Clergy blesses fishing fleet in Bar Harbor Seafarers’ Memorial followed by blindfolded boat races, musical performance

BAR HARBOR – One by one they floated by while members of the local clergy took turns naming and blessing them from the end of the pier.

A chilly wind blew under gray skies Sunday, but the weather wasn’t enough to keep people away from the annual Seafarers’ Memorial service and blessing of the Mount Desert Island fishing fleet.

With their voices amplified by a pubic address system, the Rev. Gary Delong, executive director of Maine Sea Coast Mission, the Rev. Jim Gower and the Rev. Sandra Reed alternated as they asked God to keep each vessel safe from harm and for a bountiful season. The Sunbeam V, the mission’s outreach vessel, sat tied up to the end of the pier as about 20 other vessels filed by.

For centuries, religion and life on the sea have been mixed together. Fishing can be an unpredictable avocation, and the conditions under which people haul their catch from the sea even more so.

Seeking divine protection is but one way fishermen have tried to ensure that they return to shore safe and sound and with food to feed their families.

But Sunday’s event had a more practical angle than appealing to the heavens for comfort and survival. It also doubled as a fundraiser for a new fund that aims to help injured fishermen, who more often than not lack health insurance.

Kelly Corson, organizer of the event, said that a dinner held the night before in Hulls Cove raised $3,500 for the newly created Fishermen’s Health Fund. Proceeds made Sunday from the sale on the local downtown pier of hot dogs, hamburgers and chowder also would go toward the fund, she said.

“We had a really great turnout,” Corson said of the Saturday night dinner. “The main point is to establish the fund.”

Local fisherman Paul Rozeff, who was hurt last December when his clothing got entangled in equipment operating below deck, is one such person who could benefit from the fund, she said.

Local events were held to raise money for Rozeff and his family after his accident, but not every fishermen gets such widespread community support when an accident at sea results in medical bills and a loss of income, Corson said.

Money from the fund will be eligible to any fisherman who is based on Mount Desert Island and is injured on the job, she said.

In past years, there have been times when only three or four people have showed up to witness the blessing of the fleet, according to Corson. By adding other features to the event, she said, the town’s Harbor Committee hopes to create a wider working waterfront celebration every year to help raise money for the fund.

This year, after the Seafarer’s Memorial prayer and the blessing of the fleet, musician Jimmy Barnes played music on the pier. There were blindfold rowboat races, a tank where children could see and touch small sea creatures, a survival suit demonstration put on by Coast Guard personnel, competitions for hauling traps and filling bait bags, and information tables set up by the Mount Desert Island Water Quality Coalition and the Island Institute.

“Our hope … is that this will be the start of a really big annual celebration,” Corson said.