The Working Waterfront - October 2022

electricity, gasoline, and heating oil

By Clarke Canfield

prices soaring over the past year, ReVision

The company, which employs 180 in Maine and another 160 in New

With

“There could be an absolute change in the character and heritage of these towns,” he said.

ReVision Energy takes progressive approach to training

“That’s the huge blind spot that we have in this electrical transition,” he says. As home heating plants and vehicles are increasingly being

continued on page 5

City to vote on short-term rentals, cruise ships, wages

Energy, which installs photovoltaic panels and heat pumps, would seem poised to explode with growth.

The problem extends beyond ReVision and its Portland and Montville locations. Vaughan Woodruff, director of the company’s training center, says a recent report noted that nationally, only 6% of workers needed to do energy work are in the pipeline for training. That means there’s a 94% gap in the workforce.

as they become “discovered” by out-of-staters who like what they see.

The trades gap— Solar economy may darken without workers

powered by electricity, the need for trained technicians will ReVisiongrow.is doing its part in closing the gap. Woodruff explains that the company hires people and trains them, at its cost, to become licensed electricians. It offers an apprenticeship which provides hands-on experience as well as the required hours of supervised work, and offers the course work at no cost, of which 80% may be completed online.

Portland ‘referendumgoescrazy’

The Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station on Swan’s Island marked the end of a decades-long restoration last year and the 150th anniversary of its establishment was celebrated in late August. See the story of this remarkable island community effort and photos of the process on pages 2-3. PHOTO: COURTESY SUSAN GRACE

ReVision employees— who can become co-owners of the company through a stock option— work four, ten-hour days, so those electrician apprentices can do much of

Portland voters will cast ballots this fall on a slew of referendum questions that include proposals to reduce the number of short-term rentals, prohibit large cruise ships from coming to port, and increase the city’s minimum wage. These are some of the very same issues that many coastal and island communities are grappling with now, or may have to contend with in the future, as they make decisions that chart their future course.

SHINE ON—

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, ME 04101 PERMIT NO. 454 News from Maine’s Island and Coastal Communities published by the island institute n workingwaterfront.comvolume36,№8 n october 2022 n free circulation: 50,000 CAR-RT SORT POSTAL CUSTOMER

VAUGHAN WOODRUFF

In Portland, residents will vote on five citizeninitiated referendums that aim to limit the number of short-term rentals; prohibit corporate and

“The big benefit is to have a goodpaying job while taking course work for free.”

Referendum supporters say the initiatives aim to make Portland a livable and environmentally

absentee owners from operating short-term rentals; give tenants added protections; raise the minimum wage; and limit the number of passengers who can disembark from cruise ships to 1,000 a day.

By Tom Groening

continued on page 5

Hampshire and Massachusetts, is indeed busy with work. But without new staff to train to complete this technical work, ReVision could hit a brick wall.

Like Portland, a growing number of towns are dealing with a proliferation of short-term rentals— think Airbnb—and debating how best to regulate them. And like Portland, there’s growing sentiment in Bar Harbor that limits might be needed for cruiseHerbships.Adams, a Maine historian who lives in Portland, said coastal towns should pay attention to Portland’s referendums and what the voters decide. A longtime Portland resident, he has watched as parts of Portland have transformed from gritty workingman’s neighborhoods to ones with million-dollar condos. Already, he said, many communities from the New Hampshire border to Downeast are “under challenge”

The Coast Guard planned more cost saving moves, but islanders rallied to the lighthouse’s defense. A committee led by Roberta Joyce protested when the Coast Guard sandblasted the tower, removing the white paint. They protested again when the Coast Guard removed the Fresnel lens and substituted a green beacon light on a metal frame. Ultimately, both decisions were reversed, though the Fresnel lens was gone for good. Thanks to Roberta and her committee, Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station survived. In 1994, the property was transferred to the town of Swan’s Island, requiring it to preserve the historic character of the buildings and make them available for public use. By that time,

In

By Frances and Eric Chetwynd

In 1940 as World War II threatened, lighthouses were taken over by the Coast Guard. As navigational equipment improved and especially after the lights were automated, the Coast Guard began phasing out resident lightkeepers. The last lighthouse family left Swan’s Island, and the keeper’s house fell silent.

For 150 years, the light in the tower has guided vessels through the narrow western entrance to Burnt Coat Harbor, a fine, deep harbor, described in old records as a harbor of refuge, a good place to shelter in a storm. The fishing fleet based in Burnt Coat Harbor has changed over the years, but the light tower has continued as a steady presence. Even though today’s lobster boats carry sophisticated navigational equipment, the light remains a beacon and a comfort, and a visible symbol of home.

Exterior painting underway (2009), completed mostly by volunteers.

January 1857, Benjamin Stinson and 83 citizens of Swan’s Island and Deer Island petitioned Congress for an appropriation for a lighthouse. Some of the family names in that petition—Joyce, Staples, Sprague, Stockbridge—are still found on Swan’s Island today. On Aug. 15, 1872, the first keeper lit the lamp in the new Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station tower.

that was approved by Maine’s Historic Preservation Commission. It became the road map for the restoration project.

Friends of the Swan’s Island Lighthouse (FOSIL), a nonprofit corporation, was formed to provide financial support to the town. Dozens of contractors

In 1999, the town created a lighthouse committee and commissioned a historic preservation plan

PHOTO: FOSIL ARCHIVE

PHOTO: FOSIL ARCHIVE

The tower shrouded with the required scaffolding.

Swan’s Island light celebrates restoration, anniversary Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station began service in 1872

the keeper’s house had been unoccupied for almost 20 years. Some repairs had been made, but all light station buildings (keeper’s house, tower, bell house, and fuel house) had suffered serious deterioration.

From 2016 to 2019, with smaller grants and generous gifts, the committee was able to contract

Besides the keeper’s house and the light tower, the restoration project included repairs to the bell tower and fuel house and construction of almost two miles of trails around Hockamock Head, the 20-acre town park adjacent to the lighthouse property.

A private setting on Myrick Cove on Frenchman Bay with 205 feet of deep-water access, this ‘year-round home and large boat barn is sited on a magnificent, elevated setting of mature spruce trees leading down a gentle sloping path to incredible shore front of pink granite with long views south and west to Cadillac Mt., across Frenchman Bay with Jordan Island in the foreground. Great room, facing the bay, with built-in corner seats next to a pink granite fireplace. Newer family room with wood stove is accessed from the great room. 3 bedrooms, 2 on the first floor, one with built in bunks, 2nd floor bedroom with a half bath. Screened porch on bay side. Incredible boat barn with high ceilings for a workshop or boat storage and a garage with a small-boat storage area on the side. Close to all Acadia National Park amenities, the Schoodic branch, and Winter Harbor for restaurants and shopping. A true Maine property with elevated views and frontage on one of Maine’s most beautiful bays, a destination anchorage for blue-water sailors for centuries. $750,000.

Now that the restoration is complete, the focus is on future maintenance. FOSIL is working on an

The preservation of the keeper’s house proceeded slowly, year by year, as funds became available, but the restoration of the light tower required a different kind of finance.

Eric and Fran Chetwynd are longtime summer residents of Swan’s Island who were deeply involved throughout the Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station restoration project. They recently published Shine On, a text and photographic recounting of the many individuals and institutions whose work, dedication, and generosity made it all happen. It can be purchased for $20 plus $5 for shipping by contacting them at eric.chetwynd@yahoo.com. Proceeds fund future maintenance of the light station.

TACY 207-266-7551RIDLON

for major maintenance without impacting the town budget. For more information on the endowment, visit www.burntcoatharborlight.com.

Inside the house, the original lath and plaster walls were retained where possible or replaced with wallboard, skimcoated to resemble the original. The floors were refinished, the house was rewired and replumbed throughout. Much of the finish painting, inside and out, was done by volunteers.

The 150th anniversary celebration was an all-day event, including flag raising, community lunch, storytelling, music, a time capsule, an auction, a birthday cake, and evening fireworks.

The work was done in stages, beginning with the keeper’s house. The most urgent need was a new roof and structural strengthening. Then the sashes in 20 double-hung windows were removed, restored off site and reinstalled, and the exterior was reclad with new quarter-sawn clapboards.

metalwork, platform railing, foundation, and stairway windows. Climbing the tower for a grand tour is a fitting finale for a visit to the light station.

Now complete, public rooms on the first floor include a history exhibit, an art gallery, and a small gift shop. The upstairs has been converted into a very popular summer rental apartment. Sales from the gift shop and rental from the apartment cover basic maintenance and most operating expenses.

Keeper’s House downstairs, now open to the public, with island history exhibit.

worked on the project and local contractors were used when possible. Overall, the project cost about $900,000 plus countless hours of volunteer time. The restoration was completed in 2021, just in time for the 150th anniversary of the light station, celebrated on Aug. 20.

PHOTO: FOSIL ARCHIVE

The job was estimated at $350,000, and about half that amount was for work on the exterior masonry which required fully enclosed scaffolding. It was difficult to accumulate those funds, and the town committee suffered many disappointments. Finally, they scraped together $170,000, half from a Maritime Heritage grant, which enabled use of the scaffolding and restoration of the exterior masonry.

Kombucha is a fermented, lightly effervescent, sweetened black tea drink commonly consumed for its purported health benefits.

Fermented fun in Damariscotta

“Everything is for sale—the artwork on the walls, the glassware. We wanted to create this idea that goes hand in hand with what he’s doing. It’s always changing,” she says.

“When things start out small, you get this really special time frame where it gets to be this one thing,” said Filosa, who also tends bar at the brewery. “It brings people together in a way that I’ve never experienced anywhere else in my life.”

Ahard

4 The Working Waterfront october 2022

business, who collaborated with Erskine to curate the vintage aesthetic in the space.

Maine Booch Brewing opened in August 2021 as a result of Erskine’s hard kombucha experimentation at home during the early days of COVID-19 and has since become the community-oriented space he envisioned, where, “You can read books, buy beautiful vintage art, and have experiences that you can’t have in other places, like spelling bees, trivia nights, storytelling nights, and concerts.”

“Oysters have always been a crucial part of this community,” said Erskine, who grew up near the mouth of the Damariscotta River.

“Because his booches [short for kombuchas] are often in rotation, the idea was that things are always moving within the space. Everything on the walls will

Story and Photos by Kelli Park

“My upstairs neighbor calls it ‘the back porch of Damariscotta,’” says Chauncey Erskine, 30, owner of Maine Booch Brewing. “In high school, we would hang out in the back parking lot,” where Maine Booch Brewing is now located, “so it’s an interesting poetic continuation of my youth.”

