James Fitzgerald, “Saltin' Mackerel ca. 1960, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches. Monhegan Museum of Art and History, promised gift of Stephen S. Fuller and Susan D. Bateson

Working Waterfront

James Fitzgerald paints Fish Beach

During his life as a painter, James Fitzgerald (1899-1971) knew firsthand a number of working waterfronts. After completing his art studies in his home city of Boston, he took to the sea, shipping out of Gloucester, ostensibly to sketch and paint. On later trips to the Grand Banks aboard the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The finer points of protecting working waterfront

Most Mainers understand and appreciate the need to protect the working waterfront, those access points and infrastructure necessary to make a living on the water. But how, exactly, does it get threatened and how does it disappear? Imagine you’re a clam harvester who has an agreement with a local person… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island doctor reflects on personal costs

Island Medicine: Life, Healing, and Community on a Maine Island By Dr. Chuck Radis (Down East Books, 2022) Review by Tina Cohen Dr. Chuck Radis’s first book, Go By Boat: Stories of a Maine Island Doctor, was published in 2021. Now his second is out, Island Medicine: Life, Healing, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Looking for balm in wake of violence

Oh how I wish our country would do what New Zealand did after its last mass shooting, in Christchurch, in 2019. What if our government would reinstate its ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons and install an immediate program to buy them back? Funds that are already earmarked to buy weapons… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Prepping like it’s 1885

Remember 1999 and the big worry about the Y2K bug? Everything civilization rested on would collapse in a heap when the clocks all ticked over to 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, 2000. The world’s computers would all crash and we’d be enveloped in darkness as the grid went down and mayhem… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Caught by COVID, help in escaping

After two years, two months, and some number of days that I’m too tired to count, I finally caught COVID. Or maybe it caught me. Either way, I’m writing this from bed. I had identified a ten-day window in my schedule where it would be somewhat less inconvenient to be… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My wife can’t throw a flatbar

My wife can do almost anything, really, almost anything. I mean mechanical stuff, electronic stuff, and carpentry stuff, plus all sorts of things that involve thinking, like philosophical and ethereal stuff. Further, she’s a marvelous painter and runs her own very successful gallery. She also knows (she reminds me now… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry service studied, users surveyed

Maine plans to spend $1.8 billion on its state roads and bridges over the next three years, and so the Maine State Ferry Service’s annual operating budget of $12.5 million might be seen as a pittance. But for people living on the six islands served by the state ferry, that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Chris Van Dusen does it again

Big Truck, Little Island By Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick Press, 2022) Review by Carl Little Grandchildren Maria, 9, Serita, 8, and James, 5, are children’s book author/illustrator Chris Van Dusen aficionados. Allow Gahbi (their nickname for this grampa) to boast a bit: they’ve memorized The Circus Ship, made up music… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An island’s story reveals a life

Autobiography of an Island: A Memoir By Sarah Faragher (2021) Review by Carl Little In 2004, while visiting Great Spruce Head Island, painter Sarah Faragher had the occasion to explore nearby Bear Island. Conversing with a Bear islander, she learned of Birch Lodge, a humble dwelling that could be rented… SEE MORE