during the heady days,” he said.

Over the years, publishers inquired into buying WoodenBoat. Wilson was committed to keeping the enterprise in Brooklin. Prospective buyers wouldn’t make that guarantee.

“I realized that I have a business that is employing a lot of people in the community and nothing mattered more than that,” he said.

The best thing, he realized, would be to put the enterprise into the hands of likeminded people, preferably from the inside.

The WoodenBoat campus.

“The more that percolated, the more it became obvious that Matt and Andrew were the ones,” he said. “Matt represents the traditional/content side and Andrew represents the future/marketing side. There was an elegance in that combination. I thought, ‘If these guys want to do this, then I want to make it easy for them.’”

And now? Wilson and his wife, Sherry Streeter—a graphic designer instrumental in implementing the WoodenBoat vision early on—have their home on the campus, so they’re around. Wilson is still in his office as founder and director of JUST Alternatives, a nonprofit committed to supporting victims/survivors of violence and violation and advancing victim-centered practices in justice and corrections. Wilson often travels the country to provide victim offender dialogue facilitator training.

Today, WoodenBoat is a touchstone reaching far-flung readers who, in turn, reach back with their own stories.

“All I was trying to do was slow the process of extinction down—I’m fond of putting it that way,” he said. “I did not expect that what happened with WoodenBoat would happen. I thought, ‘I should do my best’ I thought, ‘I should give it all I could.’”

Never before on the open market, this classic 1850 cape and barn is surrounded by 4 acres of beautiful fields, a farm pond, all a most beautiful, bucolic setting. The country kitchen has a pristine wood cookstove which heats a good part of the first floor. The cozy family room off the kitchen is tongue and groove pine with a wood stove between the main house and the shed to barn.

Four bedrooms, one on the first floor, are charming, old rooms with painted pine floors. Two full baths one to include the laundry area. The post and beam barn has mortise and tenon construction with pegs holding the beams and cross ties, a large hayloft, and rooms under the lofts for farm equipment and wood storage. Ice skate on the pond in winter and look forward to hearing the spring peepers when the ice is out. Step back in time to a farmhouse lovingly cared for by the same family since 1850. $300,000

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

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Maine’s first ship near completion Launch of Virginia planned for June

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PHOTO ESSSAY BY MICHELE STAPLETON

T

he history of the first ocean-going ship built in Maine tells a sad tale. When the Popham Colony was settled near the mouth of the Kennebec River, the 100 or so colonists—men and boys—constructed the pinnace Virginia to explore the coast and fish, but when completed in 1608, it was used to return the settlers to England when they abandoned the site.

A pinnace is described as a small vessel generally having two square-rigged masts, built to be fast and maneuverable.

A volunteer group, working as the nonprofit Maine’s First Ship, has been working to build a 51-foot replica of Virginia in Bath, and launch is planned for June. Coast Guard certification will be sought so the ship can be used as a floating classroom.

After sailing to England in 1608, Virginia was sold to the Jamestown colony and in 1609 crossed the Atlantic again.

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www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

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5 1 Jim Parmentier of Brunswick works on an 80-inch long model which will be part of the display with the ship.

2 Elise Straus-Bowers of Woolwich works splines into scarf joints in the keel.

3 Construction is ongoing in an enclosure erected behind the Bath freight shed.

4 Fred Fauver of Pownal works on a corner post in one of the ship’s hatches.

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5 Ken Moller of Brunswick works on an 80-inch long model which will be part of the display with the ship.

6 Working in the rigging department are (foreground) Bob Ireland of Georgetown, David Bellows of Brunswick.

7 A closeup of Ireland’s hands. All the rigging is being custom made.

8 Jim Nelson of Harpswell (right) and Jeremy Blaiklock (center) of Arrowsic test fire a canon that will be installed on the ship.

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9 Rob Stevens of Woolwich, who serves as lead shipwright, searches through his notes and diagrams.

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

Our Island Communities Ashley Bryan:

The prophetic voice

By Carl Little

I

n the fall of 2020, the Bates College Museum of Art mounted a remarkable exhibition, “Let’s Celebrate Ashley Bryan,” in honor of a gift of the award-winning author/illustrator’s work given to the museum the year before by Henry Isaacs and Donna Bartnoff Isaacs, the artist’s longtime friends and Little Cranberry Island neighbors. The collection includes collages and original artwork from Bryan’s children’s books as well as prints and his signature paintings of flowers. That a substantial cross-section of his art has a permanent home in his adopted state of Maine is heart-warming.

As part of programming for the show, the museum invited another of Bryan’s friends, the award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, to talk about his life and work via Zoom. From her home in Blacksburg, Virginia (she teaches at Virginia Tech), Giovanni began her talk by noting that Ashley was one of her “very, very favorite people.” She reported that he had slipped the week before and broken his wrist. Since he couldn’t paint, he had been calling her, “which is great,” she said, “because I know his voice.”

That voice! For anyone who has heard Bryan perform poetry or one of his stories, it’s the range that amazes, from a gravelly bass to the higher notes. He takes his audience on a kind of vocal roller coaster, with spirited syncopation adding to the joyous and at times raucous ride.

About 25 minutes into the talk, not long after Giovanni had declared, “All that Ashley has wanted to do is bring some love to the world,” there was a sudden laugh and Bryan appeared on the screen, smiling, his ear buds attached. In greeting him, Giovanni raved about his latest book, Infinite Hope, a first-hand account of being in a segregated battalion during World War II. Bryan thanked her and said, “It meant everything to me to get it out.” Then he returned the compliment: “I feel that everything [Nikki] speaks is poetry.”

Bryan’s voice was strong, musical, a little raspy, but forceful. Responding to the pandemic, he noted, “We go along day by day with what comes up as a challenge, but there is always the magic and mystery in every moment—even now, speaking with you, it’s all such a wonder!”

A wonder it was as the two friends shared their impressions of life and art. “There’s nothing like being

Ashley Bryan holds a copy of Beautiful Blackbird (2003), one of dozens of children’s books he illustrated and wrote.

PHOTO: COURTESY BOB THAYER

restored each day by what we love—It’s always new,” Bryan said. Later he declared, “I’m trying to match the good and creativeness that is given to the world, in everything I do, to say thank you for the inspiration of all that’s been created in the world, you know.”

Giovanni, for her part, spoke of the need for hope.

And when Bryan said, “I need to get this hand back so I can really work,” she replied, “Take your time.”

Toward the end of the event, an audience member asked about the importance of the prophetic voice.

