Bon Voyage, Madame Editor!

With this edition, Polly Saltonstall retires from her post as Editor in Chief after 10 years of leading the magazine’s editorial mission. Her insatiable curiosity, diverse interests, and wide circle of acquaintances have been reflected in the magazine’s blend of intellectual, artistic, and scientific articles, with the introduction of new and diverse authorial voices. An avid boater and rower, she is authentically dedicated to the well-being of the marine industry and boating’s future, and writes from the voice of experience.

In this 2015 photo of Polly, her humor and multi-generational connection to the maritime world are on full display. The costume was originally made for her father to wear during a reenactment of the Battle of Castine, when he assumed the role of their ancestor Dudley Saltonstall—a fellow who, shall we say, botched the 1779 Penobscot Expedition despite noble efforts and still hasn’t heard the end of it.

Polly donned the naval attire when Hermione visited Castine on a transatlantic retracing of its namesake’s voyage. The French replica light frigate is the reproduction of the 1779 Hermione, the ship on which General La Fayette traveled in 1780 to the United States to rejoin the American side of the American Revolutionary War.

We will miss her editorial voice, and wish her well whatever ship she next chooses to captain. It will be done with singular flair, and the sartorial splendor required to set a proper scene. Bon Voyage, Polly! —The MBHH crew