Thursday, September 10
6pm
FREE, registration required

Coastal Maine’s rich maritime heritage has produced and attracted a lot of sailors and you don’t work on the water without accumulating good stories. Penobscot Marine Museum invites you to join us for Salted Tales: Stories From the Sea Told Live on Zoom — Hear five working seamen and women tell hair-raising real-life sea stories of amazing experiences. Each fast-paced story will be eight minutes long. Register

Presenters Include:

Kylie Bragdon, is the Executive Director of Maine Ocean School, and ocean-themed high school in Searsport, Maine. A native of Winter Harbor, Kylie has spent over 15 years lobstering with her father. During this event she will be sharing some of her favorite ocean adventures and information about how Maine Ocean School uniquely prepares students for maritime careers.

Montville resident Bennet Verbeck will relate a harrowing tale of adventure gone wrong on a deserted island in the Caribbean and the extraordinary chance meeting of old friends. Bennett graduated from College of the Atlantic in 1989 and soon afterward settled in interior Waldo County. He got his start as a sailor on Penobscot Bay in the late 1990s; his current boat, Osprey, is a scrapping Bristol Channel Cutter which he’s sailed to the Caribbean twice (Osprey is arguably the protagonist of his story). He has held a U.S. Coastguard 50-ton Master captain’s license for 10 years, and in the course of crewing professionally on annual Caribbean yacht deliveries has tucked over 25,000 offshore miles “under his foul weather gear”. These days, he splits his time between homesteading on Goosepecker Ridge, sailing when he can on the Bay, and overhauling Osprey. When she’s afloat again, he’s got another long journey planned: inspired by a recent epic with friends, he aims to return to the north Atlantic waters of Labrador and Newfoundland.

Mount Desert Island boat builder Ralph Stanley will share stories from his own experiences and passed down to him from family members. He is recognized in the State of Maine and nationally as a master boatbuilder. In 1946 Ralph Stanley began his wooden boat building career. During this time, he built and restored more than 70 boats including lobster boats and yachts, dories, rowboats and Friendship Sloops. Stanley became a National Endowment of the Arts, National Heritage Fellow in 1999 for his contributions to boatbuilding as a traditional art. 

Born in Philadelphia in 1933, Captain Jim Sharp has spent a lifetime afloat. From “going down to the boat” with his father, he migrated from chartering in the Bahamas to becoming addicted to Maine traditional schooners as well as antique tugboats, freight vessels and European barges. Now, in questionable retirement, he is director and founder of the Sail Power and Steam Museum on the site of the Old Snow Shipyard in Rockland, Maine. After seeing the Arctic research and exploration vessel, Schooner Bowdoin, tied up at a dock in Connecticut back in 1967, half dismantled and coming apart at the seams, Captain Jim Sharp approached Admiral Donald McMillan (her former owner) and he said “take her to Maine, Jim”… Well, Captain Jim collected what pieces he could and towed the disabled vessel back to Camden, ME, to restore her to her former glory. Today, thanks to Captain Sharp, his love of history and old boats, and his eye for pretty hull, she is the Official Vessel of the State of Maine and the Flagship Vessel of Maine Maritime Academy. Her story is an interesting one: From exploring the Arctic, stuck in the ice for months at a time, to carrying passengers in the windjammer trade of Penobscot Bay – there are plenty of “salty” stories to tell! And ever the storyteller, Captain Jim joins us to share a few tales from the past.

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This programming has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these programs, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit the National Endowment for the Humanities website here https://www.neh.gov.