Articles
From the Deck: Look, Daddy, A Pirate Ship!
The replica of HMS Bounty lies on the railway at Boothbay Harbor. To any child and to many who should know better, any square rigged ship is a “pirate ship” with its romantic associations of the tropical seas, secret hideaways, and swaggering rascals, patch on eye, wooden leg, cutlass and rum bottle in hand. Actually,
From the Deck: DISCOVERY
I stepped into a shop at The Boothbay Harbor Shipyard and came short up against what I took at first for a very large vessel in frame. She was heavily built of double-sawed 6″x6″ frames set close together. The two halves of each frame were held together with locust treenails, wooden pegs, a tip-off that
From the Deck: A Venerable Maine shipyard transforms itself
Sample’s Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor has become Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, owned by Terry McClinch with David Stinson as General Manager. The yard is specializing in the building, storing, restoration and repair of wooden vessels of whatever size and rig. The yard crew is being augmented by younger people eager to learn the shipwright’s trade through
First Lesson
My first “student” of the week aboard our Friendship sloop EASTWARD was George, a pleasant, enthusiastic young man who had been sailing on other people’s boats and was eager to learn. He paid attention to the direction of the wind and the luff of the mainsail and soon got the feel of the wheel. Sam
From the Deck – Two Old Guys
The skipper had held a six-passenger Coast Guard license for over 50 years and had sailed day parties and cruising parties in his Friendship sloop. In one boat or another, he had cruised from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to St. John in the Bay of Fundy. He is now sailing a neat little
Land Trust plans historic boat festival
The Boothbay Region Land Trust will host the 2005 Boat Builders Festival on Sunday, August 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, free for children under 12. Working Waterfront columnist Roger Duncan, an East Boothbay resident, described last year’s version of this show this way, in part: “The 2004 First
From the Deck: Working Together
Maine boat building is big business, and it can be bigger. It now brings in over $650 million a year and it can do better. Thus far, most boats built in Maine are sold in New England. Some are sold in other states and only a few are sold internationally. Each builder does his own
From The Deck – The Pretty Pinnace Virginia and Maine’s First Colony
2007 will be the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River and the building of Maine’s first ship, VIRGINIA. In celebration, Maine’s First Ship will build, launch and sail a reconstruction of VIRGINIA at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, beginning this fall. This article tells
From the Deck – Jackpot or Dead Loss
In 1793, when the new United States had barely got its sea legs, France declared war on England. Both countries were so busy fighting each other by land and by sea that they had not the men or resources to produce the food and supplies they needed. Neutral United States could supply both combatants and
From The Deck – December
The sun is low, the day is short, and it is too rough to haul. The stove is warm, the roof is tight and there is nothing to do but knit bait bags and yarn about summer days. I think of cruising way down east and cheery people whose words I can never forget. Mary