Captain Brown (The Old Lobster Fisherman)

Boothbay Harbor, Maine, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Captain Brown, also called The Old Lobster Fisherman, is a 25-foot fiberglass, rebar and cement fisherman statue at Brown's Wharf Inn on Atlantic Avenue, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The inn's owning family placed it in 1968, a year after the inn opened.

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Captain Brown (The Old Lobster Fisherman)

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Site-level location · 43.8447° N, 69.6251° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Anyone driving down Atlantic Avenue on Boothbay Harbor's East Side meets the inn's landmark before the inn itself: a giant fisherman who has stood at the entrance of Brown's Wharf Inn since 1968.

According to the Boothbay Register in 2019, the owning family placed the 25-foot figure, made of fiberglass, rebar and cement, a year after the inn opened. The family says the idea came on a trip to Strasburg, Pennsylvania, where they saw a large statue of an Amish man outside a diner and decided a sailor would suit their business. The figure was built by Rod Shutt, who the family says also designed similar figures for Walt Disney World, and was delivered from his Pennsylvania shop on a flatbed truck. The Register noted that Gorton's fisherman first appeared in television advertising in 1975, seven years after the Boothbay Harbor statue arrived.

The inn's website calls him both "The Old Lobster Fisherman" and "Captain Brown", the name the Register and the family use. He has appeared on the inn's letterhead and brochures. The Register reported that he needs a fresh coat of paint about every five years, and that the family drapes him in a large red coat each Christmas. The inn's current website describes him dressed in bright yellow oilskins. Years ago he could also talk: a speaker let staff in the office call out to passers-by, though the family no longer does this.

He has weathered storms. In 2010 a hard sea wind toppled the statue, and he was taken by flatbed to a marine facility for fibreglass repair before returning to his post.

The statue stands on the inn's own grounds at 121 Atlantic Avenue, and the inn says its restaurant is no longer open, so view him from the road and respect guests.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A 25-foot fisherman statue at the entrance to Brown's Wharf Inn. The inn's website describes it dressed in bright yellow oilskins; the Boothbay Register reported a red coat is added each Christmas. It is on business property, and the inn's restaurant is no longer open.

ACCESS

At the entrance to Brown's Wharf Inn, 121 Atlantic Avenue, on Boothbay Harbor's East Side. The statue stands on the inn's grounds, which are private business property; look from Atlantic Avenue and respect guests.

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16 km away

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