Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS September 2010 Beals Island Reminiscences By Arthur S. Woodward
It is January 2004 and I’m sitting in our home here in Braintree, Massachusetts. I am looking at a picture and reminiscing about Beals in the 1940s. The picture is the black and white one taken by John J. Riley, who used to work in the Merrill Trust in Jonesport. It’s an aerial view from over the Reach looking over Beals toward the southeast. It is a familiar picture, and it was used in at least the 1950 issue of the BHS “Ocean Breeze”. The shot encompasses the northerly part of Beals Island from Uncle Charles Henry Beal’s/Osmond Kelley’s wharf around to the Kelley Farm and from the Boat Cove on Great Wass Island around past Andrew Alley’s Point and on around the shore past the Back Field. In the distance is Head Harbor Island and some of the other islands in Eastern Bay. From the looks of the boats, wharves, roads, houses, boat shops, and other points, I believe the picture was taken on a Sunday afternoon in the spring of the year in around 1947 or 1948. Many lobster boats are on their moorings and there is no evidence of work being done. A lot of boats are hauled up and it appears the deciduous trees don’t have their leaves. There is a lobster smack tied up at Uncle Jerome (JP) Alley’s/Jerome Crowley’s wharf and it could be Dad’s (Vernal) smack “Pauline McLoon” in for spring painting. The picture was taken before we lengthened Dad’s wharf and before the Town Ferry wharf was built. Riley Beal and Sons had not built the ways on Perio’s Point where they built the lobster smack “Arthur S. Woodward” (1948 – 49), and the sardine carriers “Maine Queen”, “Bofisco”, and “Betsy and Sally”, all sixty feet long, or more. Moored in Alley’s Bay, off of where the schooner “Abbie C. Stubbs” died, is what I believe to be the sardine boat
“Double Eagle”, before she was taken to Nova Scotia by Milford and Clyde Peabody to be rebuilt into a Novi model double ender. The town flagpole is shown standing in its small triangular patch of grass at the intersection near the sou’west corner of the cemetery. The roads in town do not appear to be tarred. The first tarred road was done, as I remember, when I was in high school, so that helps date the picture before 1950. The State of Maine had a number of island communities. Several still exist as being completely separated from the mainland by water. Beals was one of those totally separate island communities. Physically, though, in 1958 the Jonesport - Beals bridge connected Beals to the mainland and made tremendous differences in the style of life in Beals. For a few years (from early 1950s) we had a car ferry that ran across the Reach, from about where the bridge fill in Jonesport is now to about where the Beals end of the bridge is. We drove on ramps on and off the decked scow, which was powered by a former lobster boat lashed on for propulsion and navigation, from and onto the beaches (tide and weather permitting). Prior to the town car ferry we had passenger ferries run by Uriah Beal, George Beal, and the Town of Beals, to name some. In the days of the picture there were only a very few motor vehicles on the island. There were maybe five or six trucks and a car or two. The people who owned cars usually kept them garaged in Jonesport, which meant, obviously, when you needed your car you had to go across the Reach in a power boat or row across, and then reverse the process when you came home. Cars and trucks that were on Beals had come across the Reach on the deck of a lobster smack or sardine boat from a wharf in Jonesport to a wharf on Beals
on the high water, or in an open scow from beach to beach. The small number of vehicles in town was a good thing for kids, as we had the roads mostly to ourselves for sliding in the winter. The Back Hill, Jerome’s Hill, and the hill down by our house were some favorites for sliding. Some ventured to Deep Cove Hill and Mud Hole Hill. Watching for traffic wasn’t much of a problem when playing marbles, hop scotch, or riding bikes, either. And, speaking of Mud Hole Hill, it was a significant achievement when you had climbed it on your bike for the first time! The native tribesman, Perio, became famous and the bald rock and the point were named for him because legend has it he could run up the steep side of the rock. To my knowledge, the
first kid to ride up Mud Hole Hill never received any long lasting recognition, however.
The Beals young people were very competitive, then as now. We competed in numerous activities, including the fastest bike, fastest play boat, best kite, fastest runner, best hitter in baseball, fastest sled, best decorated bike in the parade, fastest rower, best shot with a basketball, best rank in school, best attendance, best basketball team, best band, best in speaking contests and other interscholastic competitions, and so on. This came naturally to us, as older people had the same good-natured competitive drive. Lobster boat racing, whether impromptu races when two boats
Work Continues on Painting the Hull
SATURN sitting at a dock in Bangor fall 2008.
Spring is coming fast and the crew is getting ready to get back to work. Last year Rob Crone and Jon Johansen got a lot done, namely the bow, some of the main deck and engineering systems. Our major concern this year will be the hull, above and below the waterline, main and boat decks, stack, stern and engineering work. We are now sitting at Kustom Steel in Brewer where work has been progressing very well. SATURN is a 117-foot railroad tug built as the BERN for the Reading Railroad in 1907. She is one of the last railroad tugs in existence and is being saved for future generations to enjoy. For further information : (207) 223-8846 or to join the Friends of SATURN, send a check for $25 or more to P.O. Box 710, Winterport, ME 04496.
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