“You have nothing that’s more important than your prophetic voice,” Bryan noted with fervor, “because everything is all dead and gone and used and not important, but what you’re projecting and what you’re seeing and religiously opening up again is at the heart of everything because when they say that ‘in the beginning was the word, and the word was God,’ everything comes from that beginning word of Genesis.”

Giovanni added her own take on the question: “What we do is we go forward, because everything was yesterday. And there’s nothing wrong with yesterday— you learn, or you hopefully learn, from yesterday.” In

reference to the upcoming presidential election, she added, “We’ll learn on November 3rd whether we’ve learned anything, but that’s another discussion.”

Rewatching the video of the conversation is to realize one is witnessing two incredible human beings in the most loving of interchanges, sharing their wisdom on the creative process in a completely open and genuine manner. The stories they share, poignant and funny, reflect their brilliance as storytellers.

I’ve had the honor to write about Bryan on a number of occasions, dating back to a profile in Down East magazine in the early 1990s and including reviews for this newspaper and other publications. Whether interviewing him in person or by phone, I always found his voice comforting and uplifting. Here was a man who found glory in the world, whose many arts brought joy to audiences far and wide. That singular voice and vision will echo down the years.

Bryan will be the recipient, posthumously, of the Farnsworth Art Museum’s 2022 Maine in America Award. The museum will present “Ashley Bryan | Beauty in Return” opening in May.

When Islesboro was ‘invaded’ by the automobile Camden Herald archives reveal island transformation The following was published under the “Neighborhood Notes” heading in the Friday, Aug. 2, 1912 edition of the Camden Herald, and is reprinted by permission:

T

he peaceful calm of Dark Harbor has been stirred by the arrival of an automobile and dissension has broken out which will end nobody knows how.

Although not prohibited by law, up to a few days ago the island was free from automobiles. There was an unwritten agreement among the summer contingent that they should bring no cars. The summer colonists have fine turnouts and saddle horses and driving has been one of the features of the daily routine.

Great was the sensation when a large touring car was trundled ashore from the little steamboat which plies between

North Islesboro of the “native” section of the island and Belfast. It was the first time in history that Islesboro had ever been invaded by the motor car.

Had the car belonged to a stranger perhaps it might have been rolled into Penobscot Bay, but as it belonged to Capt.

Fields C. Pendleton no harm befell it.

Capt. Pendleton declared he had a right to run an automobile on Islesboro if he wanted to. He did not do it out

of spite, but he had to get around some way. So the old shipmaster cranked up his car and took a spin around the upper end of the island.

His automobile frightened every horse he met, for few of the Islesboro horses had ever seen an automobile before.

The summer colonists are divided on the subject of the motor car. Some say they will not stay; some say that they came to Dark Harbor to escape automobiles, and

www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

15

Cranberry Report

Celebrate Ashley Bryan by making art Being a neighbor provided a glimpse into process

By Barbara Fernald

N

o matter how you feel about Facebook, the social networking site does connect scattered friends in times of celebration and grief. On Feb. 5, less than 24 hours after his death, I did not feel that Ashley Bryan was gone. It seemed that he had come home to Islesford, as his bright smile shined from post after post on Facebook as people shared their memories and condolences.

There were videos of Ashley reciting the poem, “My People,” by Langston

Hughes. There were pictures of his paintings, and photo after photo of people standing in Ashley’s glow, smiling at the camera, having just spent some amazing time with him.

Ninety-eight years is a long time to create memories. How fortunate we are that Ashley had that time and that spirit to provide such a wealth of recollections for so many people. I think he would get a kick out of how many people are telling their stories of Ashley moments and describing the impact he made on their lives. One conversation I had with Ashley, a while ago, was about

new ideas. He described the feeling he sometimes got at the beginning of a book project, wondering if he was headed in the right direction.

“I mean, my Islesford family will always say they like it, but what about out in the world? Will this be OK?” I gaped back at him in shock.

“Really? At age 80-something, with so many awards and so many books published, you still have doubts about your work?”

We continued to talk about doubts and depression and how really the only thing to do was to keep moving

forward until it got better. Ashley said, “Just keep making art, because when you’re making art you’re not hurting anyone or doing anything wrong.”

In the summer of 2015, an impressive stand of white hollyhocks appeared in the garden under Karen and Hugh Smallwood’s kitchen window. Across the street, Ashley was going through his sketches and letters from World War II as part of his next book project. When the work got too somber, he would take his easel across the street and start painting the tall white flowers. Just as the hollyhocks faded, the dahlias came into bloom. Ashley was out there painting almost every day through July, August and September. By the time the dahlias dropped he had two dozen canvases full of color.

That December, Ashley wanted to see all of the flower paintings displayed together. He chose two days between Christmas and New Year’s to set up a show at the Islesford Neighborhood House. He set the chairs in a U-shape around half of the room, leaning canvases against the legs to create the illusion of flowers growing up from the floor. It was simple and beautiful.

By sharing the artwork that had soothed him all summer, Ashley was passing on that gift of a lifted mood to his Islesford family. December is a pretty dark month here, but for two days, thanks to Ashley, we had the opportunity to walk through a summer garden.

I’m sure there will be many Ashley stories this summer. It will feel like he has arrived back on the island. I hope he pops up often in your memories.

Need to lift your spirits? Go make some art. When you’re making art you’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, you’re celebrating Ashley.

Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) where she makes jewelry. She may be reached at Fernald244@gmail.com.

if they are permitted there, all charm of the place will be gone.

Others say that they have long wished to bring their cars, but have not done so out of deference to the sentiment. They declare they would have much pleasure in motoring along the smooth roads of the island, and if Capt. Pendleton is allowed to run his car in the island, they may have their motor vehicles.

The natives who derive a very large portion of their revenue from the summer contingent, hardly know where they stand. There is no law against the automobile there, and a special act of the Legislature would be necessary to exclude motor vehicles from the island.

What the summer folk think about automobiles, however, does not concern Capt. Pendleton. Just what will be the outcome is uncertain. ******* According to Carrie Thomas of Islesboro, a 1913 act by the Maine State Legislature prohibited the use of cars on the island. The act was repealed in 1933 and the first car on the island after that was owned by Pearl Fairfield.

The Camden Herald’s archives from 1870 to 1997 are now available at the Camden Public Library’s website. See: librarycamden.org/search-camdenherald-archives/.

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

www.workingwaterfront.com . April 2020

cRanBeRRy RepoRt Island Institute seeks Fellows candidates Community service program coastal,painting island placements Townincludes meeting, lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

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THE ISLAND INSTITUTE is seeking qualified candidates for its Island Fellowship program, a twoyear placement in one of Maine’s coastal or 15 yearround island communities.

