The Working Waterfront Festival

Red Cummings

The Last Fling is a fascinating tale of a life-altering event of courage, terror and survival. There are first hand stories from more than 60 individuals and families and what they experienced as their homes and town were torn apart during Hurricane Carol in 1954. The book speaks of the spirit of the times and the people as wind and waves crashed without warning into a Massachusetts coastal town making Carol one of the most destructive natural disasters the area ever endured. The narrative is complemented by more than 40 illustrations. The Last Fling is a must read for anyone who has ever experienced a hurricane, enjoyed the waves at Horseneck Beach, lived in Westport or any New England town and those who are interested in history or natural disasters.

John B. "Red" Cummings, Jr. is a lifelong area resident and was a witness to the events of the day on August 31, 1954.

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Laura Ricketson Doherty

Annie Ricketson's Journal by Laura Ricketson Doherty has recently been published by Heritage Books. Annie was married to one of the author's ancestors and spent over three years on a whaling ship with her husband, Captain Daniel Ricketson.

Her journal is of interest for many reasons. First of all, Annie's journey provides a different look at what many have come to believe was the life of a typical Victorian lady. Her journal offers a more human glimpse of life on a whaling ship than what is usually found in ship logs. Then there is all that happened to Annie during her voyage - the loss of her newborn in a foreign land, mutiny, storms, headhunters and, of course, the hunting of whales.

In some ways, Annie will remind the reader of an inveterate tourist - shopping, learning the money in distant lands, dealing with adverse weather and sometimes unfriendly natives. As she describes herself during a time when she was asked to take part in a tribal dance while on some island in the Pacific, "I did the best that I could."

Currently, the author lives in Duxbury and is communications coordinator for The Art Complex Museum, located in the same town. She has written for the Patriot Ledger, Mariner and Tinytown Gazette newspapers and Boston and Yankee Magazines.

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Judy Dutra

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.

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'.

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Aliza Green

Aliza Green, the Philadelphia-based cookbook author, journalist and pioneering chef, is the author of ten highly successful cookbooks including Field Guide to Seafood and ¡Ceviche! In her newest book, The Fishmonger's Apprentice, published in early 2011 by Quarry Books, Green calls on the experts for everything from cooking tips to step-by-step guides to the techniques that a lot of home cooks are afraid of. Samuels & Son, one of the mid-Atlantic region's largest and most respected seafood wholesalers, played a major part in the book's production. Its state-of-the-art facility in South Philly was the staging ground for much of Green's research. For tips on selecting and preparing lobster, Green turned to Sheila and Mike Dassatt, co-founders of the Downeast Lobstermen's Association in Belfast. Green has appeared twice on NBC's Today Show to promote her books. She has been interviewed in her own kitchen for Philly Food, a special production of WHYY Public Television in Philadelphia and writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cooking Light Magazine and Clean Eating.

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Meghan Lapp

Megan Lapp currently works making fishing nets and other gear at Reidar's Manufacturing in Fairhaven, MA. 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 that get into big trouble! As they work together, they learn important lessons about friendship, doing things the right way, and following the rules. Featuring colorful pictures and the real Fire Island Ferries, Fast Friends is destined to be a children's favorite for years to come! 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?

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Joanne Leech

Joanne Leech grew up in a commercial fishing family in Chinook, Washington. Chinook salmon, Dungeness crab and razor clams were often the catch of the day on the family dinner table. In l983, she and her husband, Geno, converted a turn-of-the century church building into a restaurant featuring a seafood menu reminiscent of her past. In addition to sharing her culinary skills with a cooking demonstration in the Festival's Foodways Area, Joanne will read Little Ocean Annie and Her Clam Dog, a book inspired by the love of her grandchildren. Wonderfully illustrated by Carol Johnson, the book tells the tale of Sunny, a puppy who gets into some trouble when he doesn't listen to his owner and gets carried off by a "sneaker wave."

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Daisy Nell

The Stowaway Mouse tells the story of a mouse in the shipbuilding town of Essex, Massachusetts, who sneaks onboard as a new schooner is launched at Harold Burnham Boat's yard. Once the mouse leaves his home at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, he realizes that there is a lot to see once the boat sails down the river away and out at sea. The book which written by local musician and maritime historian Daisy Nell and illustrated by George Ulrich of Marblehead, grew out of an annual folk music and songwriting residency in the Essex, MA elementary school second grade. Throughout the winter of 2011, a new schooner Ardelle was being built by Harold Burnham. As the boat took shape at the edge of the Essex River, Daisy used music to teach the children about the shipbuilding process and the history that was unfolding in their hometown village and together they wrote the song which became the story of The Stowaway Mouse.

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Elaine and Karin Tammi

Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook is a one of a kind cookbook weaving together some of the best scallop recipes in New England with interviews from Nantucket bay scallop fishermen, marine scientists, world-renowned chefs, shuckers, and sea scallopers to provide an insider's view into these fisheries. From the Maine coast to Cape Cod, highlighting New Bedford, an old whaling city, now the primary scallop port in the U.S., this cookbook provides delectable recipes. The recipes from award winning chefs, discuss the sustainability of the sea scallop fishery with NOAA scientists, feature Consumer-Supported Agriculture, and provide species information. A portion of the funds from the sale of this cookbook will be donated to the Fishermen's Emergency Relief Fund, in New Bedford, MA. Karin Tammi is a shellfish biologist who manages a Shellfish Hatchery at Roger Williams University, in Bristol, Rhode Island. She researched bay scallop restoration at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Elaine Tammi enjoys living by the sea, in Sandwich, on Cape Cod, writing mysteries, reading and making scallop crafts. Elaine and Karin, have co-authored articles for Food Arts magazine and Coastal Living magazine.

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Jacob Walker and Rob Cox

New England's culinary history is marked by a varying array of chowders. Early forms were thick and layered, but the adaptability of this beloved recipe has allowed for a multitude of tasty preparations to emerge. Thick or thin, brimming with fish or clams or corn, chowder springs up throughout the region in as many distinctive varieties as there are ports of call yet always remains the quintessential expression of New England cuisine. In A History of Chowder: Four Centuries of a New England Meal, food writers and chowder connoisseurs Robert S. Cox and Jacob Walker dish out the history, flavors and significance of every New Englander's favorite comfort food.

Jacob Walker spends most of his time along the coast of Massachusetts. He is the creator of the New England Chowder Compendium, a nationally recognized project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst devoted to examining all things chowder.

Rob Cox has a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan and works at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is author of Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism (Charlottesville, 2003) and editor of and contributor to The Shortest and Most Convenient Route: Lewis and Clark in Context (Philadelphia, 2004).

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