Many a child comes back with arts and crafts from summer camp, but few can say his or her creation provides a link to a community’s history. On August 25, as a group of Cranberry Isles children launched a skiff they had built, they also helped reconnect the community to its boatbuilding legacy.
For 10 weeks, the children labored on the boat as part of the Islesford Boatworks program that has been helping kids build boats on the island since 2005. But this year, the non profit organization committed to build a boat designed by Arthur “Chummy” Spurling, the last boat-builder on the island. The skiff was christened the Cora after Spurling’s wife, Cora Fernald.
Spurling is considered a boatbuilding legend, even in a region that boasts boatbuilding heavyweights. Gail Grandgent, vice-president of the Islesford Historical Society, said building the Cora using Spurling’s design helped to heighten interest in the project on the island for both summer and year-round residents.
“It pulled all kinds of people together,” Grandgent said.
In past years, coordinators for the project picked less ambitious boat designs, ones that could more easily be completed by inexperienced children in 10 weeks. Islesford Boatworks executive director Brendan Ravenhill had approached Southwest Harbor boat-builder Ralph Stanley about attempting the Cora in the past, but Stanley told him it was too complicated.
But this year, adult volunteers spent three weeks doing complicated prep work for the boat before the children began the program. Area boat-builders provided the plans and molds for making the Cora, as well. Because of the combined efforts, the children were able to tackle the ambitious design, said Ravenhill.
“From day one, the kids were engaged in boatbuilding,” he said.
The program was founded by Ravenhill and his siblings after he worked on a similar program in New York. There is a joy in helping children learn how to craft something with their own hands, said longtime program volunteer Peyton Eggleston.
“A little seven-year old [graduate of the program] recently came up to me and asked, ‘Can I borrow a spokeshave? I have a handle that is kind of rough,” said Eggleston. “The kids just get really comfortable with tools.”
The excitement of building a boat is evident in the journals the children kept. The entries posted on the Islesford Boatworks website are filled with both the details and elation of attaching the ribs of the boat that day. One child began an entry with: “Jokes! Ribs! Oars! Sharpening! FUN!”
And, said Eggleston, they feel a sense of pride in their craftsmanship, especially on the day of the launch. The children love to show off their work to the adults and examine the past boats built in the program, he said.
“They stay there the whole afternoon,” Eggleston said. “There is a feeling of ownership.”
A few days later, the boat is auctioned off to raise money for the program. This year, the Cora sold for $10,000. The program costs about $30,000, raised by grants, donations and the auction proceeds.
The program also helps maintain the island’s culture of a working waterfront, said Eggleston. He and other volunteers hope that children who work in the program might feel a calling to become shipbuilders an adults. One teenage participant in the program is now building boats independently, said Eggleston.
“It ties the island itself to the water,” Eggleston said.
The Cranberries have a rich history of boatbuilding, said Grandgent. It was a thriving port for repairs in the 17th and 18th centuries. The bay was sheltered, with a lifesaving station nearby, making the island a favorite stopover for repairs for the fishing and shipping fleets in the age of sail.
“They say you could walk from one island to the other across the decks,” Grandgent said.
Shipbuilding declined on the islands when ships switched over to steam and metal, but it experienced a resurgence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the age of the Mount Desert Island rusticators. Island boat-builders built basic skiffs for lobstermen and then built similar boats with fancier design for summer residents. At the time Spurling designed the Cora, he charged lobstermen $50 a boat and summer residents $75 a boat.
“He was always so apologetic for charging so much,” said Eggleston.
The boatbuilding industry went dormant the day Spurling died in 1975 at the age of 102. But Islesford Boatworks volunteers hope the summer projects might rekindle interest in the craft among the newest generation of islanders. And Spurling’s work lives on in a new skiff and the muscle memory of a band of young boat-builders.
Craig Idelbrook is a freelance writer.