The Island Fellows program, now in its 23rd year, places undergraduate and master’s degreemeeting graduateswill take place on Islesford. bright red with a black stripe) and, like piece of purple rope to the end of the What’s for lunch? Homemade pizzas, every other lobster fisherman in Maine buoy line or toggle, but all attachments in Maine’s coastal and year-round island communisalads, and

By Barbara Fernald ties to live and work for two years. The fellowship desserts. Life gets busier this winter, he read about, talked about, must be made with a splice or a tuck. volunteer to help prepare the and experimented with purple paint.

I know it’s a stretch to compare folpositions provide a unique opportunity as forwe recent first community meal of the season.

ACTIVITY on the islands, at the end lowing Maine whale rope requireThe latest whale regulations require graduates to apply their skills and gain real-life, Town meeting is a great opportuof February and into March, is like a ments with a plein air workshop, but all Maine lobster fishermen to use new place-based experience helping to build sustainability nity to hear about winter from friends mirror image of the action at the end markings on the ropes they attach to a person could return home from eiwithin communities whose way of life and identity and neighbors.

“How was your trip to of August into September.

Just as the lobster traps.

Depending on how close ther and say that they’d been paintface many challenges and unique opportunities. ...?”

“Who knew grand-parenting was summer residents of the Cranberry to shore they fish, they will have to add ing in their spare time. If Bruce were Applications will be accepted through March 31. so exhausting or that there were so 2-4 purple marks on each buoy line. writing an essay on how he spent his Isles online end their vacationsare right beforeTo learn Only applications accepted. more fall, many year-round end about the Island Fellowsresidents Program, or tomany applycold to germs involved?” “You did On warps that are 100-feet or less there winter vacation, painting would be a their winter breaks just visit before the all that painting?” These same ques- must be one 12-inch purple mark with- part of it. Another part would be the become an Island Fellow, www.islandinstitute. tions could be asked in September at in a few fathoms of the trap and a 36- description I heard him tell his brother spring equinox. org/fellows.

It’s time to get back to work and a school board meeting in a large sub- inch purple mark within 2 fathoms of Mark about walking to get doughnuts, urb. (Preferably not during the meet- the buoy. If the warp is longer that 100 in February, with our son Robin, and reconnect.

Our annual town meeting takes ing while someone else has the floor!) feet, the requirement is for a 12-inch our grandchildren Henry and Cora. I In January and February, Bruce and purple mark near the trap, a second 12- was away with friends in Portland, and place on the second Saturday in March.

I got to spend a lot of time with our inch purple mark halfway to the buoy, Stephanie was away with friends in For selectmen and town employees, grandchildren in Southern Maine. and a 36-inch mark near the buoy. Florida. Father and son were in charge. winter has been anything but a vacation. They have been working steadily, Visiting them was the main goal of “Yeah, we got doughnuts at The Bruce figures he will be putting 1,500 gathering information to write the most of our winter travel. We consid- to 1,800 markings on his rope in all; two Cookie Jar and then walked to the warrant for town meeting. It’s the time ered trying to paint our kitchen, but to three weeks of extra work if he does beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.” of year we come together as a town to we kept catching odd coughing virus- it without hiring help. A number of fishEating homemade donuts and Thedown 2021-22 cohortermen of Island gathered Tenants Harbor.

There arerocks currently ten beach—if Fellows that time decide on projects and spending and es and experienced more areFellows applying paint toin their ropes throwing at the (five first-year and five the coast, Cascoisn’t Bay to Eastport.image Their work includes got to it. how much money is to be raised by than we wanted, so we never a mirror of many childby second-year) resting themalong in 3-foot long from gutters economic development, municipal planning, climate resilience, digital equity, and community center Maybe I’ll paint it in May, when I can property taxes. made from lengthwise-halved PVC pipe. hood summers on Islesford, I don’t programming.

Discussion of the school budget have the windows open.and historical society Bruce’s first attempt was with spray paint know what is. q Bruce saw more than enough paint, but he soon moved on to the more effialone can take well over an hour. The During orientation in September 2021, Island Fellows met the goats at Blueberry Cove 4-H Camp in his “time cient islands take turns hosting the meet- anyway, this winter. During brush and latex paint.

Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Tenants Harbor.

PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN ing and the luncheon. This year, town off” he painted 600 buoys (white and Some fishermen will add a 3-foot Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce.

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Kate Stookey named MCHT president Statewide land trust chooses Blue Hill native MAINE COAST HERITAGE TRUST (MCHT), a statewide land conservation organization, has named Kate Stookey as its president and CEO. MCHT president Tim Glidden retired at the end of 2021.

Stookey, who grew up in Blue Hill, brings deep experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has held leadership positions in a number of organizations, including the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, where she built and oversaw the public affairs and community partnerships division, and Pathfinder International, where she led multiple global organizational initiatives.

Most recently, Stookey served as executive director of Revels, a national cultural arts nonprofit based in Watertown, Mass.

Stookey earned a BA in international relations from Brown University and holds a graduate certificate in organizational behavior from Harvard University and a certificate in strategic leadership from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The coast of Maine was the backdrop of her formative years, and, after time spent traveling and working and living abroad and around the country, Stookey is excited to return home to

work in service to Maine’s environment and coastal communities.

“I am honored to have been selected as the next president and CEO of Maine Coast Heritage Trust,” said Stookey. “I believe deeply in protecting Maine’s coast and natural spaces and keeping them accessible for those who work, live, and explore here. It is a privilege to join an organization that has such a profoundly positive impact on the people and the ecology of this state.”

MCHT’s board members give her high marks.

“Kate is a dynamic organizational leader with demonstrated success as a collaborator and bridge builder,” said board chairman Tom Armstrong.

“Increasingly, the work of land conservation is about forging relationships across diverse groups of people and interests. Kate brings precisely the quality of inclusive leadership that is needed at this moment, especially in this era of climate change and the challenges it poses to the Maine coast.”

Long-time MCHT board member Tom Ireland and co-chair of the presidential search committee added that Stookey “brings everything we were looking for in our next president and CEO, including a deep love and passion for Maine, a track record of strategic

Kate Stookey

and visionary leadership, and proven fundraising success.”

Stookey joins MCHT as the organization recently completed a $130 million campaign for the coast, protecting over 11,000 coastal acres and creating 36 new public preserves.

As pressures on the coast of Maine increase, the 50-year-old land conservation organization is working with coastal communities to address issues including increasingly limited water access, food insecurity, degraded habitats, and sea level rise. Over the past five years, MCHT

has launched several coast-wide initiatives to maximize coastal resilience in the face of climate change and has been part of a statewide effort to build bridges between Maine’s land trust community and Wabanaki communities.

