he Bunkers of Cranberry Isle For more than two centuries a Maine family has wrested a living from the sea off Mt. Desert By Gunnar Hansen Like their forebears who came to Cranberry in the eight SLAND folks are a breed apart. boatbuilder for half a century, now "The mosquitoes came back." Wilfre confident Fiercely they in carry their proud special of their their daily terrestrial roots, lives at Southwest Harbor. says, "but the cranberries didn't." Fishermen, seamen, boatbuilders Unlike Mt. Desert, which niche, out tasks the brothers are descendants of connected by bridge to the mainland far from the confusion and sprawl of Benjamin Bunker who settled on the Cranberry, accessible only by water the mainland, grateful for the island in 1762. fourteen years before must have all its supplies carried b surrounding water that defines their the American Revolution. Wilfred says boat. That carrying is done by Beal home turf. Their memories are those of of this ancestor, "For all I know, he Bunker, an enterprise Wilfred starte their neighbors: shared recollections of might have been chased out of Scotland with a partner who has since left th times past. Often, they have forebears for stealing sheep. I haven't looked too business. Six mornings a week at 8:30 in common, too. To off-islanders, the close at the family history. Afraid of the boat leaves Cranberry on its firs routine of bringing supplies from the what I might find." run to Northeast Harbor. By 9:11 main, and of doing without many At one time, some 400 people lived Wilfred has delivered island mail t modern-day conveniences ("affecta- year round on the Cranberries: now the post office there. has picked u tions" islanders often call them), may only seventy call Great Cranberry supplies, and is back on the island a seem a hardship. To island people, the home, their modest houses located 11:00. free - at least in the winte bother is only natural. Besides, if a mostly on the main road, nicknamed months - to do other chores until th ferry weren't a part of island life. Route One, that runs through the afternoon run at 3:00. Wilfred Bunker would have to find center of the island. Barely a mile at its Cranberry has one of the few privat another job. widest and just over two miles long. ferry services left in Maine, "bu Friendly and easygoing he stands at Cranberry (sometimes called Big without a mail contract I couldn't mee the helm of the forty-four-foot Sea Cranberry) is now almost entirely expenses," Wilfred declares. Tha Queen, one of the boats that provide wooded. But the Bunker brothers contract, however, commits him to transportation and mail service to the remember when much of the island's making a crossing in all kinds 0 Great Cranberry Isles, off Mt. Desert. 900 acres was open land, with good weather. "I've missed only three day At fifty-nine, Wilfred has been hayfields and productive gardens, and in forty-one years." In foul weather, h running this service to the islands for when the inhabitants were less refuses too carry passengers, knowing four decades. Like his brother Tud, a dependent on the mainland They also all to well the hazards of making a run former fisherman and a boat captain remember when the island, noted for when sixty- or seventy-mile-an-houx for fifty-three years, Wilfred has lived its fine cranberries - high bush, low winds are blowing. on Great Cranberry all his life except bush, and heath berries - asdrained In addition to the Sea Queen (sixty for two years in the merchant marine. off in the 1920s in a futile effort to kill seven passengers), Wilfred runs the A third brother. Raymond, a off a thriving population of mosquitoes. Island Queen (forty-nine passengers 48 Photographs by David Westphal