Lincoln and Oliver - Issue 158

Lincoln

Lincoln

It’s sad but true, people who love Maine sometimes desert us to cruise in other places. Take Lincoln. The wire-haired Dachshund accompanied his owner, Michael Bender, on a 3.5-month, 3,400-mile cruise in Alaska on Bender’s 38-foot Duffy Kamahele—built in 2000 by Atlantic Boat in Brooklin, Maine. In this photo, the boat was anchored in Red Bluff Bay about 100 feet from the shore where grizzly bears were prowling. “Lincoln was guarding the ship,” explained Bender. The fierce watch dog was acquired through unusual means. “I won him as payment for a small claims court lawsuit,” Bender said. “I wish I could say I won him in a poker game, but that would assume he was valuable.”

Oliver

Oliver

He doesn’t have his fishing license yet, but the 3-year-old golden doodle Oliver is a key crew member on Richard Whitman’s commercial fishing vessel, Rule-62, despite being born in landlocked Abbot, Maine. They row out together every morning at 5 o’clock to the Webbers Cove 40 in Rockland Harbor, and then Oliver assumes foot warmer duty while Whitman drives the boat. In the winter they drag for scallops and in the summer they set lobster traps.  A friendly dog without a mean bone in his body, Oliver nonetheless likes to chase and menace any crabs that come on board. He has a healthy respect for lobsters, having been bitten before, but hasn’t met a shrimp he didn’t like. “He’ll lap up any of them that he can get his paws on when they fall off the traps,” Whitman said. As for that license, Whitman wishes his pal did have one. “I’d put out a couple hundred traps just for him.”