MCHT maintains a growing network of almost 150 coastal and island preserves free and open to everyone and leads the 80-member Maine Land Trust Network to ensure that land conservation provides benefits to all Maine communities. Get involved at www.mcht.org.

Lobstering hours likely to change

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A proposal by Rep. Genevieve McDonald, D-Stonington, that would extend legal fishing hours for Maine’s lobster industry appeared likely to become law at The Working Waterfront’s press deadline.

LD 1759 would change the legal start time to 4 a.m. during the month of September. Under current law, start times from June 1 to Sept. 30 are a half hour before sunrise, which means start times are more than two hours later at the end of September than they would be under McDonald’s proposal.

“During a time when the lobster fishery is under tremendous pressure, I am grateful to be able to have an opportunity

to make this small positive change, which will allow fishermen to complete their work earlier in the day,” said McDonald.

“In the fall, lobsters move further from shore and fishermen are putting in longer days shifting gear, so the time difference has a substantial impact.”

The Maine Department of Marine Resources supported the measure.

“Over time, patterns of fishing activity have evolved, with fishermen fishing later into the fall, as well as farther offshore,” said Deirdre Gilbert, DMR’s director of state marine policy.

LD 1759 was approved by the full legislature and was expected to be signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills.

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The Working Waterfront . april 2022

Saltwater Cure

Cows and contentment

Small island herd of Red Devons adds personality

By Courtney Naliboff EVERY MORNING on my way to work I get a little serotonin boost about a half mile from my house. There, in a long, narrow field edged with woods, moseys a small herd of Red Devon cows. One gentle, thick-necked bull, three horned steers, and one pregnant cow named Frieda can be spotted gathered around the hay, or lounging around in clusters, or staring at the road with mild curiosity.

I have a rule, which is that it’s mandatory to yell “HI COWS” when we spot them. Or when I spot them, solo in my car, at 7:25 am.

These particular cows are the fourth herd to bring their unconcerned grace to Middle Road. The first group appeared in late 2019.

They belong to Doreen and Sam Cabot, who own Foggy Meadow Farm out on Crabtree Point.

The field on Middle Road is land that’s been farmed by Doreen’s family for decades, though not recently. She brought the cows there when her herd

outgrew the available space at Foggy Meadow, but also because her father, Eliot Brown, liked looking at them.

I do, too. The cows gained significance in early pandemic times, when Bill, Pen, and I were all home together. We took an almost daily family walk—one of the few bright spots I remember from those months—alternating between going to the town park to check on a clutch of salamander eggs in a vernal pool, and visiting the cows.

These were Hereford mixes, which Doreen said are more challenging, and naughtier, than the Red Devons.

They’re reluctant to cross the road to the other available piece of field, unless she didn’t want them to cross the road. In that case the black cow could frequently be found in unexpected places, like next to the school bus parked in her father’s yard.

The cows are bred for meat, so we try to not get too attached to each herd.

Each new set of cows has a distinct set of personalities and make markedly different silhouettes as they gather at

the little pond set against the wooded border. Red Devons are particularly distinctive, with shaggy, chocolatey coats and broad, blunt heads.

They’re an ancient breed, with records dating them back to 23 BCE in Devon, England. They arrived in North America almost exactly 400 years ago, coincidentally with Sam Cabot’s ancestors, who escorted them on the Mayflower.

Their thick hide, gentle demeanor, imperviousness to snow and foul weather, and willingness to eat scrub and spruce boughs rather than relying on perfect hay helped them meander West with the pioneers.

Why is it so pleasurable to look at a free-roaming herd of cows? There’s just something about their curious foraging, their adorable faces as they gaze back at us, and their sweet interactions that’s a balm to the soul in otherwise troubled times.

On a recent walk to visit them I saw Reuben, the bull, licking one of the steers in the herd on the haunch. The other two steers, whom Doreen refers

to collectively as the Three Stooges, lay nearby, unbothered by the half-frozen, muddy ground. Frieda stood farther off, making eye contact with me as I watched them and talked to them unselfconsciously.

“Hello cows! How are you today? Are you good cows? Handsome cows?”

And so on.

Doreen said that before he passed away this summer, her father enjoyed sitting on his front step in a chair, watching the cows. What could be more blissful, more charming, than that? The cows are fully present, in the moment, unaware of and unaffected by any human turmoil. Watching them, one gets a window into serenity, and perhaps a few moments of serenity to ourselves.

Courtney Naliboff parents, teaches, writes, and plays music on North Haven.

Journal of an Island Kitchen Dinner disrupted—the rise of ‘can’t eat’ foods Commercial, processed food limits our options

By Sandy Oliver DARING TO GATHER indoors around a dinner table with three or four good friends is one gift of vaccinations.

Invitations fluctuate with the ebb and flow of COVID infectiousness but most of us older triple-vaxxed people venture some sociability.

Since social isolation is as bad for our health as heavy smoking, eating a meal together is beneficial, as it was before the pandemic, a uniquely human activity for millennia. As an archaeological site in Southern Moravia attests, we feasted in groups 30,000 years ago. Anthropologists say this was unusual, considering that many creatures when meeting over food exhibit hostility, baring teeth, growling, and trying to snatch food, all deplorable manners at dinner.

Over the past couple of decades, though, eating together has become a slightly more fraught experience.

Twenty years ago, an elderly friend groused that she invited friends to dinner but the only food everyone could share was potatoes, perhaps an exaggeration but even then her circle probably included a vegetarian or someone with lactose intolerance or nut allergy. And that preceded widespread adherence to

paleo, keto, intermittent fasting, and the violent reaction to red meat caused by a tick bite.

Even before then, we fretted about eating eggs, now no longer stigmatized, which some even consider super-foods because of omega-3 and other nutrients, especially in eggs from pastureraised hens. Recipes abound calling for an egg plopped on top of grains or greens, or simmered in sauce.

We’d also endured an era of rampant fat-phobia when packaging assured consumers that the product within contained no or very little fat. In fact, I own a little plastic bag from a purchase of watercress that declared “no calories” and “fat free.” I was, and am still, a little fuzzy on why anyone would think that watercress had fat.

Fat-phobia produced Snack Well cookies, so insipid and full of sugar, now also discredited, that we joked that you had to eat the whole package to get the same satisfaction afforded by one big fat brownie.

Now sugary goods, especially cornsyrup sweetened ones, are discredited, as they probably should be, though it hasn’t had much effect on production of extra-sweet breakfast cereal.