How has that energy manifested itself within and beyond the walls of the brewery? With a little collaboration and a lot of creativity.

Their latest collaboration was a pop-up event that included local oyster farmer and entrepreneur Andy Rogers, 26, who co-owns Jolie Rogers Traveling Raw Bar and can be found shucking oysters at Maine Booch Brewing every Monday evening during the warmer months. The outdoor pop-up event featured oysters from the Damariscotta River and vintage home goods on display from Filosaphy Home.

Hard kombucha brewery brings youthful vibe

“Maine Booch feels like a magnet for all of the youth in the Damariscotta area. It’s pretty cool to see all of these young people around with all this energy and enthusiasm for creating new things,” said Rogers.

Rogers said that he looks forward to the possibility of collaborating to create aquaculture industry nights in the future.

“There’s kind of a back-to-the-land movement where people are focusing on their relationship with the land and the ocean and slowing down. That’s the youth, by and large, and it’s the youth that are coming to Maine who are seeking that out,” said Erskine. “I think that’s where the change is really going to come from.”

“We’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from other businesses started and owned by young people,” said Erskine. “It’s exciting to reinvigorate this area with some more youthful culture.”

kombucha brewery in Damariscotta has been doing more than serving drinks in its first year of business—Maine Booch Brewing has become a community gathering place for the younger generation.

Portland’s referendum ballot

Currently, about 70 ReVision employees—40 in Maine—are working toward their electrician licenses. It’s an investment that’s in the company’s best interests.

The Portland referendums are also raising questions on how best to establish policies that will play a role in shaping the future direction of Maine’s largest city. Should those policies be determined by elected officials who serve on the city council? Or by advocacy groups which develop referendum questions and gather the necessary 1,500 signatures to get them on the ballot?

Governing by referendum can result in confusing referenda wording and voters who are only partially informed on issues, said Greg Dugal, director of government affairs for Hospitality Maine, a trade group that represents the restaurant and lodging industries and opposes the Portland referendums.

“We’re growing them,” Woodruff says of those apprentices, “to own their own business with us, since we’re an employee-owned B corp.” B corporations are legally required to consider benefits to workers, suppliers, community, consumers, and the environment.

But as appealing as the employee ownership and work-to-train benefits are, Woodruff says the company is

Portland residents will vote on five referendums on Nov. 8.

• An Act to Restrict Cruise Ships in Order to Reduce Congestion and Pollution: Limit the number of passengers who can disembark from cruise ships to 1,000 per day, beginning in 2025.

bumping up against that projected 94 percent worker shortage.

continued from page 1

• An Act to Protect Tenants in Portland: Prohibit application fees for rental properties; restrict deposits to one month’s rent; limit the standard amount of annual rent increases that are allowed to 70 percent of the change in the consumer price index.

The first step is to revamp how public education discusses trades as a career option and what preliminary courses it offers students who pursue that path, he says. Too often, focusing on vocational education is seen as the last stop before dropping out.

non-electrician jobs, such as those who help install heat pumps and do building efficiency assessment work. Finance and sales positions, too, may lead to more technical work such as design, for which ReVision willThetrain.trades still suffer from stereotypes, with those working them seen as someone who only turns a wrench or bangs nails, Woodruff says.

Not“It’sso.an amazing gateway into other things,” with all of the trades becoming much more technically sophisticated.

While newly minted electricians might be tempted to leave ReVision to start their own business, the pay hike that comes with the license tends to persuade them to stay.

A growing number of coastal communities have passed or debated the need for new regulations governing short-term rentals in recent years as thousands of Mainers have started renting properties through popular online rental platforms. A quick search on Airbnb and Vrbo comes up with hundreds of listings for short-term rentals in homes, apartments, condos, guest houses, single rooms, and oceanside estates, with some renting for more than $1,000 a night.

“Until we make a huge investment in how we portray this kind of work,” he says, “we’re in a perilous position.”

• An Act to Regulate Short Term Rentals in Portland and Prohibit Absentee and Corporate Operation of Short Term Rental Properties: Prohibit corporate and absentee owners from operating short-term rental units; prohibit the eviction of tenants to immediately convert housing to a short-term rental.

“Portland’s become referendum crazy,” he said. “We certainly don’t believe 1,500 signatures is adequate to be able to put something on the ballot. We don’t believe that everything in Portland should be executed by referendum. That’s why the city council was elected, to be able execute these complex issues that we’re talking about.”

the course work on Fridays, weekends, orTheevenings.supervised work is usually 1,8002,000 hours a year.

“We are doing these things with an eye on seeing how we can do this on a statewide or regional level and create a template that makes it so the working-class people can afford to live,” Pelletier said. “No matter where in Maine they live.”

Others bristle at the thought that the city council is being bypassed through the referendum process.

representatives are giving us right now,” said Pelletier, of the Democratic Socialists of America.

sustainable city for residents and businesses alike, “not only for the 1%, not only for the tourists,” said Wes Pelletier of the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which placed four of the referendums on the ballot. “There’s a lot of appetite for this because change is needed,”

“There could be an heritagecharacterchangeabsoluteintheandofthesetowns.”—HerbAdams

continued

Supporters of new regulations say the mushrooming of short-term rentals has driven up housing costs, contributed to Maine’s housing shortage by converting long-term housing into short-term rentals, and created nuisances in quiet neighborhoods. Others say short-term rentals generate tax revenue and attract tourists who support local economies, and that new regulations can infringe on property rights.

REFERENDUM

• An Act to Eliminate the Sub-Minimum Wage, Increase Minimum Wages and Strengthen Protections for Workers: Raise the city’s minimum wage in steps to $18 an hour beginning in 2025; eliminate the “sub-minimum wage” for tipped workers, such as restaurant servers and others who earn tips in addition to an hourly wage; create a Department of Fair Labor Practices to enforce the law.

5www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

“Our bottleneck is having licensed electricians,” he says. Most of the work ReVision does requires electricians. A licensed electrician can supervise just two apprentices. The company currently has about 20 open positions in Maine, and another 20 elsewhere in NewWoodruffEngland.has a background in both solar energy and education, and he currently serves on the state’s workforce board. He was lead instructor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Instructor Training Network in New England and New York and developed and delivered training for instructors from high schools, community colleges, labor unions, and universities to integrate solar into technical training programs.

Opponents say the measures could harm small businesses, discourage investments in affordable housing developments, and create added bureaucracy.“Rightnow, these referendums are causing everyone a great deal of uncertainty,” said Quincy Hentzel, president and CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. “And if these referendums pass, they will only increase costs on everyone in Portland, most certainly on small businesses. From dramatically increasing the minimum wage, to preventing cruise ships and thereby limiting dollars spent by visitors in our city, to instituting changes that make affordable housing harder and harder to come by— these referendums will harm the very individuals they claim to help.”

In addition to its own training initiatives, ReVision works closely with community colleges in southern and central Maine, where electrical technician courses are offered.

“Most of those learners are tactile learners,” he says. “They are out in that environment all the time.”

Not surprisingly, he has strong views on how industries like renewable energy might grow the workforce.

• An Act to Reduce the Number of Short Term Rentals in Portland: Restrict short-term rentals to only those that are owner-occupied, tenant-occupied or located in two-unit buildings occupied by the owner.

Mainers have had a constitutional right since 1908 to place referendums on ballots. If the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has a say, more towns and cities could have local referendums in the future on issues such as short-term rentals, wages, and tenant’s rights.

Many towns have passed various forms of local rules, while others are weighing what is best for them. In Stonington, for instance, town officials this summer said they are considering a moratorium to stop conversion of downtown waterfront commercial buildings into residences because of fears that short-term vacation rentals could take over the town’s commercial center.

Another strategy is to recruit new Mainers—first generation Americans—into the trades.

“The referendum process is written into law because it’s a way for people to say this is something we want and it’s not something our elected

“a hugely successful model.” Rather than ask teens and young adults to exclusively sit in a classroom as part of a curriculum, training is more appealing if students can see the rationale for academic preparation on a day-to-day basis in on-the-job scenarios.

In Portland, some Peaks Island property owners are speaking out against the November referendum, saying they would no longer be able to rent their seasonal properties to help pay for taxes and maintenance. If they are forced to sell, they say only rich people will be able to afford to own properties on Peaks. Others, however, say the referendum would lead to more affordable and long-term housing on the island.

But it’s not just Portland. In Bar Harbor, the town council voted this summer to place daily and monthly passenger caps on cruise ship visitors. Residents will have a final say on a referendum in November proposing to allow no more than 1,000 people to disembark from cruise ships per day.

“The big benefit is to have goodpaying job while taking course work for free,” he says.

SOLAR ECONOMY from page 1

Kawai Marin, Machias, works with the Sunrise County Economic Council, focusing on marketing, outreach, and communications. Originally from Brazil, Marin spent the majority of his life living in Massachusetts.

Paige Atkinson, Eastport, works with the city of Eastport on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and senior housing. She grew up in California and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019 with a degree in environmental studies then joined the Peace Corps and served in the Philippines.

and graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where she studied English, creative writing, and environmental analysis.

Since 1999, the Island Institute’s Island Fellows program has placed 145 college graduates in Maine’s coastal and island communities for two-year fellowships. Fellows are placed at host sites, including schools, nonprofit organizations, historical societies, libraries, and other areas to complete community-developed projects in areas such as town planning, education, marine science, land-use planning,  the arts, health care services, andFellowsmore. apply their skills to these projects while gaining experience helping communities whose way of life and identity face many challenges.

There are currently ten Island Fellows, including five who began their work in September. Their projects include technology integration in schools, community-based climate action, and comprehensive plans to healthy living. Follow the Fellows on ReturningInstagram.Fellows are:

Katie Liberman, Columbia Falls, works with the Wild Blueberry Heritage Center in Columbia Falls to capture the economic and historical heritage of the wild blueberry industry and share it with local schools and museum visitors. She has degrees in marine biology from the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine and experience as a research assistant and science technician at the National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center.

He earned a bachelor’s degree at Bates College where he studied environmental studies and anthropology.

Olivia Lenfestey, Islesboro, works with the Grindle Point Lighthouse Museum and Islesboro’s Sea Level Rise Committee. She grew up in Santa Fe, N.M.

Mia Colloredo-Mansfeld, North Haven, who supports the town of North Haven and the North Haven Collective by facilitating conversations, collecting data, developing webpages and communications, and increasing information available to residents and visitors alike. ColloredoMansfield grew up in Iowa and North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in geography and environmental studies.

Melanie Nash, Long Island, is working with the town of Long Island on multiple projects including the development of a new comprehensive plan. 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 in marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island.

