Articles
From the Deck: Caught Down
aving an anchor, a trap, or a drag caught down can be anything from an annoyance to a challenge to a joke to a tragedy. Sometimes a mere twitch on the line from another direction will do it, and the trap comes dripping to the rail loaded with lobsters. We should be so lucky! I
From the Deck: Fog Run
A log book was very useful to a coastwise cruiser before the invention of radar and GPS as a record of courses steered and distances run. Should fog shut down, he can retrace his steps on the chart and at least give a good guess as to his position. Capt. Hugh Williams in 24-foot Helen
From the Deck: 1938
Hugh Williams and I, aged 22, after a summer in charge of the nautical program at a co-ed summer camp and a year at college, planned a cruising program for boys. Hugh had a quite fast and able 26-foot sloop, Helen G., with no engine but three bunks. I had Dorothy, a handsome 28-foot gaff-headed
From the Deck: Boatbuilders Festival
In East Boothbay on July 28, to music by bagpipes and bands, was held the annual Boatbuilders’ Festival. Here was gathered a diverse assembly of small boats, several large boats afloat, and many instructive exhibits. The display of so much design talent and craftsmanship was overwhelming. For example, there was a 14-foot skiff, shining in
From the Deck: New Blood for an Old Class
New blood is flowing for an old class of boats. David Nutt is building two new Boothbay Harbor One Designs at his shop in Edgecomb, Maine. These lovely boats were designed by Geerd Hendel in 1937 for the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club. The Club wanted a family boat, stiff enough to stand up to a
From the Deck: Our Maritime Heritage
I have read and written too much of our maritime heritage dredged out of books, models and replicas, tales of seamen long dead and ships rotted away. Our maritime heritage is being created by our own friends in their own vessels day by day. The people we know are as brave, hardy and skillful as
Old Old Boats
In the second week in January, a replica of a 17th century ketch, Discovery, left Boothbay Harbor with a fair wind, spreading a wide fan of white water ahead of her bluff blows. She was a new boat built by the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. Her upper spars had been lashed on deck and her stout
An American Good Samaritan
The American, Squanto, was born in the late 1500s in the village of Patuxet on Cape Cod Bay, later named by the English Plymouth, Massachusetts. Lacking written records, we may assume that he grew up there learning to catch fish, plant corn, hunt deer, ducks and turkeys and other wild game. His people often traveled
From the Deck: DISCOVERY 1607
I stepped into the shop of The Boothbay Harbor Shipyard to see how their replica of DISCOVERY was coming on. I walked around her at floor level. She looked massive with double-sawn frames of angelique and two-inch planking of wana. She is partly planked from the deck down and from the garboards up. I could
From the Deck:Celebrating the Working Waterfront
“Variety” is the word for the BoatBuilder’s Festival celebrated in East Boothbay on August 6. The day was not long enough to visit every craft in this festival and limited space prevents listing each here, but we can illustrate the variety. To start with the big vessels, we saw Washburn & Doughty’s big steel tug,