Raymond Irwin Hodgkins was a Bar Harbor fisherman whose life was closely tied to the sea, his family, and the working waterfront of Mount Desert Island. Online missing-person listings identify him as a White/Caucasian male with brown hair and blue eyes, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 170 pounds, and list him as missing from Bar Harbor, Maine, with May 1, 1990, given as the date of last contact. He was 43 in some public case summaries, while other reporting describes him as 44.
His case is recorded in NamUs as MP40568, and Maine State Police direct the public to NamUs as the official clearinghouse used in Maine for missing-person case tracking.
Raymond was last known to be aboard his fishing vessel, Joshua’s Delight, a 38- to 40-foot Duffy fishing boat. The available accounts place him offshore in the Schoodic Ledges area, roughly 25 miles off the coast, where he was reportedly fishing for haddock, cod, and flounder. He was alone that day. Other fishermen were said to have been in radio contact with him as weather worsened, and they reportedly headed back toward port because of an incoming storm. Raymond was believed to have said he would return once he finished his tow, but Joshua’s Delight never made it back to Bar Harbor.
The search that followed carried the fear and urgency familiar to fishing communities that know how quickly the ocean can turn. Reports say his life boat was found adrift and unopened, along with a hatch cover, and there was also mention of a possible oil slick, though the exact locations of those findings were not clearly established in the public summaries. Later local reporting described terrible visibility in the days after he was overdue, with dense fog making the search more difficult, while family, friends, fishing crews, Raymond’s brother Lawrence, his regular stern man James “Howdy” Houghton, and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for him.
A detailed local remembrance published years later described Raymond not only as a missing fisherman, but as a husband, father, son, brother, friend, and respected member of the island’s fishing community. The article reported that he was married to Sherry Nickander, had a son named Joshua and two stepchildren, and came from a family with deep fishing roots. His father, Bud, reportedly brought him out on the water from an early age. Those who remembered him described him as capable and beloved, and his son later wrote about him as generous, compassionate, witty, sharp, and deeply attuned to the tides and the sea.
The physical details in Raymond’s public case information offer a careful picture of the man investigators and loved ones have continued trying to account for. He was known to wear orange or yellow oilskins while fishing, along with rubber boots, and ordinary clothing when traveling to or from the fishing grounds. His case information also notes a distinctive injury: he reportedly had missing skin or flesh from one or two fingers, possibly from a rope-related fishing accident. DNA reference samples from family members were recorded in the case file, reflecting the long-term effort to preserve the possibility of identification if answers are ever found.
There are painful fragments of what may have remained from the search. Local reporting, drawing on an Ellsworth American account from the time, said the skipper of the Surf King spent nearly three days dragging the bottom in about 300 feet of water where Joshua’s Delight may have gone down. The only debris reportedly recovered was a tattered yellow rain slicker and a baseball cap; the same account noted that Raymond reportedly did not wear a cap, and that marine growth on the jacket suggested it had been submerged for months. Those details did not bring certainty, but they reinforced the belief that something catastrophic likely happened offshore.
Years after Raymond disappeared, Bar Harbor continued to remember him. In 2024, the Harbor Committee approved a proposed plaque for the Bar Harbor Town Pier in his memory, placing his story within the broader history of people lost from Maine’s working waterfront. The remembrance emphasized that those lost at sea were not simply case names or dates; they were fathers, loved ones, friends, children, and people who helped shape the community. Raymond Hodgkins’ case remains the story of a skilled fisherman who went out aboard Joshua’s Delight, encountered worsening conditions while working offshore, failed to return to port, and left behind a family and community still carrying his memory with love, grief, and unanswered questions.Last Seen: May 1, 1990