Hallie Lartius, Deer Isle-Stonington, works with Deer Isle-Stonington’s Healthy Island Project, a non-profit organization that provides information, and coordinates projects to promote healthy living. Her fellowship focuses on increasing internet access and programming within the local senior population, collaborating with the Maine Digital Inclusion Initiative, local organizations, and service providers. Originally from rural Iowa, Lartius has a degree in global health.

Brianna Cunliffe, Mount Desert Island, works with A Climate to Thrive on Mount Desert Island focusing on education and community-based climate action. She has worked with the National Parks Service, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and Dogwood Alliance, and recently graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in environmental studies and government.

Kaylin Wu, Vinalhaven, works with the Vinalhaven school on technology integration. She also helps a growing Lego robotics club and other technology centered after-school experiences. Wu graduated from Simmons University with a degree in English and studio art.

Island Fellows program welcomes new recruits Program, begun in 1999, now includes coastal towns

Olivia Jolley, Swan’s Island, works with the Swan’s Island Historical Society organizing and digitizing artifacts and archives. Born in North Carolina, Jolley grew up on the coast of southern California and moved to Maine to attend College of the Atlantic. She graduated with a degree in human ecology focusing on marine biology, coastal history, fishery policy, and illustration.

New Fellows are:

“One specific example was the scientific data that we shared around there being no whale habitat along the Maine coast within the exemption line (basically within three miles of the coast), which is the scientific consensus of federal authorities. When Monterey Bay responded that they had no interest to look at that data, to me that was a clear marker they were not interested in the facts.”

Holden, founder and CEO of Luke’s Lobster was joined by Sen. Angus King, Gov. Janet Mills, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, Casco Bay lobsterman Steve Train, and Curt Brown of Ready Seafood at Luke’s Lobster’s Portland restaurant on Friday, Sept. 10 to respond to the recent “red listing” of Maine lobster by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, which urges consumers to avoid the seafood because its harvesting threatens North Atlantic right whales.

“On the opposite end, it was remarkable how unprepared and disassociated the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch

From left, Curt Brown, Casco Bay lobsterman Steve Train, Sen. Angus King, Luke Holden of Luke’s Lobster, Gov. Janet Mills, and Department of Marine Resources Commission Patrick Keliher.

“The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program’s red-listing of our fishery is negligent in the face of the work of my teammates and all the men and women that work to support this fishery. In August of 2020, when the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program was first rumored to red list the fishery, I organized a meeting with their team along with Sen. Collins, Sen. King, Gov. Mills, Rep. Pingree, Rep. Golden, Commissioner Keilher, Patrice McCaron from Maine Lobster Association, the CEO of Red Lobster, the leadership team from our largest customer, Curt Brown from Ready Seafood, and my team. It was remarkable how our elected officials showed up in the time of need, how well educated they are on the issue, and how passionate they were for standing up for what’s right.

Officials, industry respond to lobster red listing

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Luke

Holden’s comments follow:

“I was born into this amazing industry. My father, Jeff Holden, was the first licensed lobster processor here in the state of Maine. For the last 13 years leading Luke’s, and really for my entire life, I’ve been working to build the reputation and marketability of Maine Lobster.

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team was. I believe everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, and so we formed a working group to make sure The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch team had access to all the information we industry leaders had access to. Through the communication process with the Monterey Bay team, it was clear that they were not interested in the specific facts of our fishery and that their minds were made up and aligned with the demands of their funders.

Luke Holden calls decision ‘negligent’

By Tom Groening

Paige Atkinson works with the city of Eastport on energy and senior housing. She grew up in California and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in environmental studies. After graduation, she served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines.

State’s rural image continues to confound

Eastport’s pursuit of resiliency funds is proactive R eflections

In some aspects, yes. We want to develop communities that are adaptable in times of change, can recover quickly from stressful situations, and adapt to meet the needs of its members.

Speaking of western Maine, I’m also reminded of the annual “national” wife-carrying championship held at the

When we’re not carrying our wives and wearing wrinkled L.L. Bean clothing, we work hard to make a living. Our

knowing this, I have adjusted my answer to the question to reflect the needs of those I answer.

But my frustration with the dictionary definition is that it’s all reactionary; that being resilient is only something that can be done after something has occurred. Why can’t resiliency be something communities do proactively in anticipation of change? Isn’t that what we want to see, communities planning

When and how Maine raises the interest of the national media is worth paying attention to, I think. Doing so may generate a knowing chuckle at our expense or a cringe.

By Paige Atkinson

OVER THE LAST couple of weeks I have been asked to define resiliency. Eastport is in the process of joining the Community Resiliency Partnership, a program offered by the state to help communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges.

And I guess that’s the signifier Maine often holds for national media—that of anachronism. And really, all of rural America is poorly understood by news media and TV and film.

One step in the process to join the partnership is to host a workshop for the community to learn about these topics and help set priorities around resiliency. As the event approached, folks got excited about being part of the discussion, but kept asking me what resiliency really meant, and how could it apply here in Eastport.

in advance to anticipate and adapt to the impacts of change?

YOU MAY HAVE READ the nowinfamous New York Post travelogue about Maine, or perhaps you read or saw the headlines and reactions it generated here. Long story short, a woman from the Post—who, she emphasized, has traveled EVERYWHERE—came to Maine and found it underdressed and overweight.I’mnotsure if the piece made it into print in New York or if it was an online only thing—I can’t be bothered to check—but it was sloppy, bereft of detail, inaccurate, and, as a former journalism colleague put it, just plain lazy. It was a lob floating so slowly over the volleyball net that even the most gravity-bound of us Mainers could spike it through the imagined face of itsIcreator.shared the column in The Working Waterfront’s E-Weekly and received responses ranging from “Lighten up” to “Didn’t you get that it was satire?” Yawn. Either way, yawn.

We never break a sweat at work. We stop and chat with neighbors on the streets because we have no deadlines or pressures. Life is simple and easy here. Isn’t that your reality?

economy, even in the 21st century, leans seasonal. The New York Post should send a reporter up here in February to rent a cottage heated by a woodstove.

What tickled my imagination enough to engage was its place in the long history of people from south of here using Maine as a signifier of… something. The late Caskie Stinnett,

The flavor of life here is very much to our taste. But it’s a complex serving, savory and sweet and sometimes bitter. A diet of lobster rolls and whoopie pies doesn’t represent it.

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

Another memory jogged loose by the Post piece was when Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson finished a close second to Michael Dukakis in the Maine primary in 1988. NBC News reporter Fred Francis, doing a stand-up from Boston, explained the surprisingly strong showing by Jackson came because “Maine is a very green state.” Huh? Sure, we have a lot of trees, but it was February, so… Again, lazy.

At first, I echoed the guidance Merriam-Webster provided in its definition: “the ability of something to return to its original size and shape

I added what I had been taught, that resiliency was an ability to bounce back, to recover quickly in times of stress, and to find a new equilibrium in times of change. During my service in the Peace Corps this interpretation of resiliency was the constant refrain of staff; in that chapter of my life resiliency was more about flexibility, adaptability (and probably a few more words ending in “ability”), but the questions from locals in Eastport made me wonder if the same definition worked when applied to a community rather than an individual.

When I look at the actions encouraged through the Community Resiliency Partnership, many are proactive, not reactive. Given that, should the definition be adapted to reflect the work Eastport is doing to plan for its future?

Sunday River ski area. Images from the “competition” would fill-out a videodepleted Sunday morning news show, and the hosts’ tone often suggested their belief that those wacky Mainers were about a century behind the times, missing that the whole event was a goof, a way of us laughing at ourselves.

8 The Working Waterfront october 2022

Back to the original question: What does resiliency mean, and how could it apply here in Eastport? I don’t think folks were looking for the formal definition. They wanted to know how it applied to our community, what specific examples could I provide that would justify this definition. Now

Maine won’t sit still for its close-up

To me, resiliency is being able to overcome challenges, expected and unexpected, and being able to return to stability quickly. Resiliency isn’t about returning to an original state, but finding a new normal in response to challenges. Resiliency is about planning for the future and taking action in anticipation of what is to come. Resiliency is not just a noun, but an adjective and an adverb and so much more.

Along with our essay (available on our website), Peyton Place the novel is still worth reading and still packs a punch.

Rock B ound

Our August issue featured an essay well worth reading that reflected on the image of Maine in such divergent sources as the novel and film Peyton Place and the TV series Murder, She Wrote. Written by Ardis Cameron, a University of Southern Maine professor emeritus who is an expert on Peyton Place, it noted that when presented with one facet of life here—generational poverty and sharp class divides— Hollywood opted to white-wash those realities in the movie version.

Ironically, Bryant Pond is where the bowtie-wearing Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson bought the old Grange hall and turned it into a studio— paneled in knotty pine—from which to broadcast his conspiracy theories and turbo-spun news to a waiting world. So I guess the tin can and strings have since been replaced up Bryant Pond way.

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.

who summered on a small island in Casco Bay and wrote a column for Down East magazine for many years, gave the mighty New York Times a smack down in the mid-1980s for a sin similar to, though more subtle than that of its New York cousin, the Post. The Times indulged in full-blown reporting on the ending of the telephone technology that required calling an operator to make a call. The last outpost in Maine—and perhaps all of the Northeast—for the “Hey, Mildred, can you connect me with Miller’s Grocery Store?” was in Bryant Pond, up near Bethel.

If you take this a step further and consider resiliency as an adjective, could it then become a core value that defines the spirit of a small (but determined) Downeast community? Or if we apply resiliency as an adverb, does it then describe the actions taken by a community to thrive despite anticipated or unexpected change? Regardless of which form the word takes, it seems resiliency suggests actions that are proactive, collaborative, and community-led.

While I don’t think I have a perfect definition (and maybe there is no such thing), I think I’m getting closer to what may work in Eastport.

Ready, not reacting to change

after being compressed or deformed” or “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change.”

The Maine Island Trail Association’s island clean up trips are one example, recruiting volunteers to pick up trash and do trail and campsite maintenance on remote islands. This aligns well with the “volun-tourism” visitor who wants to leave a place in better shape than when they arrived.

Also, by directing visitors to tourismready, guided, or curated experiences, people hosting these experiences will be able to manage the flow, which will hopefully limit negative impact, be it for our natural environment or at existing

Sebastian Belle David

STOVES AND TINWARE—

The business district of Pembroke, between Lubec and Eastport, is off Route 1 and probably doesn’t see too much traffic these days, but at the time of this photograph, there seemed to be a John Dudley working on and/or selling stoves and tinware, as visible on the signs at left. We’d love some help with telling the story of this image, readers. Contact editor Tom Groening at tgroening@islandinstitute.org and include “Pembroke” in the subject line.

