A photo shot in December 1973 shows a fishing boat and Coast Guard vessel in peril at the mouth of Casco Bay. PHOTO: NATIONAL FISHERMAN COLLECTION, PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

When the helper gets in trouble

There is no shortage of drama in the National Fisherman photograph shown here, taken in December 1973. The dark figure of a man looms in the foreground surveying a scene of maritime mayhem. It’s foggy and snowing, and one can almost feel the elements. A rope leads the viewer’s eye… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Class clashes and conspiracy logic

Land of Cockaigne By Jeffrey Lewis, Haus Publishing Ltd. (2022) The central thing you need to know about the protagonist family in Jeffrey Lewis’s novel Land of Cockaigne is that they are from away. Walter and Catherine “Charley” Rath arrived in Sneeds Harbor, located somewhere along the rim of Mount… SEE MORE
William Irvine, “The Resting Fishermen,” 2020, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. COURTESY: COURTHOUSE GALLERY FINE ART

Working Waterfront

William Irvine’s sleeping fishermen

“Although the painting is called ‘The Resting Fishermen,’” painter William Irvine explains via email, “they are actually asleep.” A trio of barefoot simply-clad men, eyes closed, lean against each other, their backs against a small shed set on a dock strewn with lobster traps, buoys, oars, nets, and rope, with… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Have you seen the Scuttlebutt?

The phrase “buyer beware” seems inappropriate for someone settling in a pretty Maine waterfront community. But maybe “buyer aware” makes some sense. After all, if that town has a working waterfront, a newcomer’s expectations may not match reality. Fishermen’s pickups driving by at 4 a.m. in summer. Diesel boat engines… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fraying family is unwanted ballast

Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year By Elizabeth W. Garber, Toad Hall Editions (2022) Among the many weird things that were happening during the social upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s, one of the weirdest was the wholesale revolt of children against… SEE MORE