New ferry vessel named after Maine World War II hero

ROCKLAND, Maine (WABI) – On Thursday morning, the Maine Department of Transportation and Maine State Ferry Service commissioned a new vessel, the Charles Norman Shay.

”This ferry will serve the most remote community that the Maine State Ferry Service handles, Matinicus Isle. It’s more than two hours and 23 miles between Rockland and Matinicus. A handful of year-round residents there are certainly hardy and resilient. The Charles Norman Shay will be the primary vessel serving Matinicus and its namesake, Charles Norman Shay, is himself hardy,” said Bruce Van Note, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation.

Shay is a Native American veteran who served as a medic on D-Day and would later serve during the Korean War.

He turned 100 years old in June.

”It feels fitting that Charles’s legacy of service, selflessness and dignified accomplishments became commemorated through the naming of the Matinicus ferry for him. Traversing ancestral waters to a place where Penobscot people’s presence has existed since time and memorial,” said Maria Girouard of the Penobscot Nation Tribal Council.

Shay grew up on Indian Island and now lives in France.

The sacrifices Shay made and the life he’s lived will continue to live on in the memory of generations to come.

”It’s our sincere hope that when people ride this ferry, they just pause every so often when they look at the namesake and you just know what a special person it’s named for,” Van Note said.

“Say the name, because they’ll never be forgotten. They’ll always live on if you just say the name out loud. Well, we can read the name every day, all day, anytime we want now,” said Dawn Kelly, a niece of Charles Shay.

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