Douglas Henderson, Treasurer, Finance Chair

Identify strategies to adapt to visitor and resident environmental and social impacts.

Michael P. Boyd, Clerk

Emily B. Lane, Chair

To Advertise Contact: Dave 542-5801djackson@islandinstitute.orgJackson

386 Main Street / P.O. Box 648 • Rockland, ME 04841

Sweet

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All members of the Island Institute and residents of Maine island communities receive monthly mail delivery of The Working Waterfront.

A better way to do tourism

Editor: Tom tgroening@islandinstitute.orgGroening

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.

We anticipate the statewide destination management plan will be finalized by the end of 2022 and expect it will provide strategic direction for what tourism in Maine will look like in the coming years.

Address locations that don’t want or need promotion due to current overuse.

Kate JohnDonnaVogtWiegleBird(honorary)

Strategies to decrease seasonality. We hope to learn how we can decrease seasonality and spread people around the state based upon available resources. As an example, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens’ “Gardens Aglow” has been very successful at attracting visitors during the holidays, when the Boothbay area has historically been very quiet.

Enhance visitor management at the most visited sites.

Places like Acadia National Park, Maine state parks, and other locations are being heavily impacted by travelers’ increased interest in spending time outdoors in nature. This plan intends to help us identify areas of overuse and develop plans to “right size” the visitation based upon the community’s ability to comfortably attract visitors while balancing the needs of the residents.

Shey Conover, Governance Chair

Charles Owen Verrill, Jr. Secretary

comfortable with the number of visitors they are receiving and what places may want more or less visitation. We may also learn that places don’t necessarily need fewer visitors, they just need to find a better way to manage them.

During the planning process we intend to determine what places in the state are

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www.WorkingWaterfront.com

Island Institute Board of Trustees

Kr istin Howard, Vice Chair

BarbaraMichaelBryanNathanMichaelCousensFeltonJohnsonLewisSantKinney

HISTORICALLY, the Office of Tourism focused its attention on advertising and marketing, enticing people to fill our hotels and enjoy everything Maine had to offer. This strategy has worked very successfully, spurring growth in visitation and spending and one of the nation’s most robust tourism recoveries following the pandemic.

While the overwhelming number of visitors to our state are respectful of our natural environment, in some cases, people have left trash behind, damaged property or put themselves in physical danger due to inexperience with the great outdoors.

Our advertisers reach 50,000+ readers who care about the coast of Maine. Free distribution from Kittery to Lubec and mailed directly to islanders and members of the Island Institute, and distributed monthly to Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News subscribers.

By Steve Director,LyonsMaine Tourism Office

But as tourism trends change to include a focus on sustainability, it is incumbent upon us to think about tourism a little differently. To that end, the Maine Office of Tourism hired a strategy and organizational change management consulting group to develop a statewide destination management plan, with the goal of working toward destination stewardship that aligns with our need to balance tourism growth with economic development, residential quality of life, and the inherent qualities that have always drawn people to Maine.

Carol White, Programs Chair

Maine plan focuses on sustainability

Rather than focusing only on how we get more visitors to a destination, we’ll start considering different measures of success. It might be the number or quality of jobs developed, stabilization or retention of the population base— particularly in rural communities—or how tourism is supporting local farms, fishermen and makers, in addition to the hotels, restaurants, and attractions.

Anotherattractions.important social impact we must prioritize is diversity, equity, and inclusion. We’ll be looking at how to attract a more diverse visitor base and introduce Maine to even more people who will value our natural resources, traditions, and culture as much as we do.

The plan, based on conversations with stakeholders across our state, will address many different aspects of tourism, including:

Identifying key indicators for measuring and monitoring the impacts of tourism.

Megan McGi nnis Dayton, Philanthropy & Communications Chair

THE WORKING WATERFRONT

Fortunately, changing trends in tourism may offer an opportunity to

Guest c olumn

promote stewardship and safety among visitors to our state.

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from the Groundhog Day Gale, which devastated a number of downtown buildings in 1976.

The city’s 4,500 residents commonly filled the streets, frequenting the dozens of businesses and grocers lining the downtown—some of which offered the hottest fashions from Boston and beyond.

Gerald “Punkin” Lemoine Bud Staples

At the time, Eastport was both similar and very different to how it appears today. More than a dozen sardine factories were in full swing when the WaCo opened, and the Acme Theatre was doing steady business a few blocks down on Water Street.

In the early 1960s, the longtime cook at the WaCo, Elliott Thompson, bought the diner and had the New WaCo Diner built around 1970. The decision to reinforce the structure’s permanence by removing the original cart frame and create today’s more traditional building may well have saved the diner

For the WaCo’s part, being a stalwart operation in the heart of an enduring community has continued to be in its favor. The diner has long been a favorite of locals and a curiosity for visitors, some of whom have been treated to the sight of passing whales in tandem with their breakfast, lunch, or dinner fare.

Nothing wacky about this diner

When

Eastport’s WaCo dates to 1923, and its name is no joke

When Thompson passed away, his widow Lena owned it, and then their three children—Barry Thompson, Betty Ferguson, and Patricia Magoon. Barry Thompson remembers that all of the people who worked around the Bank Square area would eat at the diner, including workers from the Argenta Pearl Essence factory, the Mearl’s Sea Street plant, and Jacobson’s wreath-making shop, along with all of the businesses there, like the A&P and Western Auto. Canadian fishermen from Deer Island, Campobello,

The slow decline of the sardine industry over the next several decades, combined with the urbanization of the country, saw a similar decline in population and activity in Eastport. The closure of Eastport’s last sardine factory in 1983 marked the end of an era for the city.

In 1923, Watts and Colwell purchased the lunch wagon exactly where it stood and turned it into a more permanent structure by boxing it in. With that, the WaCo Diner was born, the name derived from combining syllables from the surnames of its newTheowners.firstpublished record of the WaCo comes from the Eastport Sentinel on April 23, 1924: “The recently purchased lunch cart of Ralph Colwell, near Bank Square, is a popular place for those looking for a quick lunch and home-cooked food.”

By Lura Jackson // Photos by Leslie Bowman

John Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around the woodstove at the annual town meeting.

Before it became the WaCo, the wagon was a traveling photographer’s studio. In 1919, Eastport resident Winfield Cummings purchased it for $100, or about $1,713 in today’s currency, and planted it in Bank Square, likely seeing the potential of the busy downtown foot traffic and the growing number of visitors by sea and rail.

Nelson Watts and Ralph Colwell purchased a lunch wagon in 1923, took it off its wheels, and declared it to be the WaCo Diner, they couldn’t have known that almost 100 years later, it would still be going strong in Eastport, and that it would be Maine’s oldest diner.

Tammy McPhail serves some breakfast customers at the WaCo Diner.

“When I bought it, it was told to me that it was the oldest [diner in the state],” says Bob del Papa. “There were others in the state that were close, but this was theLikeoldest.”many area businesses, the WaCo endures in the hands of family. Bob’s son Michael del Papa is continuing the legacy of traditional Downeast meals in a historic spot as the diner’s newest owner. Descendants of the original founders, Watts and Colwell, still live in the area and frequent the diner, adding to its story—a meal, a day, and a year at a time.

WaCo owners, Robert and Mike del Papa pose outside the restaurant.

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was run by Dermot and Magaly Healy, then Bob del Papa. Each had their own relationship with the diner and the community that surrounds it. Its long-standing reputation as a reliable place for decent meals has been a point of pride carried from owner to owner.

Helene Farrar

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Nicole Perkins behind the bar.

Basil Cake

This story first appeared in the Quoddy Tides and is reprinted here with permission and gratitude.

11www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

PHOTO ESSAY BY MICHELE STAPLETON

Gov. Joe Brennan, who served from 1979 to 1987, was fond of boasting that he grew up on Munjoy Hill in Portland, signaling his working class roots. These days, the Hill is a neighborhood in transition; or maybe it’s in the last stages of that Oldertransition.houseshave been renovated, and new construction features more modern architecture. But the views over the generous greenspace that marks the neighborhood’s eastern edge remain stunning.

Portland’s Munjoy Hill a changing landscape

12

Up on the hill

North Haven community steps up to mount fresh version

It was Christie Hallowell who got the ball rolling by contacting Aaron Robinson. Aaron had been recruited by Wulp to be the musical director for the original run of  Islands  in North Haven, and then at the New Victory Theater performance in New York City in September 2001. He left after the New York show and Kris Davisson took over, but Kris wasn’t available this summer.

Remembering, reviving the musical Islands

Essay by Barney Hallowell//Photos by Amanda LaBell

But should we do it? Could the spirit of the original show ever be recaptured? Mightn’t it be best just to leave it be?

Our CommunitiesIsland

Aaron still lived in Maine, he knew the songs, and could transcribe the music so others could learn them. He was available, but at first, hesitant.

Maybe this wasn’t going to be a complete disaster.

Aaron remained determinedly upbeat, willing us to rise to the occasion. At noon on the day of opening night, we held our first rehearsal with the live orchestra.

sure we could do it, or even should do it. Resurrecting Islands, the musical written by the late John Wulp of Vinalhaven and Cindy (now Cid) Bullens for its 20th anniversary had been on Waterman Community Center’s radar almost since its 15th was commemorated. A lot of ideas were tossed around, from a full reprise to a totally new play capturing the spirit of Islands

Iwasn’t

Aaron said we were going to create the show during the rehearsal week, choosing which songs would be included based on what we wanted to sing. Of course, we wanted to sing them all. I suspect Aaron knew that.

We had only four actual rehearsals to prepare for the show, though there were three irregularly attended practices in the weeks prior. Four rehearsals to learn the songs, choose soloists, practice parts, assemble the set, design the lighting, iron out problems, and make the whole thing work. The first rehearsal was a disaster, so much so that the pathologically positive Aaron sat us all down and said, “This was a disaster.” But, he added, “We’re going to fix it all by tomorrow.” I went home thinking, there’s no way we can fix this. We don’t know the songs, we can’t sing, the kids aren’t paying attention, no one has a clue what’s going on. How is Aaron, is anyone, going to be able to fix this?

“I hadn’t looked at the music in over 20 years,” he said, but then agreed to take it on.

No teens signed up. Eight adults had performed in the original shows: Roman, Eva, Doreen Cabot, Kate Quinn, Christie Hallowell, Tobias McKenzie, Stillman Joyce (who came over from the mainland for the rehearsal week “just to work with Aaron”), andWeme.were handed a folder of the songs, and several of us were given scripts, narratives Aaron had put together from interviews he’d conducted, that would give history and perspective to what had happened since the original show played, and would tie the show together in much the same way that David Cooper’s role had in the original.

