Chip Griffin Chip Griffin reads from his notes about the history of Damariscove Island as moderator of "Damariscove Remembered," a "Living History" program sponsored by the Boothbay Region Land Trust held at the Barter's Island Community Hall Saturday, January 20. (Photo John Edwards)

Chip Griffin, moderator for the "Damariscove Remembered" program hosted by the Boothbay Region Land Trust January 20, expected a "cozy circle of people" (maybe 30 or 40) swapping stories about their memories of the island. Instead, to the delighted surprise of both Griffin and the BRLT sponsors, just about everybody (still living) who has lived, worked, fished, boated to, bird watched, camped or hiked on Damariscove Island -- upwards of 150 people -- crowded into the Barters Island Community Hall to share their tales. As Griffin went around the room inviting comments, the audience was regaled with personal stories about fishing, clambakes, sailing, canoeing and kayaking expeditions, the island's infamous ledge, youthful misadventures, cranberry picking, the resident pony-tailed artist still remembered by sighing ladies of a certain age, even marriage proposals that had occurred there, and, of course, the headless ghost. Then, too, there were hints of stories that couldn't be told in public.

The occasion was the Boothbay Region Land Trust's first in a planned series of "Living History" programs. This one focused on Damariscove Island, transferred to the land trust in 2005 by The Nature Conservancy, which had protected the island for the previous 37 years.

BRLT Executive Director Julie Lamy welcomed the crowd, introduced Griffin and announced that the BRLT plans some 2007 brown bag picnic boating excursions to Damariscove.

Griffin, local attorney and co-author of "Coming of Age on Damariscove Island, Maine," shared some nuggets from his historical research for his book and his earlier works, "Damariscove, an Island That Made Waves," and his Bowdoin College honors thesis, "A History of Fishing in the Boothbay Region."

The derivation of the name Damariscove for this 210-acre island just five miles off the Boothbay coastline is still uncertain. Griffin said it could be derived from an old Abenaki Indian term with the same root as Damariscotta, or could be named for a "shadowy" fisherman named Humphrey Damarill. Griffin said he leans to the Indian derivation.

The island's "golden age," Griffin said, was in the seventeenth century, as the first documented permanent, European year-round colony in Maine. Damariscove's 1622 May Day festivities were the first documented maypole celebration in America. Damariscove fishermen supplied free fish to the starving Pilgrims in 1622, and the Town of Boothbay has incorporated a Latin phrase on the "Welcome to Boothbay" sign on Route 27 that says "Pelegrinis Cibum Dedimus" ("We fed the Pilgrims"). Griffin noted, however, that local historian Barbara Rumsey has said that the Pilgrims were fed for free for only one year. The next year they had to pay.

Griffin took his audience through Damariscove's travails during Indian, French, and British wars and the island's evolution from fishing community through farming, sheep raising, granite quarrying, even tourist destination with cottages to rent and the establishment and later closing of the Coast Guard station.

Except for the now privately owned Coast Guard station restored as a summer home, and a cabin used by the land trust's summer caretakers, the island is now uninhabited. The BRLT has restored the 1850s stone pier for use by local fishermen, added moorings for pleasure boaters, and by this summer will have public restrooms.

Jim Dun, BRLT board member, said that 2,500 boaters had visited the island this past summer. The north end of the island is a refuge for nesting eiders.

Nobody in Saturday's audience said they had actually seen the headless ghost, but plenty of people referred to the "spookiness" felt at night when overnight camping was still allowed.

June Peabody Elderkin, who grew up on the island while her father served in the Coast Guard, said her dad always called Damariscove "the spookiest place." According to legend, the ghost is that of Richard Pattishall, owner of the island in the late 1600s, who was beheaded by Indians and thrown, with his dog, into the water, their bodies washing up on Damariscove. Through the years some have said they could hear the dog barking.

Phil Chaney, remembering long ago days on the island, told of going Halloween "trick or treating" there. The treats, he said, were stuffed, baked lobsters. Chaney, a machinist, was a frequent visitor to the island, working on fisherman Weasel Sargent's boats, and Chaney and his wife often took their own boats out to Damariscove.

Roger Duncan, well known local author and sailor, said he is "pretty positive" that on a sailing excursion to Damariscove, he found a piece of the British ship Boxer's mast, toppled in a battle with the American Enterprise and supposedly washed to shore. Duncan said he took it home and thought of sending to Queen Elizabeth, but decided "that would be rubbing it in."

One audience member noted that she had visited Damariscove for the first time as a parent sponsor for the Fifth Grade program co-sponsored by the land trust and the Boothbay Elementary School. "It's just a magical place," she said.

There were numerous references to Alberta Poole, whose family lived and farmed on the island and whose childhood is recorded in Griffin's book. She became a teacher on the mainland, and when one audience member said she had been his teacher, hands shot up all over the room, "Mine too." It was noted that Alberta Poole is still alive, aged 97.

Griffin said that while much of Damariscove's early history is documented, the mid-twentieth century, including the post World War II period, and stories of characters such as Weasel Sargent are still unwritten. A photo of "Weasel," brought by fisherman Dan Kaler, was circulated around the room Saturday, one of many photographs, albums and other memorabilia brought by audience members.

Griffin closed the program by reading Roger Duncan's unpublished "non-ending" to his "Coastal Maine: A Maritime History," in which he wittily (and scathingly) depicts a current yachting scene at Damariscove Harbor, "dramatically different from the 30 sail of ships noted by Pilgrim Captain Winslow in 1622." In it, Pattishall makes his final ghostly appearance.

Long after Saturday's program ended, people were standing around in clusters swapping "Do you remembers."

More information on Damariscove and the Boothbay Region Land Trust can be found on the BRLT Web site, www.bbrlt,org .