The most popular diet fad these days appears to be gluten avoidance,

practiced by more people than celiacs, who comprise 1.6 percent of the population. Gluten causes some people so much gastric misery that they wisely avoid it.

A pair of spa chefs I spoke with described a client who reported that she avoided gluten. Unquestioningly, they scoured their kitchen, adopting practices to avoid any cross-contamination that could harm the client who was discovered to have ordered out for pizza one evening. Confronted, she confessed “sometimes I cheat.” A celiac doesn’t cheat, and understandably, the chefs recall vividly the urge to kill.

Increasingly, some avoid nonorganic wheat to steer clear of glysophates (found in Round Up) used to kill off non-wheat plants in fields before harvest, and whose long-term effects on human bodies is still murky though suspect.

Hard on the heels of gluten avoiding is veganism, engendered by a combination of loathing or squeamishness around raising commercial meat, deep respect for the value of all life, and the wish not to contribute to climate change attributable to certain agricultural practices.

In a meat and dairy eating culture, feeding a vegan can be very challenging, and if combined with gluten-avoiding,

an even tougher assignment. We can turn for recipes and practices to veganfriendly cuisines like many Asian ones and even Jainism in India, where the devout consume dairy only if no violence is associated with it.

And now see the buzz about plantbased “meat,” a product of the food industry which cheers every new food phobia or fad because it means they can create new products. Problem is, it’s all processed food.

As long as we rely on commercial fare, we actually have very little control over what is in our food. We give ourselves the illusion of control over our diet by adopting various regimes instead of growing our own food or buying locally produced organics.

These days I inquire of possible guests if there are food allergies or avoidances I ought to know about. Sitting with a half-dozen friends around a table with nothing more than a platter of wellcooked home-grown potatoes may be my best bet after all.

Sandy Oliver is a food historian who gardens, cooks, and writes on Islesboro.

www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

19

Guest Columns

A new energy future in Eastport Federal funds help plan new electricity models

By Bob Lewis

exported to other regions in the world, starting with remote, off-grid communities eager to reduce or AS A CHILD IN EASTPORT, I often heard stories eliminate use of diesel fuel.

Working with the local community, our team about the Quoddy Project, not then 20 years in the past. The project was going to generate electricity provides the ability to access the river or tidal from tides using dams and impoundment pools. A resource as a baseload power supply to reduce cost workforce village and a causeway to the island on and environmental risk while creating new workforce which Eastport is located were built, but dreams for skills. Our progress has created improved approaches to tidal energy development in Maine. tidal energy were unfulfilled.

And in the past 15 years, the overall electric Seventy years later, in 2006, a different approach for generating electricity from the region’s tides was energy industry has seen change. Different renewpresented. Instead of dams and impoundments, able energy technologies have advanced, and infrathe approach would use instream devices placed structure modifications are able to integrate more distributed and less centralized below the water surface to tap energy, including both resithe energy from currents in the dential and industrial-scale sweet spot in the water column.

ETIPP provides coastal assets. There is great interest As with other renewable in microgrids, energy storage energy technologies, the develand islanded communities systems, and locally sourced opment of this new approach the opportunity to plan energy generation. requires time to mature. It also These modifications, along requires effort in documenting collaboratively with with new visions for energy environmental suitability and technical assistance… supply and use, in my layperson’s improving design, manufacview, require change in both turing, and installation methods. hardware and real-time manageThis pathway to cost reduction and improved efficiency is commonplace in new ment of how our electricity is produced, distributed, product development and is similar to the roadmaps and consumed. History is replete with cases where followed by the wind and solar industries on their momentum for change can result in error. Planning is essential to minimize the risk of such error. way to market acceptance.

At a community level, one planning tool is the Energy For the past 15 years, I have helped with the effort to develop this technology in Eastport for Ocean Transitions Initiative Partnership Program (ETIPP) Renewable Power Company (ORPC), the business provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

ETIPP provides coastal and “islanded” communities for which I work.

The result are power systems that operate in both the opportunity to plan collaboratively with technical oceans and rivers. The knowledge gained is being assistance provided by U.S. National Laboratories. In

Maine, the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront) is the regional program facilitator.

In 2021, DOE selected Eastport to participate in ETIPP, providing the community with a near-term opportunity to integrate a local energy source to enhance electric reliability, provide electricity for critical infrastructure, and re-institute backup power capability.

The Island Institute has provided an Island Fellow to the city of Eastport to help facilitate the 18-month program. Along with the national lab expertise, Versant Power is providing knowledge of the Eastport grid, and ORPC is providing insight on the tidal energy resource from Western Passage.

The ETIPP effort involves significant data gathering, modeling, and evaluating initiatives that can assist Eastport with energy transition over the next 10-20 years. Such a plan also will help Eastport secure federal investment in electrical infrastructure upgrades.

While a community may decide to keep the status quo, new energy paradigms are coming. They will be more visible as the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging, heat pumps, and 5G networks become more widespread.

ETIPP is a solid planning tool because it creates a partnering opportunity with technical assistance from those engaged daily with implementing a new complex and dynamic electrical system.

I see these partnerships being the best path toward realizing the benefits of an energy transition. I’m fortunate to be part of the project team and pleased that my community has received this opportunity.

Bob Lewis is an Eastport native with experience in industrial facility management. He provides the upfront planning for the operation of ORPC’s tidal energy projects and is the company’s safety officer.

Finding Maine

‘Haphazard’ traveler returns to new memories Editor’s note: In our last edition, a letter writer suggested that islanders other than the four who write regular columns for us might contribute to our coverage of life in places surrounded by water. Challenge accepted here!

By Eliza Brooks Abbey I ARRIVED HERE in Maine three years ago on May 1. More accurately, one week before that. I couldn’t gain occupancy of my newly acquired property but had to leave my former home in Virginia. I rented a nice apartment on Little Deer Isle for that week.

I had watched the seasons change in reverse as I drove north. If I remember correctly, we traveled back two weeks per 100 miles. Don’t quote me on that.

I had just traded in my dinky car for a more substantial and capable late-model SUV. It was a steal—a Toyota (complete with Michelin tires!) for less than $3,000 with trade-in. I felt it to be a necessary evil in moving to Maine. I thought, surely no one in their right mind would rely on a subcompact car in such cold and icy environs.

In time, I would find that I was wrong about this. In the North, people know how to deal with snow, and they do. Not so much in the South, though they should be getting better at it with climate changes and so on.

I made two overnight stops along the way. I might have only made one, but I was traveling with two feline companions who had never traveled more than

four hours in any direction, least of all a direction I had other label I have to live with. Born just on the cusp, chosen. So while I listened to my GPS as the familiar— I’m barely a boomer, but a boomer nonetheless.