14 The Working Waterfront october 2022

And would anybody come to see the show without the original cast, without David Cooper (who insisted that he retired) as the central character?

mixed handful of kids and adults came to Aaron’s recruitment/organizational meeting, not nearly enough to stage the show.

A call for performers and cast members went out in early June, and was met with lukewarm response. Many of the original cast were not available because of work conflicts and personal commitments. A

However, two key people did stepped up: Eva Hopkins, 12 years old in the original production, agreed to assist Aaron, and Roman Cooper, David’s son, agreed to take over the narrator’s role his father hadAaronplayed.doggedly developed the script and gradually, more cast members emerged, so by the time of the first rehearsal, one week before the show was to go on, there were 27 members of the company, enough, Aaron insisted bravely, to pull it off. Many had not even been born when Islands was performed on Broadway.

Well, fix it he did. The next rehearsal gave us a glimmer of hope. We learned the songs. Cast members volunteered for parts and suggested staging. Halla Henry, the stage manager, worked with the kids on the “Boots Song.” Narrations were shortened, tightened. Soloists stepped up, and some beautiful performances were revealed: Doreen sang her “Lonely Room” part from the original Broadway show with Eva Hopkins, Matt Rich, and Keaton Lear, a recruit from Vinalhaven. Tommy Lamont provided an original guitar accompaniment with Eva on “Somewhere I Have Never Been,” and Odin Corson energized the whole cast with his self-choreographed version of “Six Mothers, 350 Babysitters.”

The cast of Islands, in a reprised performance.

Maddie had never rehearsed “Lucky Star” before she sang it on opening night but she nailed it.

Islands Revisited wasn’t a disaster, it was a triumph! Two sold out audiences gave it standing ovations. David Cooper declared, “It was absolutely wonderful. So good. Roberta and I loved it!”

Foy Brown of “Joy of Foy” fame said it was “the best thing I’ve seen in 20 years.” Cid Bullens wrote, “Thank you for making my songs come alive again. With you all, they sounded better than ever.” Some even ventured that Islands Revisited was “every bit as wonderful as the original.”

As we were about to go on, it was decided that Maddie Hallowell would step in for Cid on “Lucky Star,” singing with Henrietta Hamilton, because Cid felt he no longer had the range for that beautiful song.

I think even John Wulp would have been proud.

Eva Hopkins, left, and Tommy Lamont.

15www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

Roman spun his own tale and enthralled the audience. Cid said the music he created for Islands was “his greatest legacy.” Eva remembered how watching  The Importance of Being Earnest  and being in  Islands  set her on a path to becoming an actor and Aaron’s assistant director. Odin brought down the house with “Six Mothers, 350 Babysitters,” just as Noah

Barney Hallowell has lived on North Haven yearround since 1972 and was the principal of North Haven Community School for 21 years.

From left, Odin Corson, Henrietta Hamilton, and Maddie Hallowell sing.

Boy, was I wrong! Everyone in the cast came through like seasoned professionals. From the opening chord of “Everybody Looks, Everybody Sees,” the cast sang their hearts out, and the audience responded. I could see expressions of joy, excitement, and appreciation on their faces, and even some tears.

When we took to the stage that night to a full house, I was still very unsure about it. I worried the audience would be disappointed that it wasn’t the original show, that our singing lacked the strength and polish

of the original cast, that, as hard and diligently as we had practiced, it would still appear to be slapdash to an expectant audience.

Aaron, as music director, played the Clavinova, with Steve Costanza on piano, Helen Newell on violin, Marta Greenlaw on flute, April Reed-Cox cello, and Tyler Lee on drums. And Cid Bullens, scheduled to arrive on the middle boat, was going to sing with us, unrehearsed, for the opening show. It was a bit unnerving.

The latest whale regulations require all Maine lobster fishermen to use new markings on the ropes they attach to lobster traps. Depending on how close to shore they fish, they will have to add 2-4 purple marks on each buoy line. On warps that are 100-feet or less there must be one 12-inch purple mark with in a few fathoms of the trap and a 36inch purple mark within 2 fathoms of the buoy. If the warp is longer that 100 feet, the requirement is for a 12-inch purple mark near the trap, a second 12inch purple mark halfway to the buoy, and a 36-inch mark near the buoy.

Debut novel digs into small-town life

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That characterization is especially apt for this book. And while it may not have been an intended subtext, White seems to encourage reader skepticism as Andrew gradually questions outward appearances to see the reality behind them.

Life is like this—we want to believe towns are havens, families are perfect, politicians are truthful, and so on. Looking more closely could shatter the illusion.

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a close-up look at several families, including Andrew’s, who is the book’s narrator, and the Thatches. At a lobster bake at the Thatches, family and guests are shocked when police arrive, and this is where the book both begins and will end.

In January and February, Bruce and I got to spend a lot of time with our grandchildren in Southern Maine. Visiting them was the main goal of most of our winter travel. We consid ered trying to paint our kitchen, but we kept catching odd coughing virus es and experienced more down time than we wanted, so we never got to it. Maybe I’ll paint it in May, when I can have the windows open.

Some fishermen will add a 3-foot

Beyond the illusion

With building costs soaring, it’s time to review your home insurance.

The same way a village could hope to be seen as quaint, safe, and alsofamiliesfriendly,mightprojectanillusion.

Boothbay

Our annual town meeting takes place on the second Saturday in March. For selectmen and town employees, winter has been anything but a vaca tion. They have been working steadily, gathering information to write the warrant for town meeting. It’s the time of year we come together as a town to decide on projects and spending and how much money is to be raised by propertyDiscussiontaxes.of the school budget alone can take well over an hour. The islands take turns hosting the meet ing and the luncheon. This year, town

bright red with a black stripe) and, like every other lobster fisherman in Maine this winter, he read about, talked about, and experimented with purple paint.

B ook R eviews

This is certainly a familiar phenomenon in politics. We’re asked to believe of some individuals that they are indeed how they would wish to be seen or that things are as they describe. For example, Maine residents may remember when a previous governor

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I know it’s a stretch to compare fol lowing Maine whale rope require ments with a plein air workshop, but a person could return home from ei ther and say that they’d been paint ing in their spare time. If Bruce were writing an essay on how he spent his winter vacation, painting would be a part of it. Another part would be the description I heard him tell his brother Mark about walking to get doughnuts, in February, with our son Robin, and our grandchildren Henry and Cora. I was away with friends in Portland, and Stephanie was away with friends in Florida. Father and son were in charge.

“Yeah, we got doughnuts at The Cookie Jar and then walked to the beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.”

It’s time to get back to work and

Town meeting is a great opportu nity to hear about winter from friends and neighbors. “How was your trip to ...?” “Who knew grand-parenting was so exhausting or that there were so many cold germs involved?” “You did all that painting?” These same ques tions could be asked in September at a school board meeting in a large sub urb. (Preferably not during the meet ing while someone else has the floor!)

on the islands, at the end of February and into March, is like a mirror image of the action at the end of August into September. Just as the summer residents of the Cranberry Isles end their vacations right before fall, many year-round residents end their winter breaks just before the

Eating homemade donuts and throwing rocks at the beach—if that isn’t a mirror image of many child hood summers on Islesford, I don’t know what is. q

Bruce saw more than enough paint, anyway, this winter. During his “time off” he painted 600 buoys (white and

The Midcoast

By Adam White (Random House Books, 2022)

Review by Tina Cohen

ADAM WHITE’S debut novel, The Midcoast, is set in Damariscotta, a town familiar to him from his childhood. This is contemporary Maine, with

said, in January 2016, that the state’s heroin problem was because of “guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” who “come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.”

It’s not a bad exercise for any of us.

Tina Cohen is a therapist who lives seasonally on Vinalhaven.

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The Midcoast is less about a place and more about Andrew’s obsession with the Thatches, prompting him to write a book about them. Ed Thatche had always been hard to figure out, but now there was more, including the mystery of Ed’s financial success. Could it really be just his family’s business, lobsters?

Bruce figures he will be putting 1,500 to 1,800 markings on his rope in all; two to three weeks of extra work if he does it without hiring help. A number of fish ermen are applying paint to their ropes by resting them in 3-foot long gutters made from lengthwise-halved PVC pipe. Bruce’s first attempt was with spray paint but he soon moved on to the more effi cient brush and latex paint.

As winter winds down, islanders mix prep work and gatherings

Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce. for

Near the book’s end, Andrew reflects, “On the May afternoon of the lacrosse reception held in the Thatches’ backyard, our little village looked every bit as perfect as the ads in Down East magazine make it out to be... There’s

16 The Working Waterfront october 2022

Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

piece of purple rope to the end of the buoy line or toggle, but all attachments must be made with a splice or a tuck.

The novel seems to ask what to make of the Thatches—a lobsterman, his wife the town manager of Damariscotta, their son a local police officer, and their daughter attending Amherst College. The same way a village—Damariscotta a case in point here—could hope to be seen as quaint, safe, and friendly, families might also project an illusion.

The Portland Press Herald later published available FBI statistics that showed 1,211 people were arrested on charges of drug sales or manufacturing in Maine in the time frame that then-Gov. Paul LePage was referencing. Of those, 14% were black and almost all the rest were white.

meeting will take place on Islesford. What’s for lunch? Homemade pizzas, salads, and desserts. Life gets busier as we volunteer to help prepare the first community meal of the season.

a sign now, just after the bridge, that says ‘Welcome to Damariscotta... Maine’s Vacation Haven,’ and at first the slogan struck us as a little phony and ridiculous, but then, after a couple hundred times driving past the sign, we stopped noticing it, stopped thinking of it as something that didn’t quite fit.”

The books are important for the community of Monhegan today because they provide a glimpse into what life was like on the island—at least from the perspective of its wealthy summer residents—at the turn of the last century, Pye said. Of particular value is that the Peirces hand-wrote the names of the people and the buildings featured in some of the photos.

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“Those are things that we might not otherwise have known,” said Pye.

community, said Pye. They collected art and memorabilia and supported local artists, who loved to paint Lydia’s large poppy garden, she said.

Monhegan compiled articles about

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A reproduction of the first book is available for visitors to leaf through,

Read some of the articles found in the Peirces’ Monhegan Stories: From Rhodora, “A list of plants seen on the island of Monhegan, Maine, June 20-25, 1900”: tab_contentsorg/stable/23293392#metadata_info_https://www.jstor.From

Monhegan Stories is the second handmade book created by Arthur Peirce that the museum has in its collection. In 1968, a child of one of the Peirces’ neighbors donated a similar leather-bound book made around the same time. That book does have some articles mounted to its pages, but its contents are mostly of a more personal nature, said Pye. There are photos of the family and happenings on the island, such as the community’s gala celebration in 1914 marking the 300th anniversary of Capt. John Smith’s arrival on the island, and handwritten poems and rhymes, she said.

