The Working Waterfront Festival

Brian Robbins

Brian Robbins grew up in Stonington, Maine, a commercial fisherman for many years. He now lives and writes in the Midcoast area of Maine, with his wife Felicity Myers ("Tigger" in this book), and faithful Chesapeake Bonnie. "Bearin's"-is the name of the column Brian Robbins has written in Commercial Fisheries News for over 20 years. In Bearin's The Book, Twenty Years of Bulkhead Wisdom, Quiet Smiles, Belly Laughs, and Good Ol' Salty Tears, Brian has selected a sampling of those columns, the best of his unique blend of humor, wry observations, and personal reflections on life. While originally written for a fishing audience, Brian's columns encompass characters, situations, and themes bound to resonate with all readers. He'll make you laugh, maybe even shed a tear, and definitely leave you wanting more. Robbins is also a regular contributor to Fish Farming News, National Fisherman and Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors.

Carrie and Donald Tucker and Robert Demanche

Carrie Tucker is married to Captain Claude S. Tucker's seafaring grandson, Tom. In addition to raising the next generation of sailing Tuckers in coastal Mattapoisett, she works as a school librarian in East Bridgewater and reference librarian in Marshfield. Donald Tucker, son of Captain Claude S. Tucker, is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in Fairhaven and a veteran of the United States Air Force. Don and his wife, Lois, raised their four children in Fairhaven no more than five hundred feet from the harbor. Robert Demanche, the book's primary author, grew up in Fairhaven. A longtime friend of the Tuckers and contributing author to A Picture History of Fairhaven, he especially enjoys family holiday gatherings where tales of modern maritime life are told.

From the early years of our nation, the coasting schooner served as the primary means of hauling the cargoes that fueled the country's growth. Several thousand of these coasters once existed, but by the late 1930s, relatively few remained. Among those still in operation was the coasting schooner Coral. Hailing from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the Coral and her owner, Captain Claude S. Tucker, carried goods to ports throughout southern New England. The Coral hauled cargo into the twilight years of the coasting trade, long after new technologies began to replace it. In The Last of the Fairhaven Coasters: The Story of Captain Claude S. Tucker and the Schooner Coral, the authors use first person accounts of crew members and captains to trace the life of the Coral and through her glory days until the 1938 hurricane left her beyond repair, hastening the end of an era.

Clark Snow

Clark Snow has spent a good portion of the last 40 years working on the salt water. The last twelve years were spent on coastal tug boats, but his most memorable years were spent on fishing vessels which not only kept him in food, but fed his imagination and helped create this story. Waltzing with Lady Luck tells the story of what happens when a young Newfoundland fisherman emigrates to the U.S., marries into a prominent New Bedford fishing family, and then wins a national lottery worth nine figures. Victor and Fabulia Janes decide that they're going to try and do right by their new-found wealth. Victor builds a prototype factory trawler, equipped to fish in thousands of feet of water for Royal Red Shrimp. Fabulia starts a non-profit organization aiming to help children and the elderly. Things get interesting when the fishing boat encounters manganese nodules and a multi-national mining corporation gets involved.

Daisy Nell

Daisy Nell, a native of Essex, MA, is a folksinger and songwriter with a long history of school, museum and shipboard performances. She has performed throughout New England and as far away as Hawaii and Alaska with her husband Stan Collinson and their band Crabgrass. She has several CDs and a Parent's Choice Award winning children's album, Bought Me a Rooster. She is the author of two previous children's books, The Stowaway Mouse and Rocky at the Dockside.

Her most recent book is Captain Stan's Foo Foo Band. Captain Stan is looking forward to a night of playing music with his crew, aboard his old wooden schooner in modern day Gloucester Harbor. His mates, all with funny nicknames, are planning a music jam, known in the old days as a "foo foo band". Captain Stan gets sidetracked when he drops his harmonica overboard, but at last the band gathers and the music begins for an evening of frivolity and fun...and foo foo! The book has a single-song music CD inside.

Judy Dutra

Judy Dutra lives in North Truro, Massachusetts with her husband and family. Together they have owned, worked and lived aboard a variety of fishing and sailing vessels. They currently own the commercial fishing vessel RICHARD & ARNOLD which was built in New Bedford in 1924.

Nautical Twilight is the true story of one family's struggle to remain in the commercial fishing business- from summer days scalloping in Cape Cod Bay to winter nights fishing the Atlantic. This Provincetown fishing memoir dawns with bright beginnings, the promises of youth and darkens with the decline in fish as federal intervention begins the systematic demise of the commercial fishing industry. A fisherman's wife remembers fishing and fishermen at their zenith with stories that are humorous, adventurous and informative. Nautical twilight is the period of time where it becomes less dark before sunrise - and darker after sunset - with the sun's center to twelve degrees under the horizon. The world of commercial fishing has changed, but the people who love the watermen's life have not.

Maria Lawton

Maria Lawton was born in the village of Rosario da Lagoa on the island of Sao Miguel, Azores. She and her family moved to the United States and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts when she was six years old. With the passing of her mother and grandmother she realized that none of their recipes were written down. She made her mission to replicate those meals and share the recipes in order to preserve her Azorean culture. Maria Lawton's cookbook, Azorean Cooking, From My Family's Table to Yours, presents traditional Azorean recipes that she grew up with. Intermixed with the recipes are remembrances of family, friends and the island of Sao Miguel.

Meghan Lapp

Meghan Lapp currently works making fishing nets and other gear at Reidar's Manufacturing in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. She is also a tireless advocate for commercial fishing communities. Originally from New York, she has enjoyed spending summers at her family home in Saltaire, Fire Island all her life. She is the oldest of five children and has been storytelling, writing, and illustrating from a young age. Fast Friends is the delightful tale of two small boats which get into big trouble! As they work together, they learn important lessons about friendship, doing things the right way, and following the rules. In Hello, Stranger! the Fire Island Ferries welcome five new ferries to their fleet- but one of the new arrivals, Stranger, seems a bit out of place! Will he ever fit in? Will he ever make any friends?

Walt Scadden

Walt Scadden is a former U.S. Marine, a retired firefighter, was a member of the adjunct faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design for 20 years, and a Shipsmith, serving as the primary blacksmith on the construction of the replica schooner "Amistad" at Mystic Seaport. The Legend of the Black Duck, by Walt Scadden is the story of the New England's most notorious rum runner. Built at Casey's Boat Yard in New Bedford, the custom built fifty footer, powered by dual 500 horsepower aircraft engines, reached legendary status in the 1920's running illegal alcohol in the waters between the mouth of the Connecticut River and Nantucket. Its career ended in a hail of machine gun fire at the hands of the Coast Guard in Newport Harbor in December 1929. The ensuing investigation went all the way to the halls of Congress and some say changed the course of history. This is Walt's fifth book.