Maritime Authors Featured at 2014 Working Waterfront Festival

Three recent titles from The History Press will be featured at this year’s event. The Sol e Mar Tragedy off Martha’s Vineyard, authored by Captain W. Russell Webster, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.) and Elizabeth Webster, chronicles the fascinating story of the Sol e Mar and its’ crew and explains the psychology of hoax callers and Coast Guard technological advancements since the 1990 tragedy. Nemasket River Herring, authored by local historian Michael J. Maddigan, explores the big story of the small fish that shaped life along the Nemasket River. The Last of the Fairhaven Coasters: The Story of Captain Claude S. Tucker and the Schooner Coral, co-authored by Robert Demanche and Donald Tucker, brings the era of the cargo-carrying, wooden sailing vessel to life through first-person accounts, historical research, and vintage photographs.

Float, a wry tale of financial desperation, conceptual art, insanity, infertility, seagulls, marital crisis, jellyfish, organized crime, and the plight of a plastic-filled ocean was penned by JoeAnn Hart who lives in Gloucester, America’s oldest seaport, where fishing regulations, the health of the ocean, and the natural beauty of the world are the daily topics of wonder and concern. Rachel Rowley Spaulding’s In Search of Ellen Marie is the true story of a painting-inspired passionate pursuit to locate a fishing vessel and her awe-inspiring realization that she had been injected into the historic era soon to be lost forever of wooden, commercial fishing boats manned by a unique breed of courageous fishermen.

Two cookbooks will be featured: Azorean Cooking: From My Family’s Table to Yours by Maria Lawton, who will present a cooking demonstration as well as a signing, and Recipes from Land and Sea compiled by the Ladies Branch of the New Bedford Port Society with a special signing by Ruth & Abby, the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park’s 1850s Ladies.

Children’s authors Meghan Lapp (Fast Friends and Hello Stranger) and Daisy Nell (Moxie and the Whale, Captain Stan’s Foo Foo Band, The Stowaway Mouse and Rocky at the Dockside) will present story time aboard the Schooner Ernestina and the visiting Pinky Schooner Ardelle.

Festival Autographing Schedule

Visit the Festival Bookstore located on Pier 3 to meet featured authors and purchase signed copies of their books.

Saturday, September 27th

• 12:30 – 1:00 Maria Lawton: Azorean Cooking, from my family’s table to yours
• 1:30-2:00 JoeAnn Hart: Float
• 2:00-2:30 Rachel Spaulding: In Search of the Ellen Marie
• 2:30-3:00 Michael J. Maddigan: Nemasket RiverHerring

Sunday, September 28th

• 12:30 – 1:00 Ladies Branch of the New Bedford Port Society & The 1850s Ladies: Recipes from Land and Sea
• 1:30 – 2:00 Daisy Nell: Moxie and Whale, Captain Stan’s Foo Foo Band, The Stowaway Mouse, and Rocky at the Dockside
• 2:00-2:30 Robert Demanche and Donald Tucker: The Last of the Fairhaven Coasters: The Story of Captain Claude S. Tucker and the Schooner Coral
• 2:30 – 3:00 Captain W. Russell Webster USCG (Ret.) & Elizabeth Webster: The Sol e Mar Tragedy off Martha’s Vineyard