The Peirces, although only residents of Monhegan in the summer, were active and well-known in the

The book of about 80 pages, titled Monhegan Stories in gold-leaf lettering on the spine, is a compilation of mostly magazine and newspaper articles that are about or have some relation to Monhegan, said Jennifer Pye, the museum’s director. The articles are from a wide variety of sources, such as Cosmopolitan magazine, the Magazine of American History, the botanical journal Rhodora, and college newspaper, The Decaturian, and have publication dates beginning in the 1880s.

A.W. and Lydia were married in 1903. He died of a heart attack in 1934 and Lydia died in 1936. Their island home was sold thereafter to the family that still owns it today, said Pye.

Astory

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Owning a home or business on the coast of Maine has many rewards.

A Monhegan media montage, circa 1900

A copy of Monhegan Stories, courtesy Monhegan Museum of Art & History.

Learn more at: www.coastalfisheries.org

Pye said. At some point, Monhegan Stories will also be digitized so visitors and researchers will have access to its treasures.

According to the Franklin Historical Museum, Lydia, whose family operated a felt and woolen goods manufacturing business in Franklin, holds the distinction of being the first woman from Franklin to graduate from college (Vassar College in 1878).

17www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

Cosmopolitan, “Trailing Yew,” by Wiscasset-born writer Patience Stapleton: yew-cosmopolitan-stapleton.pdf.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/trailing-https://themonheganlibrary.

“We were very excited to see it,” Pye said. “It’s just so wonderful to have these kinds of handmade things that demonstrate how much people cared about this island, where they were spending time, and how connected they were to it.”

magazine

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The Peirces were from Franklin, Mass., where Arthur, affectionately known as “Dean Awpie” was the headmaster of Dean Academy, said Rob Lawson, professor of history at what is now called Dean College.

Join us on the last Friday of each month for our “Lunch and Learn” webinar series on fishery-related issues.

By Stephanie Bouchard

of romance. A list of plants. A mash-up of fact and fiction about Monhegan Island’s people and places circa 1900. These and more are what is within a handmade, leather-bound book that is now part of the Monhegan Museum of Art & History’s collection.

Monhegan Stories was donated to the museum in July by Chauncey Erskine of South Bristol, who found the book in a local thrift sale. Feeling like it was “too special for his bookshelf,” said Pye, he posted about it in a private Monhegan-based Facebook profile, asking for suggestions as to where it would best belong. Several responders recommended giving it to the museum.

Located on the Stonington waterfront and supporting Maine’s coastal fisheries for nearly two decades.

Based on a handwritten inscription inside the book’s cover, Pye believes it was created by Arthur Winslow Peirce (sometimes spelled Pierce), who, with his wife, Lydia, built a summer home near the wharf on the island in 1909.

By Sandy Oliver

Cars loaded and nobody came to the car window to tell me we were getting on, so I started to move the truck up, figuring we were safe. The line attendant stopped me—there was room for us on the boat. But what to do? I couldn’t leave the island since I was on call, if we didn’t put the truck on we would lose our spot in line, and we had an equally bad line number for tomorrow’s boat.

18 The Working Waterfront october 2022 saltwate R c u R e

BY THE TIME you read this, it’ll be pretty close to October, or as some people call it, spooky season. Fear and anxiety are part of my day-to-day life, so I tend to say “no thank you” to recreational fear. Those fears gave way to anxiety around air travel and driving inAsadulthood.anadult

Growth, fear, and ferry line anxiety

Right next to the sink, there used to be a handpump which drew water from a well beneath that corner of the kitchen, replaced probably in the early ‘40s by the summer people who owned this house and opted for a drilled well.

He got stuck over on Vinalhaven on the day in question, and asked me to call for a ferry line number for the next day, and to move the truck up after the boat went. I was home, on call for ambulance duty, but otherwise unoccupied, and agreed. I figured it would at least get off on the last boat.

Once as I stood at the window, a barred owl perched on a branch of the tree only a few yards away from me. We stared at each other for a long time until the owl tired of the view and swooped away to the west.

“You have to make a decision now,” the line attendant said. “Everyone’s waiting.”Panicmode fully engaged, I pulled the truck onto the ramp. I knew I had to park the truck, find someone to take it off the boat, and then exit the boat quickly. The parking attendant glared as he circled his arms this way and that.

In fact, the zinc-covered counter to the left of the sink, another inconvenience, keeps me connected to Annie and the past. Zinc corrodes easily: a grain of salt creates a puddle in humid weather, roughing a spot.

is a master at slow cooking, making perfect sense of steamed brown bread, baked beans, and long simmered soups andColdstews.when I get up in the morning, and gradually heating the kitchen as the blaze burns in the firebox, my stove reminds me how grateful I am for warmth. I don’t have to rely on mechanical functions and experts who keep convenient, but to me, incomprehensible furnaces running. My stove and I are connected directly, daily.

water on a stove for dish washing, laundry, and bathing.

Now I was faced with the task of backing into a parking spot a second time, with a much larger audience and more obstacles. I tentatively pulled forward, then started backing up, realized I wasn’t going to make it, pulled forward again, started backing up again, and overheard an impatient remark from someone.

Plus the past is full of good ideas and technologies, useful recipes, and deep wisdom about things we haven’t a clue.

I sent a few frantic texts. My phone rang and it was Bill. I made it a sentence or two into an explanation and broke out in heaving sobs, finally allowing myself to surrender to the panic attack that had been building. The line attendant and a friend appeared, comforting me.

Now probably close to 90 years old, my kitchen stove, somewhat inconveniently requiring kindling, firewood, and damper management,

When we moved in, we added a hot water tap connected to a water heater because I didn’t want to be that connected to the process of heating

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

I was mortified, but also unsurprised. As much progress as I’ve made, the ferry line in August proved to be my tipping point. And although I know I’m an extreme case, I’d wager I’m not the only one.

Just outside the window I watch a birch tree progress through the seasons, from the brilliant green new leaves in May through the magical week in October when it turns yellow and fills the kitchen with golden light. In winter, I see snow accumulate along the branches, a soothing sight.

Convenience, the enemy of connection

Backing my own compact SUV into a ferry line is challenging enough for me, let alone an unfamiliar borrowed truck, but I got it in without too much trouble. A few minutes later, the line attendant told me we could move up.

I sought therapy and medication, and saw some of my anxieties and fears subside. I can now get allergy shots, acupuncture, and lab work done almost casually.

Island transportation logistics are trigger

of some recall or other, Bill’s truck was at the dealership on the mainland, and he had a loaner truck,

I do this in an iron (and therefore occasionally rusty) sink placed under a window by Capt. Emery Bunker probably in 1889 when he renovated the house and connected it to the barn. It was a progressive thing to do in his time and daylight floods the area in summer when the sun moves northward.

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

a similar but not identical Tacoma. When his truck was finally ready to return, he was faced with the daunting task of getting the loaner off the island at the high point of late summer. He wound up at the back of the line, and was told the truck likely wouldn’t make it off the island.

By Courtney Naliboff

My view as I wash dishes keeps me connected to nature outside, the change of seasons and weather, and I often think of Aunt Annie Bunker, the captain’s wife, standing in the very same spot, washing her dishes.

The old ways bring us close to natural elements

SEEKING CONVENIENCE almost always sacrifices connection, something pointed out to me by my wise niece, Sarah. By that standard, I have a very connected kitchen.

That’s when I realized Annie Bunker had clamped her grinder to the very same spot. I felt a surge of kinship with the woman who had worked in this kitchen just as I do, a connection lost if I used a food processor. The connection with her over time reminded me that we humans aren’t so different at the core, though our fashions, manners, and language might change. (Imagine poor Annie trying to navigate words beginning these days with “e” or “cyber.”)

I can—usually—ride in a car without clutching at the window and pressing on the imaginary brake while muttering “Oy” like the old Jewish lady I amButbecoming.drivinga car still holds a certain amount of tension for me. Not the day-to-day of my blessedly brief commute, but anything out of the ordinary. I was reminded just how far I have to go in August, when a series of unusual circumstances pushed me to my Becauselimit.

For instance, no dishwasher occupies space here. Sarah, and occasionally our young friend and occasional co-habitant Brynn and I wash dishes. I love being connected to those two dear people and I actually like washing dishes by hand.

Somehow zinc accumulates greasy dirt a bit too readily. I wipe it with a hot soapy scrubby, and then buff it with a flannel rag until it shines and

Imagine how thrilled I was (as well as astonished) when Brynn showed up with a tattoo on her upper arm of my kitchen stove, which now connects it to the future. I imagine her grandchild pointing to the tattoo sometime in 2072 and asking, “Grammy, what is that thing on your arm?” That’s when a bit of knowledge about an even more distant, and somewhat inconvenient past, will connect a child of the future to our time.

Jou R nal of an island k itchen

feels smooth as silk. On zinc, unlike granite, a dropped coffee cup more often bounces than shatters.

My hackles and my cortisol both went up. Most of my fear of driving is really a fear of public opinion—the knowledge that someone is saying something snarky about me from another vehicle. I made it into the spot, muttering under my breath. I realized there was a chance we might make it on the boat—what then? Bill was still on Vinalhaven, and I was on call. I started to panic.

Some time ago, wanting to make cucumber relish, I clamped my mom’s old hand operated grinder to the first spot along the counter where the clamp would fit. I doubt I noticed it right away but eventually I realized that a series of dents in the zinc were created by the clamp and matched ones that had been there a long time.

I jumped out of the truck, only to jump back in when I was told I’d have to pull forward. I found the first person I could, who luckily agreed to take the truck off in Rockland, and rushed off the boat, nearly losing my EMS radio in the process. Bill had no idea the truck was headed to Rockland, and he was still on Vinalhaven.

I suggested a few more items I’d be willing to cook to round out the menu. In one afternoon I was able to make and freeze 300 olive cheese puffs. It took 33 pounds of live lobster to yield 6 1/2 pounds of meat for the sliders. At $3.50 a pound boat price, the lobster sliders were one of the least expensive yet most abundant things we served.  We were confident the two of us could handle catering the event for 75-100 people. By Thursday afternoon, Bruce had decorated the yard with buoys borrowed from several island fishermen. He strung them across the driveway like lights brightening up a cloudy afternoon. Jack Merrill set up a sound system. Joanne Thormann delivered Adirondack chairs from her yard down the street.

