Press release

Amazon features the Laura B Monhegan Island ferry in recent video

Boat helps deliver Amazon packages and essentials to remote island
Tue, 11/29/2022 - 12:15pm

    The world's second-largest retailer has chosen a Maine island community to illustrate delivery off the beaten path – way off.

    Amazon this month released a mini-documentary about Monhegan Island on its website and YouTube channel. The producers filmed at Monhegan Island over the summer and begin their story at Port Clyde with packages loading onto the World War II-era Laura B – run by Monhegan Boat Line – on their way to the island 10 miles off the coast of Maine.

    Amazon explains that "there are no paved roads and no car ferries travel to the rocky island. About 70 people live here year-round, and most of them get around the one-square-mile island on foot or by golf cart."

    Discussing the role the ferry service fulfills for the islanders, Monhegan Boat Line owner Andy Barstow explains in the video that his father (who preceded Andy) always said, “We deliver everything but babies.” The Monhegan ferry service has been run by the Barstow family for 45 years.

    From there, locals share (with a bit of pride) that their lifestyle takes a bit of hardiness – which is eased by the fact that Amazon somehow delivers packages not just to the loading dock but to their doorstep – thanks to the ferry service they have come to count on, as well as the on-island delivery service offered by Angela Iannacelli.

    Iannacelli, who has been delivering packages on the island for eight years, says “the Laura B is part of a lifeline for us” and helps make it possible to live and work on the island.

    At the end of the video, Amazon announces that it donated $25,000 to the Monhegan Island Sustainability Community Association, which provides affordable housing so people can live and work on the island year-round.

    Monhegan Boat Line has provided year-round ferry and mail service to Monhegan Island for nearly 100 years. During the summer, the Laura B and Elizabeth Ann offer three trips daily, as well as puffin/nature, lighthouse and puffin/sunset cruises.