April 2011 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. LAURA B. Gets Relaunched from Northend Shipyard Continued from Page 1.
you want to go to school on a ship?’ and I said, ‘Sure.’
His high school was the JOHN W. BROWN. He said, “She was a World War II liberty ship and she was designed as a troop transport. I graduated in ’61 from there and went to sea, I was with Mobil oil for a couple of years. I was on tankers and I remember I was in the Cuban blockade. Then I went down south. I was supposed to catch a ship, but when I got down and they gave the ship to somebody else. I waited around there for a while and I went down and got a job on a shrimp boat for about three months. I then worked for a towing company and did that for about three years. Then I got married and the next thing I know I’m up here. That put me right on the beach, both anchors.” When young, Jim had learned some construction. When he arrived at Port Clyde he began working on the Ocean House Hotel, which he owned. It was ready to fall down and he jacked it up and made the necessary repairs. He added, “We then owned the Seaside Inn and I actually used these like dominoes to pay the bank so I could make a mortgage when I bought the Monhegan Boat Line. They wouldn’t give me a mortgage at first and I didn’t understand why. They didn’t think I was a maritime person, they thought I was a hotel guy.” Andrew has followed in his father’s footsteps. He had worked on the boats from an early age too. He went to Maine Maritime Academy and graduated from there in 1992. He added, “I heard all the stories on the boats going back and fourth about going to sea, the money and the good times. I graduated from Maine Maritime, but it was the recession so it was hard to get a job. I ended up down in the oil fields on supply boats. I did that for about a year or two, then I got a job for a steamship company on tankers and did that for about 10 years. The same story as him, I met a girl, got married and had to come ashore in 2003. This looked pretty appealing and just jumped in. We, me, my wife and my sister, started to take over then.”
Andrew’s brother, David is also a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy and is still shipping.
The origin of the boat line can be traced back to the early 1900s and Captain Isaac E. Archibald. Captain Archibald was born at Geysboro, Nova Scotia and after the death of his father, his mother moved to Deer Isle. Like all young men on the Island he went fishing and did this for about 20 years. His first boat was the sloop NEREID, built on Matinicus. He then purchased his first steamer, GEORGIA, which he used as a lobster smack. As his business grew he found he needed a bigger vessel and he swapped GEORGIA for the steamer JESSIE. When the “no lobster packing” law was passed he entered into the passenger and freight business from Rockland, Port Clyde to Friendship. Business grew and he replaced JESSIE with SILVER STAR and added Round Pond and Boothbay to his route. The business continued to grow and SILVER STAR was replaced by MERRYCONEAG. This steamer could not handle the volume of passengers and freight so he added the MINEOLA, which was built at Port Clyde in 1900. Then in 1903 he had built MONHEGAN at the Cobb-Butler yard in Rockland to assist his other two steamers. About 1905 or 1906 he accepted an offer from the Eastern Steamship Company and he remained on as captain of MONHEGAN for several months. He left the Eastern Steamship Company and had Cobb-Butler of Rockland build him the steamer MAY ARCHER. She was used to take construction supplies out to Monhegan from Boothbay for the Island Inn in 1907. He then obtained the mail contract for Monhegan and added Thomaston to his route. Due to new requirements Captain Archibald was forced to sell his boats and purchase the GOV. DOUGLASS. It was not very many years later he sold the line to Captain Starrett. After selling the business he began a lumber business in Thomaston. When the Rockland to Portland run was stopped in 1917 MONHEGAN was sold. Her end would come at Providence, RI in the 1938 hurricane.
Complete Yacht Service in the Maine Tradition
NEREID made the run from Thomaston to Monhegan under Captain Earle Starrett. She was taken over by the Government during World War II and was replaced by the new MONHEGAN in 1942.
LAURA B. ran the route by herself until the Barstows added the ELIZABETH ANN in 1995. She is roughly the same dimensions, but can carry an additional 54 passengers. Jim added, “The hull was built down in Biddeford and then we had it brought up to Stonington to be finished at Billing’s. Unlike the LAURA B., everybody is enclosed and the stern and bow are open so you can go out and get some air.”
LAURA B. and ELIZABETH ANN have competition from the Hardy Boat out of New Harbor. They are a little close for those
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coming from the west’ard, but only operate in the summer months. This has forced the Barstows to streamline and spend more money on advertising. They have also started using social media to reach customers. As Andrew says, “It is constantly changing, that is the way it is and competition is good.
Jim no longer runs the boat, leaving it in the capable hands of his son, daughter and daughter-in-law. So if you are looking to head out to Monhegan go on board a classic LAURA B., who is now ready for another 20 plus years of service before she needs major work again.
Boothbay Region Boatyard stands on a long tradition of
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brby.com • VHF Channel 9 Boothbay Harbor, Maine 207.633.7440 •
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