The director wanted Bruce to stop what he was doing and come outside for ten minutes. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Bruce said he had to finish what he was doing and would come outside in a few minutes but the director continued to be pushy.

SALUTING LOST MARINERS—

Hats off to Lisa for your fine work as director of Archipelago. I also always enjoy Tom Groening’s articles.

Memory jog

‘Happy enthusiasm’

Our son Robin served as a runner, picking up ice, wine, beer kegs, and extra sheet pans from various spots on the island. Each time he returned

I was a little less than cordial at that point, to which she responded, “Oh, I am intruding?” She got a simultaneous  “Yes!” from the two of us and finally went outside to wait. Bruce was filmed outside about ten minutes later. We’re still laughing about it now.

Bruce was willing to organize an outdoor party where people could hear from MLA members about the fund raising campaign. With help from our daughter-in-law, Stephanie Austin, he designed an invitation to be delivered around the island. Fellow lobster fisherman Jack Merrill helped extend invitations to people Bruce missed.

To the editor:

Arts Downeast

Family and islanders scrambled to help c R an Be RRy R epoRt

By Barbara Fernald

we had another task for him to do. When my sister-in-law, Lynn Shirey, offered to help, I knew exactly what to ask for. She was an expert at knowing what food platters needed to be refilled or passed during the party.

Hosting a lobster party for a cause

Thank you for the good  work in each issue.

Marge SheridanMonroe

The Working Waterfront welcomes letters to the editor. Please send them to editor Tom Groening at tgroening@ islandinstitute.org with LTE in the subject line. Letters should be about 300 words and address issues that the newspaper covers. We also print longer opinion pieces, but please clear them first with the editor.

If you value having lobster fishermen in your community, if you enjoy eating lobster, if you don’t want to see this industry disappear, please consider supporting the lobster fishermen and women of Maine.

Barbara Fernald lives and writes on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

The Island Institute is an invaluable institution to the state and is an excellent example of people working together to make waterfront communities understood by the rest of the public.

19www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

Soon, I wanted to join in with shopping and food prep. Bruce’s menu included lobster sliders, olive cheese puffs, and little sausages for hors d’oeuvres. Our neighbor and former sternman, Mary Schuch, baked 150 slider buns to donate to the cause.

About 80 people showed up for the party and the information was well received. As I write, over $7,000 has been donated to the MLA legal defense fund by generous people who attended our party and/or who care greatly about seeing the Maine lobster fishermen continue to survive along with the right whales. We couldn’t have pulled it off without the tremendous help of family and friends who stepped up whenever we asked. It was a good lesson. Being able to ask for help is a life skill that doesn’t come easily to many. Me included.

SaveMaineLobstermen.org has a lot of information about the huge challenge they face and how you can donate to help. I’m asking.

Julie Lindquist South Thomaston

To the editor:

The photo of Gov. Janet Mills with Phil Crossman at the piano in September’s The Working Waterfront is a fine depiction of happy enthusiasm—a pleasure for your readers. Thank you.

lette R s to the editoR

Artist Jay Sawyer will dedicate his public memorial display El Faro Salute! on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 at 1 p.m. at 44 Atlantic Avenue in Rockland. The event is open to the public. The steel sculpture is a memorial to the 33 lost at sea when their ship, the SS El Faro, went down during Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 1, 2015. The crew included five Maine Maritime Academy graduates; four lived in Maine and two were Rockland residents. In all, eight crew members called New England home. The dedication ceremony will include a musical performance by Bay Winds North Wind Ensemble.

To the editor: Thank you for the Field Notes column by Lisa Mossel on Passamaquoddy Bay communities (“Eastport, Lubec banking on the arts,” The Working Waterfront’s September issue). Your column is a touchpoint of the necessity of the arts in our lives: encouraging creativity, stimulating, and a meeting place of people, hearts, and minds in this world of today that needs unifying forces while allowing for individual expression.

Loretta MacKinnonYarmouth

The item in the September issue from Elizabeth Hutz ,“Tales of a schooner,” caught my eye. She mentions her sail on the Mary Day years ago and “the lady from California in the starboard berth.” That was me! What a delightful memory jog. It made me jump to sending a note to hopefully reconnect after many years.

ON JULY 8 I received an e-mail from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) asking if Bruce and I knew someone who would be interested in hosting an informative fundraising cocktail party on Islesford in August. The federal government is threatening the Maine lobster fishing industry with escalating regulations that will start putting fishermen out of business in order to increase protection for a whale that does not feed in or travel through our waters. The MLA is hoping to raise $10 million over the next three years for its legal defense fund.  My first reaction was, “No way do I have the energy or desire to coordinate a large event in crazy August!” Bruce’s reaction was, “Why didn’t they just send the email to me?”

At 2:30 p.m., Bruce and I were in the kitchen using every bit of counter space. Richard Howland was to pick up the MLA’s Patrice McCarron and Kevin Kelley at 4 p.m. in Seal Harbor, so we were in a time crunch. As Bruce was spreading lobster salad on the 120th bun there was a knock on the door. It was the German film crew working on a documentary on the island for most of the week.

I’m a long time reader of the Bangor Daily News and have enjoyed the inclusion of The Working Waterfront every month.

develops quickest when the device is practically applied. Its affordability follows the same arc.

So, if your doubts about the potential of electric outboard motors are seeded in your need for speed, your speeddemon desires will be satiated by this rapidly evolving technology. There is room to grow and advance in the world of electric boats, but technology

By Jack Sullivan

I own a boat. I live on the water, on an island that provides access to all that Penobscot Bay has to offer. I know a thing or two about hard work. And in my younger years, before the desk job took over my career, I went to sleep at night with sore arms and an aching back from working on the river.

It’s no surprise that women working in the Gulf of Maine are still among the minority. In 2020, the Maine Department of Marine Resources reported that women held 15% of the state’s highly competitive lobster licenses. While still a small percentage, it’s almost twice the number of the 8% of women-owned lobster licenses in 2016.

Virginia’s age was likely the primary reason for the online sensation, but I’d bet her gender played a role.

20 The Working Waterfront october 2022

Fast-forward: Electric outboards are here Innovation, implementation will speed transition

What’s stopping me from scallop farming? Time. Money. My betterinformed colleagues telling me that there’s no way to make a profit. But if I’m honest, it’s more about the guts to start something new, to take a risk with my lobstermen neighbors watching. And probably, justifiably, laughing. It takes guts to be a woman on the water, in a male-dominated fishery.

In Maine, you can search a directory of women-owned businesses thanks to the work of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI). Its Maine Women’s Business List encourages consumers to shop women-owned businesses to fight gender inequality.

Notably, I was able to capture some audio as we puttered around the no-wake zone of the harbor. My colleagues conversed at a modest decibel over the gentle whirr of the electric outboard motor. Then we gunned it to the outer reaches of Bristol Harbor, and the conversation faded— not for the loud roar of a gas-powered engine, but for the thrill of only hearing slapping waves against the hull as the wind blew in our faces.

Pay attention to women-owned businesses Growth potential is huge, despite early barriers

Sue Bernier is chief philanthropy officer for the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. She may be reached at sbernier@islandinstitute.org.

The goal of my visit was to shoot photos and videos of the outboard motors in action, which proved difficult, given that the boats moved at speeds difficult to document.

Last year’s Island Journal cover featured Hilary Walker who lobsters from the F/V Morningstar out of Vinalhaven. It was the first time the annual magazine cover featured a female lobsterman. I helped choose that cover story, and I can report that no other Island Journal cover has generated as many emails, calls, and comments—all in gratitude of putting a woman in the spotlight.

Our new Women on the Water project will combine our technical, financial, and human resources to sustain and expand women-owned aquaculture businesses and encourage others to invest at the juncture of two fast-growing sectors. And maybe encourage a daydreamer or two.

I DAYDREAM ABOUT becoming a farmer. My vegetable garden last year would warn against it, and this year I didn’t even try to grow a tomato plant in a pot. Instead, I daydream of working on the water, farming scallops. I want to be an aquaculturist in my next life and spend my workday on the water, in the muck and the mess that is farming on and in the ocean.

There is a mystique about women on the water and deserved admiration. Last year’s Boston Globe article featuring then 101-year-old lobsterwoman Virginia Oliver sparked thousands of memes. Maine’s “Lobster Woman” went viral, with people in awe of her Jedi-like abilities.

These insights are intended to help policymakers, funders, educators and supporting organizations in creating initiatives to help women start and grow thriving businesses. In the coming months, a team led by women at the Island Institute will be talking to alumnae of our Aquaculture Business Development program and others to determine how we can support their business ventures.

While this iteration of the solar dock will not serve as an end-all solution to charging high-power electric motors, it will satisfy the charging needs for their low-speed motorboats. Thankfully, the solar panels embedded in the dock are uniquely rugged, able to withstand bait-covered work boots.

WhileMarine.these entrepreneurs get their hands dirty—or maybe less dirty when they aren’t messing with diesel—they are identifying areas for improvement. One Island Institute-funded experiment that hit the water in late August is the solar dock Matt Tarpey and his father, Sean, have long been gearing up to deploy. This is their first foray into solving the issue of battery charging on the working waterfront. Taking the power from the sun and putting it directly into the batteries that power the electric boats creates a clean, onsite, closed-loop solution.

The Island Institute will continue to foster this innovation out of necessity. Advancement in electrification is essential for long-term solutions to climate change and to easing the impacts of volatile fossil fuel prices.

field notes

The Island Institute, eager to steer Maine’s working coast toward an economically sustainable and climatefriendly future, aims to expedite the technological advancement by making this cutting-edge technology more accessible to those who will benefit most from it. By awarding targeted grants and making critical connections, the Island Institute is looking to place 100 electric outboard motors in locations on the coast that will maximize impact. The more people see these outboards in action, the more attractive they’ll be to the consumer.

Jack Sullivan is a multi-media storyteller with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. He may be reached at jsullivan@ islandinstitute.org.

Despite this growth, “women face more obstacles than entrepreneurs in general when starting and growing their businesses. Eliminating barriers that thwart the success of womenowned businesses is an economic imperative that can spur innovation and improve productivity, which will create jobs, build wealth and grow the economy,” according to NAWBO.

Maine’s working waterfront is no exception to this transition, and it needs the support even more than other sectors. Real estate pressure, climate challenges, and an unpredictable economy continue to threaten our working waterfronts. An electrified coast is one way to bolster up.

