|
Lobster Festival Fit for a Superman
Lobster, that Downeast favorite, has a life of its own on Frenchboro.
Much of the island’s history and livelihood is tied to the
crustacean.
And yet, island residents say they never tire of its rich taste.
Aaron and Linda Bernstein and Linda’s son, Kyle Spratt, are all
involved in lobstering on Frenchboro as a family. Aaron works at
Lunt and Lunt Lobster Co. buying the lobsters while Linda has
been a sternman for three years. Kyle spends his summers away
from college as the captain of his own boat. |
Every year on the second Saturday of August (Aug. 10 this year),
the locals welcome others to have their fill of seafood at the
Frenchboro Lobster Festival.
Frenchboro schoolteacher Lorna Stuart calls it, appropriately, “a
festive time.”
The first festival was held on
Aug. 15, 1962,
to celebrate the signing of the Atlantic Charter—which supposedly
happened right off Outer Long Island 21 years earlier.
It was August 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to create a document stating
their countries’ aims for peace.
According to the local version of the story, it was on the final day
of the conference between Roosevelt and Churchill that Frenchboro
residents saw warships clustering off their shore.
The charter actually was signed in Newfoundland. But the fleet
dispersed near Placentia
Island, one of the islands that make up the town of
Frenchboro.
David Lunt remembers as a young boy watching a fleet of boats in
Blue Hill
Bay gather
for the signing of the Atlantic Charter.
“The signing happened in the mouth of the harbor,” Lunt said.
“We sailed around but were not allowed to get too close,” he said.
“We knew what they were.”
The festival is a fundraiser for the Congregational Church. It’s the
biggest fundraiser of the year.
Lunt grew up on the island, and knows the festival well as “a busy
day.”
The ferry brings over as many as 500 to 700 visitors for the
occasion, he said. The boat makes a special trip leaving Bass
Harbor at 9 a.m. and returning from
Frenchboro at 3:30 p.m.
In addition to a lobster dinner ($14) there is a chicken salad
dinner for $9. Each dinner includes pie, coleslaw, bread and a
drink.
“The year we dedicated the ferry ramp was the biggest turnout,” Lunt
said.
Lunt’s wife, Sandra, noted that there are also craft sales. Also,
the town’s museum is open during the festival.
One of Lunt’s favorite memories is when actor Christopher Reeve
visited the island a few years before his paralysis in 1995.
“The kids went running down the dock yelling, ‘Superman,
Superman!’,” Lunt said.
“He was really nice to the kids,” Lunt said.
Reeve told the
children that if they left him alone during his visit, he would come
back and do something special with them. He did return, and had a
question answer session with them. |
