Islesboro’s new ferry may not be named the George J. Mitchell after all.
Islesboro residents and the state are reconsidering the name for the next Islesboro ferry, which was to be christened the M/V George J. Mitchell, in light of the former senator’s ties to the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Islesboro residents have expressed concerns about naming the ferry after Mitchell, said Shey Conover, Islesboro Select Board chair.
At a recent Select Board meeting, there were discussions about renaming the vessel’s replacement, Conover said. The current ferry is named the Margaret Chase Smith, for the first woman to serve in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
“There seemed to be unanimous excitement about potentially keeping that tradition and naming the ferry after a woman who has contributed significantly to the state of Maine,” she said.
Andrew Gobeil, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation said the MaineDOT, the Maine State Ferry Service and the Office of the Governor, “believe a discussion to re-name the vessel is appropriate.”
“We intend to begin this discussion with our ferry service partners,” Gobeil said.
Islesboro residents are already brainstorming alternative namesakes. Contenders include Frances Perkins, the former U.S. Secretary of Labor who spent summers at her family’s Newcastle homestead; Cornelia Thurza “Fly Rod” Crosby, the first registered Maine Guide; or astronaut Jessica Meir, a Caribou native who led the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019.
Conover said a member of the Select Board is putting together a shortlist of potential names and biographies. The board is discussing ways to gather community input, perhaps at the annual town meeting or through an informal poll.
The new ferry is still in the planning and design phase and has not yet been christened, but the process that led to the decision to name it after Mitchell took place in 2023 and 2024, Gobeil said.
Last week, the Waterville school board voted to remove Mitchell’s name from an elementary school, one of several institutions in Maine and elsewhere to jettison the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader’s name since the federal government released its latest batch of Epstein files, which mentioned Mitchell’s name nearly 300 times.