Herring Nights is a gripping tale, full of hard-nosed, hard-working fishermen, reveling in a life that kept them at sea, and (sometimes) paid the bills.

As is the nature of sea disasters, closure is difficult to achieve. Only one body has been found in the wreckage of the ship, and it was unidentifiable.

Without in-migration, Washington County is facing a future where its population will be lower than it has been in over a century. A shrinking population creates many economic challenges.

“They loved the new-shell lobster,” said Train. “They couldn’t believe it. We knew there was a difference. And we like the hard-shells, too, but we like new-shell more.”

If they come aboard the Sunbeam, islanders will visit privately with the nurse in a well-equipped suite. In addition to all the screening the nurse can do, the facility allows a mainland physician to examine a patient using high-definition cameras over a high-speed Internet link.

In each issue of The Working Waterfront, we feature a vintage photo from along the coast that reminds us of how our corner of the world has changed, or not changed, as the case may be. In the November issue, we published a photo on the OpEd page (page 11) of a man standing at the corner of Main and Winter streets in Rockland, circa-1937.

With interest in natural and organic products increasing, wood bathtubs are becoming a phenomenon.

This is a salty story, not a spicy one. There are no tales of pirates (although in recent history, they gather once a year on Green’s Island), rum-runners, or Ahab-esque sea captains. It is all about the hard work in maritime jobs, which involves physical labor and finessing the elements—specifically, weather and water.

Vinalhaven often experiences big storms. That’s not surprising. We are, after all, an island in the middle of the ocean.