Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS February 2011 THE OLD ROUND STERN BOAT By Arthur S. Woodward
“Will you tow my boat to Hancock for me?” That was the question the fellow from Hancock Point asked Dad. Of course, Dad said he would.
The boat was a Jonesport model with a torpedo (round) stern. She was one of the larger ones, maybe 37 or 38 feet long, with a trunk cabin. She was getting up in years. I suppose she was built in Jonesport. I don’t remember who had owned her around home, but somehow I seem to recall that a fellow from Eastern Harbor had her. In any case, she was on a mooring in Barney’s Cove, Beals, near our wharf and near where our smack mooring was, waiting for the day to come when she’d be taken in tow and towed to her new home in Hancock. This would be circa early 1950s.
In the summer and fall it was typical for Dad (Vernal) to take loads of lobsters from Beals to Consolidated lobster pounds in South Hancock three trips a week, in our lobster smack, the ARTHUR S. WOOD- WARD. He bought lobsters from many ûshermen so we could have 14,000-16,000 pounds each trip. Many times it was the two of us making the 80 mile round trips, like this particular day.
Well, the day came when the old round stern boat would leave Moosabec Reach for the last time and be towed to Hancock, some 40 miles away. The day dawned very pretty and not much wind. It was a beautiful day, or, as we’d say, a pretty chance.
Early in the morning we loaded the smack at our lobster car moored off the shore in the Reach, and went out to get the old boat. We went along side of the boat and rigged a bridle on her bow, tied on our hawser (towline), cast off her mooring, and paid out a lot of hawser
so she’d have plenty of scope. We started ahead slowly and took up the slack on the towline. She started moving right along be- hind us. We had a schedule to keep at the pound, so we needed to make close to our usual 10 knots so as to be on time in Hancock, four hours from home.
We headed up the Reach with the boat in tow. At ûrst she came along quite well. We’d check on her frequently by looking back at her from the after pilothouse window. Then it happened... We looked out of the window and she was nowhere to be seen! Quick thoughts came to us: Had we parted the hawser? Had she sunk? Where was she? Quickly stepping out of the pilot house doors and looking back we saw her, almost up along side of the smack and way off to one side. In a few minutes we looked out where we’d seen her and she was gone! She’d ranged all the way across the stern behind us and was way out on the other side. We knew what she was doing so we just kept checking on her, look- ing back to one side or the other. As typical of Jonesport models she had a deep forefoot and she was heavy. She’d been in the water quite a while. So, instead of lifting, like a dory or skiff would, she was being towed from her bit and that tended to pull her bow down and her deep forefoot dug in and had her swerve from side to side. She’d swing and horse up until the hawser fetched her up and swung her back the other way. So there we went to the west’ard, the smack making about 10 knots with the old round stern boat right along with us on our tow line, horsing up on one side of the smack and then the other. It was almost as if she were racing with us. We passed Nash’s Island Light, Petit Manan Light, Schoodic Point, and headed across the mouth of
Frenchman’s Bay and past Egg Rock Light, to go into Bar Harbor to fuel up.
We went into Bar Harbor where we found a mooring that wasn’t being used right then, so we shortened our tow and brought the old boat up to the mooring and made her fast there while we went into the municipal pier and fueled up with diesel fuel from an oil truck on the wharf.
Fueling completed, we went back out in the harbor, cast the old boat off from the mooring, and resumed our tow. We saw that the boat was leaking some when we picked her up again, as she was somewhat down by the bow. We had about ûve more miles to go and a schedule to keep, so we resumed our normal speed up Frenchman’s Bay toward Hancock Point where we’d drop the boat off with her new owner. The boat’s owner saw us coming up the bay and rowed out from Hancock Point to meet us. We got up to him and slowed down and stopped and passed our tow off to him.
As I recall, he seemed very happy to get
the boat delivered to him. He took her in tow and headed for shore, where I expect he grounded her out to ûnd and ûx the leak. We didn’t see her again after that. The Old Jonesporter had a new home in Hancock. We then went on up in the Skillings River to the lobster pounds where we unloaded and headed back home.
There is historical signiûcance to this story. There were many Jonesport model boats with round (torpedo) sterns built in Jonesport and Beals over a span of some 15- 20 years in the 1920s and 30s. Gradually they went out of service, were sold away, left to die on shores, or wrecked. They were forerun- ners of boats to come and served the ûshermen very well. They were also famous for their speed and racing capabilities. The Old Round Stern Boat that we towed out of the Reach and away to the west’ard that pretty summer day was, as far as I know, the last one of her kind to leave the Reach. Will you tow my boat to Hancock for me? Sure... Here she is.
By Arthur S. Woodward The ARTHUR S. WOODWARD racing the SATELLITE in 1953.
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