Working Waterfront

The Ubuntu education fund: lessons from the grassroots

I am because you are. How the Spirit of Ubuntu Inspired an Unlikely Friendship and Transformed a Community. By Jacob Lief, with Andrea Thompson. New York City: Rodale, 2015. 210 pp. Hardback. $24.99 Starting a nonprofit to address the educational needs of an impoverished population is one thing; starting one… SEE MORE

An older Cape Cod house on Isle au Haut's shore.

Working Waterfront

Hosting visitors helps bring island back in focus

Editor's note: Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, and AmeriCorps. Meghan Cooper works with the town office on Isle au Haut. As islanders know, summer is hectic.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Birchbark canoes making a comeback

The full-sized, birchbark canoe on display at the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Mass. is both rare and old. Purchased from Penobscot Indian Francis Sebattis in 1912, it was most likely used to guide sportsmen along Maine’s waterways. These canoes once were ubiquitous in Maine, and they were an integral part… SEE MORE

Members of the Friends of Fort Gorges and volunteers gather for a group photo.

Working Waterfront

Portland’s Fort Gorges hits its 150th birthday

SEE SLIDESHOW Whether you’re out for a stroll on Portland's Eastern Promenade or cruising on a boat on Casco Bay, you can't miss Fort Gorges, the stone sentinel that sits on a tiny island in Portland Harbor. Construction on the fort began in 1858 and it was completed in 1865.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s ‘Boatbuilder Laureate’ wants to sell his waterfront property

SOUTHWEST HARBOR—When wooden boatbuilder Ralph Stanley retired five or six years ago, he was hoping to see his shop converted into a living museum with a teaching component, with Stanley as artist-in-residence. Despite interest from a number of organizations and individuals, the potential cost of endowing and operating such an enterprise… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Portland’s growing Indian population drawn by high-tech jobs

This is the second in a series of stories about how immigration is changing coastal Maine. Jennifer Atkinson is a lawyer based in Friendship who specializes in immigration matters. As Maine’s flagship coastal community, the greater Portland area is home to immigrants from all over the world. In recent months,… SEE MORE

The USNS Washington Chambers photographed from a helicopter.

Working Waterfront

Flying over the Great Barrier Reef

The morning dawned warm and clear. The waters around the USNS Washington Chambers were treacherous, even in this good weather. The shoals around Australia and the many reefs make the sea a dangerous place to travel. Between Australia and Papua New Guinea, there is a stretch of ocean only a mile… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Writer, filmmaker Peter Davis reads from first novel in Castine Aug. 6

CASTINE — Maine Maritime Academy’s Department of Arts and Sciences will host writer, filmmaker and Castine resident Peter Davis reading from his new novel Girl of My Dreams at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6 at BIW Auditorium on the college campus. The novel follows the adventures and misadventures of a young screenwriter who comes of age… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Luminous Maine’: The photographs of Louis Cabot

Photographer Louis W. Cabot is exhibiting canvas prints of his photographs of the Maine coast at Archipelago Fine Arts Gallery from Aug. 15 through Sept. 7, with an opening reception with the photographer on Aug. 15, 5-7 p.m. Archipelago and the Island Institute invite the public to join them for an evening of great food, wine… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Right place, right time—marine patrol officer saves fisherman

Marine Patrol Officer Benjamin Burnes, 23, who graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in May, has already put his training to good use, saving the life of a man whose canoe capsized while fishing recently on the York River. At about 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 16, Burnes and… SEE MORE