It’s no secret that retail lobster prices have been on the high side this season. But anyone unhappy about the increases should, perhaps, visit the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath where the L.L. Bean lobstering building is located. The visitor should then find his or her way to a corner of the upper floor where there’s a mock-up of a lobster boat.
Just to the left of where the boat’s helm would be there’s a video screen displaying a tape loop of a film called “Maine Lobsterman.” It features a day in the life of a Deer Isle lobsterman named Eugene Eaton, has a narrative written and spoken by E.B. White, and was produced 50 years ago.
“It’s probably the only thing that E.B. White wrote that’s not in print,” says the late Eugene Eaton’s daughter-in-law Marianne whose father worked for White in Brooklin for almost four decades. Not coincidentally, her father was the inspiration for Henry the farmer in White’s Charlotte’s Web.
Jim Eaton, who operates Sunshine Seafood on Deer Isle with Marianne, is proud of his father and of the film, originally shown in 1954 as part of the Omnibus television series.
“I was born in ’52 so I don’t have a direct recollection of the film being made,” Eaton says, “but I certainly heard about it when I was growing up.” He says that lobster dealer Gus Henssler, who makes a brief appearance in the film, was asked to recommend a lobsterman for the film and he came up with Eugene Eaton.
“The thing of it is that my father turned him down, twice; you see, he was pretty shy,” says Eaton. “Then E.B. himself came over and told my father that if he agreed to be in the film, he’d never bother him again. So my father did it. Believe it or not, the original idea was to have a cartoon figure, called “New England Lobsterman” I think, but fortunately they changed it to real life.”
“The hour of the fisherman, the hour of the crow,” says White as Eugene Eaton walks down the path toward his boat, the NOR WESTER, at the crack of dawn. As Eaton gets underway, White mentions locations like Jericho Bay, Hen Island and Spirit Ledge and as a sea begins to build White says. “The boat punches cheerfully into it.” He goes on to describe the NOR WESTER as having a “cocky bow and a lovely sheer.”
Talking about the first of Eaton’s pot buoys White says, “It’s not hard to get to if you can find your way in the fog,” and he adds that no fisherman looks to go out in dirty weather, but if it does develop, the Maine lobsterman “will stay out and complete his haul.”
Between Eaton’s hauls of his traps White says, “A lobsterman’s thoughts return to land, running on ahead of his boat.” Among the thoughts, “There’s always the price of lobster,” adding that lobstering is “not always a profitable enterprise.”
Dealer Gus Henssler interjects that a lobsterman can make a living “if he has the push to go out and get it.”
On this particular day, Eaton brings in 200 pounds of lobster and earns $60. “This is one day when you get ahead,” says White.
The film was directed by Arthur Zegart, a cinematographer and director whose career spanned decades.
Zegart is also responsible for MMM having the film in its possession, according to Nathan Lipfert, Museum Library Director and co-author of the book, Lobstering and the Maine Coast, who curated the lobstering exhibit.
Lipfert explains that the museum doesn’t own the film; RSA Ventures does. “We’re allowed to use it with the understanding that we won’t publish it or distribute it,” he says. “RSA retains ownership and the copyright. The fact that we have it at all is due to Arthur Zegart who got us a copy. Just how that came about, I’m not sure.”
Jim Eaton says that White and Zegart were good friends. “I know that they knew each other in New York City. I don’t know whether there was any connection here in Maine. But I’m glad that it’s being shown. It’s a real tribute to the Maine lobsterman.”
And to his father as well?
“Well, yes, I guess you could say that,” he says. “I think my father was pleased with the film, but probably a little embarrassed, too. He never mentioned it outside our family.” Eaton adds that White and Henssler got copies of the film as payment, “but my father got a television set, the first one on the island.”
As it happens, Jim and Marianne Eaton received a copy of the film as a wedding present – from White himself. “Marianne’s father was Henry Allen,” Eaton says. “He came out of World War II and went to E.B. looking for work. E.B. agreed to take him on temporarily – and Henry worked there for 37 years. They got along pretty well, mostly I think, because they both liked things a certain way.” He adds that White got the idea for Charlotte’s Web after watching Marianne’s father feeding the ducks and geese.
“One other thing,” Eaton says. “My son Peter’s boat is also the NOR WESTER. “She’s a good-looking boat, high bow, low sheer. If you were to see both boats side by side, you’d be hard put to tell them apart.”
Finally, if there are visitors who are still upset about retail lobster prices, there’s a MMM exhibit just opposite “Maine Lobsterman.” It’s a replica of the interior of a lobsterman’s shack with a taped narrative by a lobsterman.
After describing the rigors of the occupation, the lobsterman says, “But you don’t want to hear my problems. You want to know how much a pound. Well, not enough to make an easy living.”
He adds, “Nobody ever wants to know how much it took for me to get that pound.”