January 2012 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. GUNDALOW PISCATAQUA LAUNCHED AT PEIRCE ISLAND


PORTSMOUTH, NH: After nine months of hard work, flying sawdust, hundreds of tree- nails, gallons of paint and sealant, miles of cotton and hemp oakum – the new gundalow under construction at the Puddle Dock Ship- yard on Strawbery Banke has been launch and named PISCATAQUA. “This was the first wooden boat launched out of Ports- mouth in nearly thirty years,” remarked Ex- ecutive Director Molly Bolster. “Over three hundred years of shipbuilding are part of our local history, and we are thrilled to continue that legacy.”


York resident and Master Shipwright Paul E. Rollins, Sr., has worked with a crew of boat builders and volunteers since April to build the 64-foot long, 18-foot wide tradi- tional wooden sailing vessel. Additional work will be carried out on-shore and on the boat through the winter to be ready for public sails next spring. The mast, when completed early next year, will stand at twenty feet tall, with a 65-foot yard. Over 1,000 square feet of sail will power the new boat, and when needed, a 200-hp diesel engine will help move it along the rivers. Licensed by the US Coast Guard for up to 49 passengers, the new gundalow will draw about 2½ feet. Also from the State of Maine was Nick Brown, who has been a boatbuilder for more than 25 years. He is a former tugboat captain and was an original crew member of the gundalow CAPTAIN EDWARD H. ADAMS.


In early December, the shipyard cover was dismantled to allow for the boat to be transferred from the shipyard by profes- sional house movers to the launch site at


Peirce Island. On Saturday 10 December, the public was invited to witness history in the making as the gundalow built in Portsmouth was launched into the Piscataqua River off of Peirce Island, co-sponsored by Appledore Real Estate, Piscataqua Savings Bank, RBC Wealth Management, and the Portsmouth Recreation Department. Ceremonies began at 1030 hours with official remarks, followed by the naming of the new boat and the launch at 1100. The new gundalow was then towed by Steve Root, Portsmouth Harbor Towing to Prescott Park by Sheafe Warehouse and rafted next to the Gundalow CAPTAIN ED- WARD H. ADAMS, launched twenty-nine years ago. Tours of both the new and vintage gundalow were available for Gundalow Com- pany members only due to limited capacity. In-kind partners for the launching include CMA Engineers, Friends of South End, Geddes Building Movers, PPMTV, Ports- mouth Harbor Towing, Prescott Park, and Strawbery Banke.


Another person from the State of Maine involved with this project was Tom Allen, who’s company, Kittery Point Yacht Yard, installed the engine. He said that the sea trials on Monday 12 December went extremely well. He said that PISCATAQUA did approxi- mately 10 knots, turned within two boat lengths and backed down effectively. He said that this exceeded everyone’s expectations. The Gundalow Company: Since 2002, the non-profit Gundalow Company has used the CAPTAIN EDWARD H. ADAMS – a replica modeled after the last gundalow to carry cargo on the bay – to provide “dockside” programs to more than 100,000


GIFFY FULL ON BOATBUILDERS Continued from Page 6.


James yard.


Full’s first experience coming to Maine was just after World War II. He said, “It was on a big yacht that had had new decks and a new engine room put in her at Samples. She was VALKYRIE, a 72 foot ketch. She had been built for people up in Cranberry Island, one of the original Saltonstall family. She was originally called the ARABELLA. A beautiful sailing boat, I loved that boat. She was lost south of Bermuda.”


Full worked for one family for almost 24 years. They had a Goudy & Stevens built yawl for 11 years and then we had a sailing motorsailer built at Hodgdons. “I moved up there before the boat was ever started,” said Full “I more or less worked at the yard gratis all of the time that she was being built. In fact, I was Sonny Hodgdon’s assistant for laying the boat down. There was no day you don’t learn something out of it. Sonny and I were on


The launching of the gundalow PISCATAQUA on 10 December Photo Credits: Ralph Morang


visitors. Recognizing the need to get stu- dents of all ages to genuinely connect with their rivers and bay, the Gundalow Company has built this new sailing gundalow that will begin tours for the public, school groups and private charters in late Spring 2012. For cen- turies, gundalows connected up-river sea- coast communities with Portsmouth, the region’s seaport and primary market town. Harnessing the wind and riding the tide, gundalows moved bricks, hay, firewood, and goods crucial to the economy and everyday life. The Gundalow Company takes its inspi- ration from the vital role of those historic gundalows, vessels unique to the Piscataqua Maritime Region. The educational purpose of this new gundalow is as important for the future as its predecessors were for the past.


very good terms and we got along good, had a beautiful boat built, and met a lot of nice guys. Sonny had a terrific crew of workmen there.


“There are some funny stories that go with it though,” continued Full. “When Goudy & Stevens and Hodgdon Brothers teamed up to build the minesweepers the yards were side-by-side. There was a brook between the two yards and they built a little wooden bridge so you could just walk across this bridge into the other yard. Well up inside that road was a little tidal sawmill, but I guess there was kind of a little bit hard feelings there of some sort. When they built that bridge he put up a big ruckus over it. He said that it interfered with his waterway rights to have a small vessel come up to his mill and get lumber or discharge lumber. So they made it a draw bridge. Once a year to keep that legal, he had to have a vessel come up through. He would


Continued Page 8.


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For more information, details of the launch- ing, or to become a volunteer, www.gundalow.org, info@gundalow.org or 603-433-9505.


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