Whether it is for work or play, anyone spending significant time on a boat knows that help is a radio call away, and that other beacons and signals can be relied upon to alert to the need for help. But how would that work if there was no one designated to monitor for signs of distress? This was indeed the…

On the morning of Oct. 18, 1775, a British naval fleet anchored in Portland Harbor began bombarding what was then known as Falmouth, Mass. The bludgeoning of Portland lasted all…

At an April 4 event celebrating a federal award to expand Maine’s broadband access, Peggy Schaffer, director of ConnectMaine, put it best when she called establishing the high-speed internet a…

When it was time for ceramist Alison Evans to “get real” about her life, she “naturally” gravitated back to a community where she spent much of her youth: Boothbay Harbor.…

More than 400 years after the Plymouth colony was established, historians are still unraveling what the New England coast looked like, before and after. One fresh understanding of that history,…

Racism heritage To the editor: Thanks very much for your article on our heritage (“Maine’s not-so-clean history on race,” May issue). Having lived away in Denver for more than 30…

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.…

A Massachusetts group aiming to help develop lobster traps that eliminate standing buoy lines recently received a split decision about whether the trap technology could be tested in waters closed…

Writing Images of America: Eastport—about the place I grew up—was like writing about a very old and dear friend. Doing so from a distance of more than 1,100 road miles…

On a recent rainy day, I was able to indulge two interests—history and journalism. I was researching 1980s history for a story for our annual Island Journal about working waterfront…