So, boomerang boomer it is, though that sounds but not familiar enough—cities drew near and watched the seasons slide backwards with every passing mile, more like an amped-up metal band than anything.

Driving out of Blue Hill and along my darling girls sang the song of their people and threw Caterpillar Road, I slowed down at the overlook. I up and pooped, and sang some more.

They and I eventually calmed down and settled in for knew it was coming. I first took it in when I’d driven from the airport in March to the long haul. One stop at an old friend’s see the property. It takes my breath place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, away every time. Every damn time I the second just outside of Boston. From drive past that overlook I smile, and Boston, it would be about a six-hour drive I chose Maine sometimes tear up. It’s just beautiful to my “forever home” on Deer Isle, substantially slowed down by the inevitable local because it held and utterly Maine. Coastal Maine.

The bridge crossing Eggemoggin routes and speed limits. absolutely Reach in the distance, islands Every year since I was, well, since before dotting the blue, blue water, hills I was conceived, I’d been vacationing in nothing rising off to the south. Or is it west?

Maine with my family and later, with but good East? I admit I hardly know what friends, occasionally with lovers. We memories… direction I’m traveling at any given always rented a cabin on a lake in Bridgton, moment, but then again I really and we always took the same two weeks as never have, being a person who did at least one other family. does not explain directions as going One of those families remains “my” east or west, but rather left or right, family to this day. I chose Maine because it held absolutely nothing but good memories, memo- and often relying heavily on landmarks.

I’m a haphazard traveler. But I found Maine. I ries as close as I can imagine to being utter bliss. New England is my home and returning to it felt as natural found Deer Isle. And I found my little slice of bliss. as breathing.

I am what they call a boomerang, a person who was here or vacationed here and couldn’t help but return for Eliza Brooks Abbey is a former chef who now lives good. I like the label. It’s nicer sounding than boomer, the in Deer Isle.

20

The Working Waterfront . april 2022

Field Notes

Keeping houses lit through winter

One island community’s step towards solving a housing crisis

By Bria White

from outer climes to seek a new version of life—on the coast of Maine (30 THE LAST TIME I set foot on percent of homes sold in Maine in 2020 Chebeague Island it was June 14, 2003. were to buyers from out of state).

Like many Maine islands right now, My enduring memory of the day is watching my brother speed across the Chebeague is facing a housing crisis. In bay aboard his best friend’s lobster December, the town select board asked boat, suited up and on his way to join the Island Institute to serve as neutral facilitators for a series his soon-to-be wife on of conversations that the shore, where they could help name the would be married. complexities of its Since then, a lot has Folks showed up on housing challenges changed. My brother their couches and at and identify the and his blushing bride their kitchen tables, possibilities. now have two teenTogether with a agers and the small with preschoolers on town select board community that was their laps and dogs by member and two so hospitable to our representatives from family has had growing their sides. the newly organized pains of its own.

ECHO (Enterprise for Nineteen years ago Chebeague Housing Maine’s real estate market had yet to see the record price Options), we sketched out a conversaincreases of the 2020s (up nearly 14 tion series designed to recreate the kind percent in 2020), essential broadband of free-flowing sharing of ideas and connectivity had yet to make working worries that might have been possible from home a possibility for most island if we had all been gathered alongand remote communities, and the side coffee urns and doughnuts in the COVID-19 pandemic had yet to inspire community center instead. Participation an exodus of families and professionals in the video calls was encouraging, with

roughly 50 community members on every call. Folks showed up on their couches and at their kitchen tables, with preschoolers on their laps and dogs by their sides.

They talked about the toll of having to move eight times in the span of two years to be able to stay housed, about how terrifying it is to know that the school is down to just nine students (from 33 in 2015), school families habitually citing housing as a primary reason for leaving.

They brought up the desperate need for younger residents, needed to staff essential businesses and essential services like fire and rescue, but who can’t afford to live on Chebeague.

Chebeague’s median age is 65. They talked about how this disparity leaves behind an island population of elderly who increasingly feel the need to move off-island prematurely because there is nowhere for them to comfortably live.

And overwhelmingly, they brought up the heavy burden of fighting against the perceived inevitability of becoming a summer-only population.

In our last call together, they shared their visions of what it might look like if everyone on Chebeague were to have

the housing that they need. There was talk of auxiliary units and elder housing and innovative design but also of a school full of children and lights on in houses all through the winter months.

A few video calls were never going to be enough to get from a place of concern to a place of concerted action. We all knew that. ECHO and Chebeague’s long established Chebeague Island Community Association are now working closely to move the work forward strategically.

The important leap made was simply getting started and doing so in a way that allowed all community members to participate as co-engineers of what will become the solutions they seek.

As one islander put it: “We dream of people looking back at this process and seeing how this effort brought the community together.”

Thanks again for having us, Chebeague. We’re here to support you.

Here’s to the future you’ve imagined.

Bria White is a community development officer at the Island Institute. She may be contacted at bwhite@islandinstitute.org.

Fathoming

Farming scallops has big upside Potential for new markets but challenges remain

By Phoebe Jekielek THESE DAYS, I’ve got scallops on the brain. It’s close to the end of the wild scallop fishery season, so I’m enjoying Maine day boat scallops while I can—and you should too. With the recent windy weather, I’ve lost some sleep thinking about how our 8,000-plus scallops, growing on our 3.2 acre aquaculture site off Hurricane Island, are holding up.

Soon, I’ll start exams for my PhD in ecology in environmental science at the University of Maine where I’m studying the interactions of wild and aquaculture shellfisheries, focusing on scallops (surprise, surprise). The truth is, I think these charismatic bivalves are awesome and that they are a part of a successful and sustainable future for Maine’s economy, ecosystem, working waterfronts and, apparently, me.

Scallops have been identified as the most promising avenue for growth in shellfish aquaculture for Maine, with the potential to double the volume and total value by 2030. While interest in scallop farming is growing, with 146 current or pending aquaculture sites, only a handful are currently culturing scallops for sale or selling seed. The potential is there, and folks are waiting in the wings, but it has not yet been realized due to a few key challenges.

One challenge is that scallop culture lacks a hatchery and is entirely dependent on successful reproduction and recruitment from the wild population.

Juvenile scallops are called “spat” and each year scallop farmers deploy lines with spat bags to catch the larval scallops out of the water column to grow them on their farms or sell them to those who want to grow scallops.

Spat collection can be variable from year to year, causing uncertainty in supply. Wild harvesters, farmers, and researchers developed a project to better understand larval supply, an essential topic for wild and aquaculture industries and their management.

