Articles
From the Deck Winter Picnic
Our first winter in Maine was the coldest we have seen so far. The thermometer had scarcely crept above zero for a week, and on Saturday with a brisk Northwest breeze, needlelike crystals of ice formed on the surface of the bay. They drifted down with the wind and piled up on the shore making
Reverse!
Reverse gears have come a long way ahead in the last century. In 1925, a red-painted, single-cylinder Lathrop engine crouched in the cabin of our first sloop. Its cylinder was the size of a nail keg and its ignition system was a primitive make-and-break rig that ran on a battery controlled by a knife switch.
Only three of Maine’s Big Men
The French and the Jesuits in Maine: a very short story
In the late winter of 1613, Baron de Poutrincourt was trying to raise money in France to supply his struggling fur trading post in Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The Jesuits wanted to establish a mission in America with a base on Poutrincourt’s post. The Jesuits’ “angel,” Mme de Guercheville, agreed to finance
Foggy morning
(With a nod to E. A. Poe) Once upon a morning early, when the fog lay thick and pearly, I sat wond’ring whether Sam had opened up the store. While I sat there almost napping, suddenly there came a tapping. Who could come so early rapping, rapping at my fish house door? ‘Tis some early
When the seals and the eagles get embarrassed and move off shore
A rambling conversation between chance acquaintances over two beers in a bar: Corner Stool: I see where the dam’ gov’ment has slapped a ban on Outer Heron Island. Adjacent Stool: Sure have. Can’t land there this summer. Corner Stool: I had an idea that when it was bought by the land trust, it was for
Terrorism in Portland, 1775
On October 17, 1775, Lieutenant Henry Mowatt of the Royal Navy with four ships burned the town of Portland, then called Falmouth. There seemed to be no immediate military necessity for this act, and although there had been skirmishes at Concord and on Bunker Hill, there had been no declaration of independence and no declaration
From the Deck: Good Advice from the 17th Century
In 1632, when Samuel de Champlain wrote his Treatise on Seamanship, he had commanded vessels in the Caribbean, in the Arctic, on the rivers of Canada and on the Maine coast. He had crossed the Atlantic 26 times and was an accomplished map maker, artist and writer. His advice rings as true today as it
From the Deck: Boatyard in winter
Here is Sea Breeze, a big, black ketch, high-sided, sharp-bowed, with a wide white boot stripe and a red line over it to make her look less like a hearse. She lay all summer in a slip at the yacht club. Once I saw her sailing with only her big jib set. I think her