Decades ago the tradewinds blew and brought ashore an adventurous couple of spirits from Alaska, at least that’s what I heard.
From the humble origins of the existing restaurant, they started building and collection nautical gems to add to the “decor” of the restaurant and perhaps form some kind of fortifications – old boats, channel markers, anchors and other flotsom and jetsum. Lumber was salvaged from the local landfill and repurposed as building material for the expansions of a living space above the restaurant.
A notable feature of the premises was a 40-foot tower/lighthouse built by Robert Cousins within the existing footprint of the preexisting restaurant/residence.
Nemo’s quickly become a favorite waterhole for locals and many wild nights occurred. I recall hearing one story of when the owner and a few drinking buddies got the idea to drive down to Foxwoods Casino at about 1am. They got as far as Bangor before half of them passed out and decided it might be better to simply go home and sleep it off.
The fire destroyed Cap’n Nemo’s and an attached residence on the night of Dec. 4, 2013.
Robert and Judy Cousins, owners of Cap’n Nemo’s restaurant in Tremont, filed a suit that accused the department and the firefighters of intentionally allowing their building to burn down in December 2013. No doubt many a volunteer fire driving by this ramshackle building with all of the debris surrounding it as decoration thought it would indeed burn down one day. But after five years, the Cousins lost their lawsuit.
Mr. and Mrs. Cousins, who were serving as their own attorneys pro-se, opted not to retain an expert witness. That failure proved to be fatal to their case. The magistrate concluded that without expert testimony, the Cousinses were unable to rebut the testimony of Augusta Fire Chief Roger Audette, who served as an expert witness for the defense. The lack of an expert impacted the negligence counts, the emotional distress counts, and even the constitutional due process counts.
https://www.firelawblog.com/2018/06/28/magistrate-recommends-dismissal-of-remaining-counts-in-capn-nemos-case/
I don’t kn0w what happened to Nemo’s after 2015. Looks like they had started to pour concrete for a new building without permission and the town put a stop to it. Online listings say the restaurant is permanently closed.
