Colin Woodard - The Lobster Coast

Table of Contents

A beautifully considered history ... Woodards admiration for lobster culture is stirring ... [Mainers] feisty pluck remains undiminished in the face of obstacles.

Woodard doesnt disguise his pique with the forces as work. Maine is worth fighting foras is any village with distinctly.etched local character and community.

The Christian Science Monitor

A triumph.

Lively.

Lucid ... engaging.

Thought-provoking ... Woodard is a talented writer, a skilled journalist.... lively reading for history buffs ... an important book for any Maine lovers bookshelf.

Meticulous ... For those who received the sanitized version of American history in elementary school, the truth comes as a bit of a shock.

The Ottawa Review

A feast ... Woodard uses the lobster to tell the whole history of Maine.

Highly engaging, intelligent.

A stellar informal history ... The Lobster Coast is a cautionary tale, superbly told, riveting and deserving of much attention. It is a primer for land use, conservation, and the effects of bad politics.

The Kingston Observer (Massachusetts)

Fascinating ... horrifying account of political intrigue and bloody battles between French and English, Indians and English, colonists and just about everybody else, all of which, for better or for worse, shaped the Down East Yankee character ... Id make The Lobster Coast required reading.

A rocketing speed-boat ride through Maines historywith an underlying engine hum of ecological awareness and concern.

The Lobster Coast tells the lobsters tale in satisfying depth and breadth.... Woodard writes about his native state and its ungainly mascot with grace and authority, shining a clear light through the mystery and lore that have long surrounded both.

Colin Woodard, a journalist specializing in global affairs, is the author of Oceans End: Travels Through Endangered Seas. A regular contributor to The Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, he has reported from more than forty countries around the world. Born and raised in Maine, he now lives in Portland.

For my grandfather,
Weston Neal Andersen
He chose Maine.

The Lobster Coast is largely a work of synthesis and as such owes a great deal to the work of hundreds of chroniclers and archivists, historians and journalists, naturalists and biologists, archeologists, genealogists, and art historians, letter writers and purveyors of oral tradition. I have cited these in the comprehensive references published in the back of this volume; those wishing to read further on the various topics and issues raised in this book will also find a short list of recommended titles. Readers should be aware that I have altered some of the quotes from seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century sources to reflect modern standards of punctuation and, in rare cases, spelling, to ensure that they are comprehensible to contemporary readers.

I am extremely grateful to all the people who took the time to share their opinions, wisdom, or expertise with me. While I havent named all of them here, most appear within these pages. Thanks to each and every one; I couldnt have written this book without them.

Several people went above and beyond the call of duty to help me along the way. On Monhegan, Tralice Bracy contributed enormously to my understanding of island life and directed me to some outstanding archival sources. Barbara Rumsey of the Boothbay Region Historical Society pointed me toward several fascinating research avenues; her Colonial Boothbay also helped focus my attention on the coasts Scotch-Irish heritage. I also am indebted to novelist Sanford Phippen of Hancock for helping this Waterville-born writer better understand the nuances of life Downeast. A special thanks also to Bob Steneck of the University of Maines Darling Marine Center for taking an entire day out of his schedule to show me around the bottom of the sea, as well as to lobstermen Zoe Zanidakis, John Murdock, David Norton, Harvey Crowley, and Jennifer Elderkin for helping me learn what goes into.catching lobsters from the surface.

The Lobster, Coast also benefited from the advice and suggestions of experts in a variety of fields: Carl Wilson of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, James Acheson of the University of Maine at Orono, David Platt at the Island Institute, and William Barry at the Maine Historical Society Library, which became my second home during much of this past winter. George Irvine, Wendy Bellion, Samuel Loewenberg, Larry Plummer, and Julie Lehrman all took the time to read earlier drafts of these chapters and offered invaluable advice and criticism; many thanks. Any shortcomings that remain are, of course, my own.

I am also grateful for the support and assistance of librarians and staff at the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library, the research library at the Maine Historical Society, the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine in Orono, the Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum, the Wiscasset Public Library, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Oliveira Memorial Library at the University of TexasBrownsville, which helped keep this project alive during a difficult period on the U.S.-Mexico border.

I am continually thankful for the support and advice of my agent, Jill Grinberg, and for the thoughtful suggestions and editorial guidance provided by my editors at Viking, Rick Kot and Hilary Redmon. I also remain grateful to editor William Frucht, whose enthusiasm for my first book, Oceans End, made the rest of this possible.

Finally, heartfelt thanks to my parents, for edits, for encouragement, for everything.

Portland, Maine
December 2003

In winter the Laura B., the mail boat to Monhegan Island, is usually fairly empty. A handful of islanders gather in the small aft cabin, warming themselves by the tiny black stove, while their groceries and shopping bags chill on the deck alongside rows of propane tanks and other large island-bound parcels. Mailbags rest in the starboard cubbyhole, protected from the elements, which can be extremely assertive during the fourteen-mile crossing from the mainland. From November to April, the Laura B. is the only link to the mainland for Monhegans sixty year-round residents, making the round-trip journey from the tiny fishing town of Port Clyde only three times a week.