An Eastport fisherman is a lucky man and the entire fishing community is counting its blessings after the catastrophic collapse of a large section of the Eastport breakwater at about 2 a.m. on Thursday, December 4. Although three boats and a pickup truck were totalled or severely damaged, no one was killed or sustained any serious injuries. The outcome could have been very different.
      Just before low tide, nearly half of the length of the southwest side of the 400-foot rock-filled pier fell into the water, sending a wave estimated to be about 10 feet high that tossed the boats tied up along that wall. The first three vessels along the wall bore the brunt of the damage, with one sunk, one a total loss and the third severely damaged, with antennas sheared off on a number of other boats that were rafted up next to them. But the damage could have been much worse, since the collapse took place three days after the start of the scallop season, when the breakwater is loaded with pickup trucks later in the morning.
     Patrick Donahue, a fisherman who was staying aboard the windjammer Ada C. Lore, which was the first boat at the southwest end of the pier, says he sleeps close to the waterline and just before 2 a.m. heard a sound like "when kids smack rocks underwater." He went on deck and saw that the bulge in the breakwater looked as though it had come out farther. He called the vessel's owner, Butch Harris, to tell him that the breakwater might be falling down.
     Donahue then went below deck and grabbed some of his gear and his beagle, Burton, and started to go up the ladder on the pier. But he decided to back away and went forward on the schooner, just as the breakwater's wall collapsed and the lights went out. "The boat pitched real hard to port, and I went flying and hit the rail and the rigging, dropped the dog and jumped out of the way," he relates. "It happened really fast." He says he was lucky that the schooner's foremast did not snap like the mainmast did, or it would have hit him. He also was fortunate that he was not hit by the sheet metal, rocks and utility poles raining down.
     Donahue scrambled with his dog over to the Doucet Lady that was tied up next to the schooner, and Harris, aboard David Pottle's Ocean Warrior, picked him up soon after that. After going to the emergency room at the Calais Regional Hospital, he was back in Eastport and went urchin fishing that morning, with just a sprained ankle. And Burton the beagle seemed none the worse C although the beagle, who usually barks a lot, was quiet the rest of that day but recovered and was barking again by the next morning. Donahue, though, did lose some of his possessions and his pickup truck that was parked on the breakwater and fell into the inner basin. It was hauled out that afternoon.
     Saying he was pretty lucky, Donahue observes, "Sometimes the worst days are the best days." He adds, "Everyone was really lucky. If it was a fishing day or mackerel season, there would have been a lot of people out there."
     That sentiment is echoed by fisherman Scott Emery, who comments, "It was very lucky it happened when it did. It could have been a lot different outcome if it was early in the morning when all the trucks were on the wharf and the boats were ready to leave."
     Harbor pilot Bob Peacock believes there were three reasons for the collapse: a strong southerly wind the day before, the snapping of one of the steel walers that join the sheet metal walls together and the low tide at the time of the collapse. One of the utility poles that are driven down into the breakwater began wavering before the collapse, and after the collapse it pulled down the other poles to which it was attached.
     Following the collapse, Coast Guard Station Eastport and fishermen helped pull boats away from the breakwater and put crews onto the vessels that were tied up there. Within 45 minutes 24 boats had been moved over to the finger piers in the breakwater's inner basin.

Impact on three vessels
     Butch Harris notes that along with the mainmast of the Ada C. Lore snapping into three pieces, the foremast of the 118-foot schooner cracked, with the shrouds keeping it from falling. The booms broke, the bowsprit was dislocated, 30 to 40 feet of rail and the stanchions were smashed, both cabin tops were pushed through the deck and the centerboard trunk was pushed down, so the vessel is now leaking. Following the collapse it was taken over to the fish pier. On December 8 Harris was still waiting to see what his insurance company says before deciding what to do. "I hope to get it back working by May, but I don't know if that will happen." The vessel would have to be repaired at a boatyard in Southwest Harbor, the Camden/Rockland area or Fairhaven, Mass. Without power, it will have to be towed. "It will be a major, major repair, but it might not be worth fixing."
     The pilot boat Medric II, which was in the second row from the end, sank in "about two seconds," says co-owner Ralph DeWitt. The sheet metal, rocks and utility pole slammed onto the back deck, with the weight sinking the boat, which can float even when it's full of water. The boat's wheelhouse hit the pier, breaking off. After the steel and utility pole were pulled off the following afternoon, the vessel could float and was towed over to the finger piers at low tide and hauled out that evening. DeWitt notes that many people helped with getting the boat out.
     The 46-foot high-density polyethylene boat is used to take the pilots out to the ships coming to the port of Eastport and has been used over the years for aquaculture projects and survey work and research for aquaculture and LNG. It was named for the former sardine carrier Medric that DeWitt used to captain. DeWitt says the vessel, which is a total loss, is insured.
     Of the destruction, DeWitt comments, "It reminded me of the Groundhog Day Gale" that had taken down buildings and piers along the Eastport waterfront in 1976. "The inside of the breakwater was just wrecked again."
     The Double Trouble 2, owned by Brent Griffin of Edmunds, was in the third row back and nearly sank, with its stern driven down in the water. The sheet metal and rocks that fell on the 45-foot boat had such force that they twisted the dragger's A-frame, took off the wash rails and ripped through the hull. Griffin had it hauled out at the Boat School that morning. "It's pretty much totalled," he says of the vessel, which is insured. After the insurance appraiser looks it over, he's planning to get a new boat.
     Both the port authority, which leases the breakwater, and the city, which owns the structure, currently have liability insurance on the pier. However, the city's structural insurance on the 1962 section was cancelled last May by then City Manager Larry Post. While interim City Manager Elaine Abbott believes that any claims by boat owners should be covered by the liability insurance, city council President Mary Repole says that the structural insurance on the breakwater could have helped the city financially. She notes that Post had not informed any of the city councillors that he was cancelling the insurance.
     While insurance issues still have to be figured out, Port Director Chris Gardner says how the disaster was handled locally "is a testament to this community." Fishermen and other boat owners, the Coast Guard, police, highway and fire departments all helped the owners of the vessels in securing them or getting them out of the water. He comments, "The community's response in how they handled this was perfect."