An innovative spirit is another element needed. New England is rich with marinebased entrepreneurs who accelerate this work with the same speed as the outboard motor that sent me rocketing across Bristol Harbor. Flux Marine, the Rhode Island startup company, is assembling the engines, performing retrofits, and doing new builds for electric boats. Matt Tarpey of Maine Electric Boat Company in Biddeford is working to get these electric motors to consumers by renting and selling a variety of electric boats, from leisurely cocktail vessels to the heavy-hitters akin to those I witnessed at Flux

There are hurdles in the process of adopting new technologies, and the Island Institute is addressing each as it comes. Education is essential. If familiarity with the outboards doesn’t grow, integrating them into the working waterfront will be difficult. And so the Island Institute is teaming up with the Maine Community College System, Maine Electric Boat Company, and Midcoast School of Technology to develop a series of tiered online courses addressing the basics and benefits of electric motors. Subsequent courses will get into electrical theory, and ultimately

According to CEI’s site and sources, female entrepreneurs are asked less growth-oriented questions by potential

ABOARD A RIGID inflatable boat traveling upwards of 40 knots, experiencing acceleration I’d previously associated with drag racing, it was clear the electric motors at Flux Marine in Bristol, R.I. pack a punch.

By Sue Bernier

fathominG

Across the U.S., women own a total of 11.6 million businesses, representing the fastest growing segment of the economy. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the share of women-owned businesses has “skyrocketed” from 4.6% in 1972 to 42% in 2019. These womenowned companies employ nearly nine million people and generate $1.7 trillion in sales as of 2017.

the user will learn the skills to work as a technician on electric boats.

funders, offered smaller loans at higher interest rates, and access only 2.3% of venture capital despite owning 42% of all companies in the U.S.

By Phil Crossman

21www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

Many of the shipyards and boatyards today have been the site of active shipbuilding for decades, if not a century or more, with their own claims to fame in innovation, size, or speed. In contrast there are also builders of significance that lasted a surprisingly limited amount of time and had a huge impact, like the yard pictured here.     South Portland’s Cushing’s Point was home to a major government shipbuilding effort from 1941 to 1945. Neighborhoods and existing infrastructure were razed to build brand new, adjoining shipyards. Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, Todd-Bath Iron Works was established to construct a fleet of 30 Ocean Class freighters for the British government—a much needed replenishment following German destruction of merchant ships. The U.S. quickly followed with its own emergency merchant shipbuilding program and the adjoining South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation was established to build freighters known as Liberty Ships. Once the British contract was done, the neighboring yards merged to become New England Shipbuilding Corporation and continued building Liberty ships—239 in total. This image

The prevailing formula calls for a few points to be subtracted each time a family member partners with someone who’s come from Away. The exact size of the deficit depends on exactly which part of Away the usurper comes from, and in some cases, the motives. Massachusetts, for example, and a compelling desire not to be there, are the most suspect and given the least credence.

There is an appeals process and I pursued it for a while, but my accumulated good works and long island lineage were not enough to overcome the repeated Massachusetts deficit and that, coupled with the likelihood that I would be assessed a couple more points for being a nuisance, I opted to be content with my 73 points.

AWAY HAPPENS and it comes in many forms as does the process of making an accurate determination of whether one is from here, from here only to a degree, or from elsewhere.

On the other hand, I know all about them and about their kids and ancestors. The result is that the discriminating among us don’t laugh too hard at the expense of others of us.

gradually torn down, the last in 2011. A minor exception is the South Portland Historical Society building. As a former residence, it predates the shipyard but was used as an officeAlongbuilding.with the Historical Society, Bug Light Park was once part of the West Yard. The park features a memorial to the Liberty ships that includes a sculptural representation of the bow section of a ship. Former West Yard property is also home to number of petroleum tanks. The East Yard property has seen more development and is currently home to marinas and related businesses.

i n p lain siGht

IMAGE: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Kelly Page is collections and library services manager for Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.

The museum is featuring “Looking for Winslow Homer” through Nov. 27. Explore resources and plan your visit at www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org

I then had the bad form to marry someone from Away myself and, while she wasn’t from Massachusetts, she had once lived there and coming on top of having been born there myself, and the fact that my mother married a man from Massachusetts—well, it wasn’t good. Ultimately, I did manage a surplus of 73 points. A good deal more than many, but way down the pecking order.

The fact that eight successive generations—each accumulating more points for having resisted the temptation to breed elsewhere—remained

By Kelly Page

A working waterfront transformed by war

Althoughbegan.myancestors resisted traveling abroad to find suitable companions, and did so successfully for 200 years, subsequent generations did succumb to the sporadic enticements offered by men and women from elsewhere.

Phil Crossman continues to live on Vinalhaven, as he has for most of his life.

from Maine Maritime Museum’s collections shows the early days of the ToddBath Iron Works site (also called the East Yard) with its neighbor (the West Yard) yet to be completed.

Formula takes into account marriage, motives oB se Rve R

MAINE CAN CLAIM a lot of superlatives in terms of national shipbuilding. With about 20,000 vessels under its belt, Maine surpassed the output of states with major industrialized metropolitan areas for most of its history.

added, older memories are forgotten or the people who remember them pass on.

Some 33,000 employed at Cushing Point

While 269 vessels is an impressive number, what is truly remarkable is the workforce that made it happen. Some 30,000 people were employed here at peak production. To put that in 2022 perspective— only three Maine cities have a population higher than 30,000 and Maine’s largest (single-location) employer is Bath Iron Works at just under 7,000 employees.BIW’sWorld War II peak employment number rose to 12,000. The sudden influx of this number of shipyard workers would be a strain on most communities, but there were also thousands of soldiers and sailors stationed around Portland Harbor. The government rightfully deemed the area a “Congested War Production Area,” recognizing the need for housing, resources, and recreation and worked with community leaders to ease the Post-war,burden.  New England Shipbuilding Corporation did not seek work outside of its original government contracts and ceased operations in late 1945. The shipyard buildings were occupied by other companies over the years but were

The means-testing that has emerged is quite sophisticated and, when applied carefully, reveals relative nativeness with uncanny accuracy. I was born in Massachusetts resulting in an automatic ten-point deficit. Fortunately, however, my ancestors on my mother’s side are all from Vinalhaven and their lineage extends way back to 1760 when my grandfather Reuben Carver arrived here, bought most of the land around “Carver’s” Harbor, and went into business.

A map showing the build-out of the war effort production facilities in South Portland.

How to determine the degrees of ‘Away’

We are compelled, particularly during the off-season, to consider ourselves in the context of 1,264 others with whom we share this island. Everyone who’s been here as long as I have, for example, remembers me as a kid. Actually, they all remember more than I do and with un-nerving specificity.

rooted, resulted in that deficit being replaced by a 97-point surplus. Still, contamination was unavoidable and in the late 1700s a woman from Matinicus had her way, as those women will, with a grandfather from the next generation and the compromise of our pure island bloodline

The issue of Nativeness is a consuming one but it’s actually a component of our community baggage and a telling distinction between us here and others elsewhere. It’s our

Preserving waterfront

and seawalls.

a Rt of the wate R f Ront

By Carl Little

The boatyard has provided a “nearly endless supply of inspiration,” Dunham writes, a subject to which he returns again and again—and will continue to do so “as long as it remains an active, cluttered working boatyard.”

Gregory Dunham paints Eaton’s Boatyard

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If you don’t count Maine Maritime Academy, the boatyard is pretty much the last bastion of marine business on the Castine shoreline. A recent walkthrough confirmed its description in Philip Booth’s splendid poem, “Eaton’s Boatyard,” where he offers an inventory of some of the odds and ends you can find within, including “split rudders, / stripped outboards, half / a gasket, and nailsick garboards.”

“The weather-beaten fish houses and wharves on spindly pilings that stand against the tides and wind tell stories of hardship, bravery, independence, and fortitude,” he writes.

On a visit to Mousehole in Cornwall, England, in 1999, Dunham felt the seaside town was somehow embedded in his genes, that he must have an ancestral connection to it. That experience underscores why he ended up in Rockport and then Castine, “intrigued,” he says, by coastal towns “with the color and action around the docks, the smell of salt air, and, of course, the light.”

The boatyard has provided a “nearly endless supply of Dunhaminspiration,”writes…

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22 The Working Waterfront october 2022

But the visit also verified the comeliness of the place as depicted in Dunham’s painting: the weathered shingles, the simple signage—the nobility, if you will, of the Dunhamstructure.isa watercolor painter of the first order, known for his landscapes of Maine, Canada, England,

and other places connected to the sea. Asked what it is that draws him to paint harbors, he shares the most obvious reason, their picturesqueness, but also expresses his desire to document them before they’re gone.

certified.

In one of his paintings a Castine class sailboat, designed and built by the Eaton family, is parked in the yard, its lovely white hull set against the warm gray of the building.“Ilove the shape and colors of wooden skiffs and dories and the stories they tell,” writes Dunham, “and I mourn their loss with the advent of Zodiacs.”

•

Dunham says he feels “comfortable and at home” in the dockside milieu. While he loves Maine’s rugged coast and crashing surf, it’s the working harbors that inspire and comfort him.

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Over four days the couple squeezed in Eastport, along with Lubec, Corea, Winter Harbor, Castine, Port Clyde, Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset, Kennebunkport, and Ogunquit. Seven years later, having considered their options, they moved to Castine with their nine-month-old son Stow and opened the McGrath Dunham Gallery.Inthe 40-plus years since that fateful trip, Dunham has witnessed the slow—and sometimes not so slow—disappearance of the working waterfront as weathered wharves and fishing shacks give way to gentrification. These changes are in part what compels him to paint docks, sheds, skiffs—and Eaton’s Boatyard in his adopted hometown.

on canvas a vanishing

Locally owned and operated; for over twenty-five years.

From their home in Rockport, Mass., they drove straight to Eastport where Wengenroth’s love of Maine began in the 1930s and where its landscape inspired his first brilliant prints.

Dunham is represented by Gallery B in Castine, Full Fathom Five Gallery in Eastport, and the Patricia Hutton Galleries in Doylestown, Penn. You can view more of his work at www.gregorydunham.com.

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Two of his paintings will appear in Carl and David Little’s forthcoming book The Art of Penobscot Bay (Islandport Press). To learn about the history of Eaton’s Boatyard, visit the “Living History” page on the Castine Historical Society website.

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IN 1980, inspired by friend and mentor, the famed lithographer Stow Wengenroth (1906-1978), painter Gregory Dunham and his wife-to-be Pat McGrath decided to go on a “pilgrimage” to some of the Maine towns the artist had frequented in his lifetime.

Gregory Dunham’s Eaton’s Boatyard, 2015; watercolor, 15 inches by 22½ inches (now in a private collection).

23www.workingwaterfront.com october 2022

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