The price of testing for biotoxins is another. Scallop aquaculture has the potential to open a new market for a whole scallop product rather than just the adductor muscle—the part you buy at the store and the only part that is allowed to be landed in the wild harvest fishery. The rest of the scallop— the stomach, gonads, shells, etc.—is discarded at sea because it accumulates and holds biotoxins from the plankton it filters out of the water. To safely sell the whole scallop, growers need to test them regularly and that gets expensive—around $200-plus per test.

Another challenge is farm efficiency. Scallops need a lot of space as

they get bigger so they don’t compete for food, don’t cut each other with their shells in the nets, and grow to market size quickly.

If you’re growing tens of thousands of scallops, that makes for a lot of nets, cleaning, and restocking, which takes either person power or technology.

Automated net washers, graders, and ear-hanging machines are making their way here thanks to grant funding and technology sharing from Japan, but sometimes the equipment needs to be altered or energy requirements are difficult to meet on vessels.

These challenges are being met by the early adopters of this industry: Pen Bay Farmed Scallops, Maine Island Aquaculture, Vertical Bay, Pine Point Oyster Co., Hollander and de Koning, Spartan Sea Farms, and others. Most farmers conduct their own experiments and environmental monitoring on their farms to inform their own operations, regularly sharing their findings with industry and researchers.

By partnering with institutions like the University of Maine and Maine Sea Grant, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, Downeast Institute, and others these farmers have received grants to expand and develop the industry and research.

Farms provide a space for industry and research side by side.

On Hurricane Island, in collaboration with other scallop farms in Penobscot Bay, we’re evaluating the potential for scallop aquaculture to enhance wild populations, the biological and ecological effects of growing scallops in aquaculture, the resiliency of cultured and wild scallops to climate change, and the use of environmental DNA in monitoring wild and farmed scallop populations.

All of this work is inspired by this emerging scallop aquaculture industry. We are lucky to be part of a true community of knowledge sharing for the future of an industry that brings together fishers, farmers, managers, and scientists. I’m hopeful for the future and thankful for such inspiring collaborators.

Phoebe Jekielek is lead scientist at the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership and a PhD student at the University of Maine as part of the Maine eDNA program.

www.workingwaterfront.com . april 2022

21

In Plain Sight

A reliable winter harvest fueled local economy Kennebec River provided quality product

By Kelly Page

warehouse structures using ramp and elevator systems to await the spring This time of year, Mainers look forward thaw for transport.

The wintry harvest could yield to the thaw and the coming of warmer weather. It is a time to look ahead to over one million tons of ice from the opportunities that a Maine summer this segment of the Kennebec, which provides, a time when waterfronts are was lauded for its quality clear ice. In buzzing with seasonal industries and today’s dollars this equates to a billionactivities in comparison to the stalling dollar industry.

The season for shipping ice was late effects of a frigid winter.

For a period of Maine’s history, spring to the late fall. The cargo was insulated using hay or this was not so much wood-waste products the case. During the such as shavings, chips, latter-half of the 19th or sawdust. Shockingly, century, Maine was the melt was minimal— the center of a major inland waterway The wintry harvest even on voyages to tropical climates—rarely industry, one that actually relied on wintry could yield over one reaching a 30 percent loss. The ice remaining conditions, employed million tons of ice in the ice houses at the thousands of people, from this segment end of the shipping and the need for it was season also saw little fueled by the return of of the Kennebec… loss and became part of summer weather. next season’s cargoes.

That industry was ice.

The image included, The center of this circa 1890, depicts frozen water trade was schooners lined up a 20-mile stretch of the along Richmond riverKennebec River, from the top of Merrymeeting Bay to Augusta. banks ready to fill their holds with When ice was at least 12-inches thick, ice. The concentration of ice houses ice harvesters measured and marked on the riverbanks of Richmond led the frozen surfaces of bodies of water to this part of town being called all over Maine to be sawed into blocks Iceboro, a moniker that still shows up of ice. The ice was then stacked in huge on maps today.

Schooners waiting to load ice at Iceboro, c. 1890 Maine Maritime Museum Photographic Reference Collection.

This view alone shows five of them.

Iceboro even had its own post office in the 1870s and 1880s. There is no present-day evidence at this site of the significant industry that existed here.

While Maine ice made its way to southern ports and distant, tropical climates, there was also a major need in domestic urban areas. “Big Ice” developed with smaller, local operations being bought out by those based in cities such as Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia.

Most significantly, a monopoly over ice distribution in New York City resulted in price-fixing in the midst of summer heat waves. While the ice industry was ultimately killed

by the development of refrigeration, the monopoly hastened the shift from natural ice—even amid skepticism of “artificial” ice. As a result, Maine’s frozen-water commerce ultimately expired in the early 1900s and what remained was largely for local consumption.

Kelly Page is collections and library services manager for Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. Among the exhibits the museum is now featuring are “Cotton Town: Maine’s Economic Connections to Slavery” and “Arthur Beaumont: Art of the Sea.” Explore resources and plan your visit at www.

MaineMaritimeMuseum.org.

Observer

An apology and an explanation

Columnist used literary license to satirize male ego

By Phil Crossman I WROTE A column for this, the April issue of The Working Waterfront, a column about the absence of meaningful political discourse, particularly among elected representatives, the people we expect will indulge in such deliberation on our behalf.

The column contained this: “I was expected to cultivate and sustain a deep respect for my fellow human beings, for women in particular, and to avoid crude behavior or language.

It seems kind of corny today, given the fashionable deployment of such behavior and language and, in some ever-widening circles, equally old-fashioned to show any deference to women.

“It’s hard to believe none of that matters much anymore and I’m glad my parents and grandparents are no longer with us, that they died before political discourse and constructive dialogue faded in favor of obscenities, ridicule, or mindless obstructionism.”

I’d have liked to have it published because, beyond being timely—a true

representation of what we witness day middle-aged man pretty clearly trying after day, in Congress particularly—it’s to insinuate himself into a group of an accurate portrayal of behavior that young women. I decided it could be a funny account of man’s (some men’s) troubles me.

Instead, and quite ironically, I find ego deflating in the face of reality but myself prompted to apologize for then thought it would be even funnier having offended some readers with if I exercised my literary license to tell the story in the my earlier (February/ first person, ascribing March) column wherein his behavior to myself I described a situation instead of simply that appeared to them I’m not going to writing a column that to entirely contradict much of what I claim defend myself. That made fun of someone else, which I find a little above to find offensive would be irrelevant off-putting. and, similarly, my claim When it was to harbor a deep respect because the truth is published, long ago, for women. that some readers readers wrote to say they I’m not going to thought it was hilarious. found it offensive defend myself. That So here we are today, would be irrelevant and sexist… the column having because the truth is that been published for some readers found it the second time and offensive and sexist, and ironically, several have perception is all that’s required. I apologize. I will, however, criticized the column contradicting, this time, my claim above that crude explain myself.

When my family and I were vaca- behavior or language no longer matters tioning in Florida 30 or so years ago, to anyone. Clearly, it matters to some, I found myself watching a nearby and we heard from them this week.

I cringe when bad language is used, particularly in mixed company.

I cringe, too, when conversational fun is had at the expense of others, particularly women, or when any kind of unpleasantness is enjoyed at the expense of that half of us that I’ve come to admire. l nearly always rejoice whenever another leadership position is taken by a woman, knowing we are that much closer to equity and equanimity.

Harboring that mentality and claiming to stand for civil behavior and respect for one another, I still wrote a column that others found offensive. I’ll take my increased sensitivity and awareness with me as I continue to write and apologize to those I’ve offended.

Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven, where he serves on the town select board.

22

The Working Waterfront . april 2022

Art of the Waterfront

Francis Hamabe’s Boat Yard

Artist found similarities to Sweden and Japan in Maine

By Carl Little

I

n a 1965 article in the Newark (NJ) Sunday News, Francis Hamabe explained his attraction to his adopted home to the north and east.

“Maine is like I thought Sweden would be,” Hamabe told the reporter, while the Penobscot Bay area was “very much like where my father lived in Japan, outside the town of Kobe on the Inland Sea.” The geographic references make sense: Born in Orange, New Jersey, on Aug. 1, 1917, the artist was the son of a Swedish mother, Emma Tiedeman, and a Japanese father, Frank Otto Hamabe. His father had arrived in America in 1912 and opened the Art and Gift Shop, which featured a doll hospital, Japanese novelties and toys, and tropical fish.

Active in the arts in high school, Hamabe enrolled in the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts and began a career in commercial illustration. In addition to designing ads, he was a brilliant creator of humorous vignettes, some of which ended up in The New Yorker.

After completing service in the Army’s 86th Division in 1946, Hamabe returned to art, attending the Rhode Island School of Design under the G.I. Bill. “I had a chance to paint, rather than work from the illustrating angle,” he told an interviewer in 1969, “to do some sculpture, and to get a good basic background in art appreciation.”

Hamabe also learned screen printing, a technique which, along with oil paint, watercolor, and Japanese

Francis Hamabe, Boat Yard, ca. 1960, watercolor and silkscreen on paper, 18 by 24 inches. Collection of Ellen Best and Geoffrey Anthony.

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Francis Hamabe painting in watercolor near his home in South Blue Hill, May 1954.

sumi ink drawing, would serve as a principal means for making art throughout his life. When he moved to Maine in 1947, he was among the pioneers of silkscreen printing in the state.

Hamabe had paid his first visit to Maine in his teens while working as a chauffeur for a New York businessman who lived in Orange (he drove his employer to his summer home in Bridgton). In 1933 and 1934 Hamabe returned to the state as a member of the Ridgewood Puppet Barn troupe. His marriage to Sydney Gardner in 1947 led to full-time residence when the couple moved into her family’s summer home in Stockton Springs.

It didn’t take long for Hamabe to make a name for himself in the Maine art scene. A clipping from around 1947 features a photograph of the artist

displaying his work at the Seamount Restaurant near Camden. According to the caption, “The former New Jerseyite, who has a studio in Rockport, works in the restaurant during the winter season, using walls as a private gallery.”

Among his many Maine art bona fides, Hamabe served as the first art instructor at the Farnsworth Art Museum, which opened in 1948; helped found Maine Coast Artists (now the Center for Maine Contemporary Art) in 1952; took part in Vincent Hartgen’s traveling art shows and did production work for Maine Public Television at the University of Maine; was art director at Down East and later Maine Life; and taught at the University of Maine at Machias. He was a beloved teacher and an exceptional ceramicist (with Rowantrees Pottery in Blue Hill) and renowned puppeteer (he was featured on WABI-TV’s Hal Shaw Show).

The Maine coast was a constant source of inspiration for Hamabe. He was especially taken by harbors and working waterfronts. His modernist renderings of these busy locales at times recall the Gloucester paintings of Stuart Davis (1892-1964). In a 1965 interview the artist acknowledged this affinity.

“Stuart Davis of East Orange, one of my favorite painters, is sort of an American cubist, blocky, textural and modern, using abstract geometric shapes.” He added, “This is what I like.”

You can see the kinship in Hamabe’s Boat Yard, a silkscreen with watercolor additions from around 1960. The composition requires scrutiny to appreciate its complexity. At center, surrounded by various structures, are three vessels under repair, two of them propped on boat stands. Using a mix of distinct and delicate lines and light color washes, he builds a scene of industrious activity. Perhaps a reader of The Working Waterfront will recognize the setting.

“Marsden Hartley called Maine a continent unto itself,” Hamabe once said, adding his own

23

Francis Hamabe, Merry Christmas Fellas!, undated cartoon

endorsement: “You can find anything you want here.

For an artist, it is one of the most inspirational states in the country.”

His love of the place extended to financial considerations: “Many fine artists work in New York all year just so they can come to Maine for two months in the summer,” he once noted. “I’d rather work up here for less money and be in Maine all year ‘round.”

Hamabe eventually left his adopted state, living out his life with his beloved Phyllis in Bristol, R.I., where he died in 2002 at age 84. His legacy in Maine lives on, through the institutions he helped launch and the art he made for everyone.

Carl Little’s most recent book is Mary Alice Treworgy: A Maine Painter (Marshall Wilkes).

24

The Working Waterfront . april 2022

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LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO Maine’s working waterfronts are the lifeblood of our coastal and island communities—from boatyards, piers, and seafood processor to marinas, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts, our connections to the people, resources, and experiences we love are dependent on Maine’s working waterfronts! Rapid changes in Maine’s climate and economy are putting tremendous stress on Maine’s coast, and now less than 20 miles of our 5,000 miles remain as working waterfront.

SAVE MAINE’S

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TOGETHER WE CAN TURN THE TIDE

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3 WAYS TO SUPPORT MAINE’S WORKING WATERFRONT: 1 - Online at giving.islandinstitute.org 2 - Call the Island Institute office at (207) 594-9209 ext. 132 3 - Mail your gift to: Island Institute, PO Box 648, Rockland, ME 04841 All gifts count toward membership