February 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 21. Newburyport's Custom House Maritime Museum Continued from Page 6.


the Museum is that of a journal kept by a woman who went to sea with her husband. Michael stated, “She had a dream of sailing the seas, but as a young woman the opportu- nity for her to do that were not as pronounced as they were for a young man. However, the man she married was a ship captain and she went with him on a trip, which they thought was going to be a milk run from Liverpool and back, but while in England they had the opportunity to carry a cargo to India, so the voyage turned into 2½ years. There are over 140 pages of meticulously handwritten entries. This woman could tell a story and she kept good notes about what she experienced. It reveals so many things that are not available in ships logs and you are seeing the world through the eyes of a woman who is fulfi lling her life’s dream. She came back, and on her next trip she took her daughter and went halfway around the world returning just before the Civil War.” The Custom House Maritime Museum is a relatively new museum having been founded in 1975 so they will be celebrating their 40th


anniversary this year. Perhaps one of their most valuable artifacts, is the New- buryport Custom House itself, which was a federal structure built of Rockport (Massa- chusetts) granite. Customs meant a lot to this new country and Newburyport contributed immensely to its economic start. Michael added, “The backbone of our collection,


essentially comes from the Marine Society of Newburyport. The Marine Society went out of business in 1905 or 1906. Newburyp- ort had its peak custom collections in 1876, but after that it began to gradually descend and by the late 1870s many had recognized they are on the downhill run. Wood was no longer the prime material for building ships, iron was and steel soon would be. Also the magnitude and size of ships exceeded the capacity of the mouth of the river so shallow ports like Newburyport and Salem went on the decline and the deep water ports like New York, Boston and Philadelphia all went on the ascent. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that something was done. This building was sold off in 1912. My understanding was it was purchased by a bank who then leased it to a company that used it as a shoe factory. In 1905 or 1906, the Marine Society offi - cially went out of business, but there was still a number of captains and they worked an arrangement with the historical society of old Newbury whereby, they gifted to the historical society all of their curiosities that they had been collecting for decades. When this Museum opened in 1975 the historical society did one of the most gracious things any Museum could do, with all they had in their collection they knew that they could never display it all and with the opening of a maritime museum they loaned the Marine Society’s collection and shortly after gifted it to the Custom House Maritime Museum, largely so the public could actually see it.”


Continued from Page 19.


overhead. Ads that had more fl esh involved than attention to the beauty or none of the vessel being fl ogged. Took a couple of vis- its to the shop before we fi nally made the commitment for what seemed like a minis- cule 1” x 2” scaled down drawing done by local architect Richard Homer of the Wil- bur 38. Alex was right.


Until that particular ad contract, I thought our boats might just be popular in New England and down into Long Island Sound but that would probably be the limit. We’d advertised in “National Fisherman” out of Portland, “Commercial Fisheries” out of Rockland, and a few ads in “Sound- ings,” but this was the fi rst in a major boat- ing publication. Looking back at this easily overlooked ad, this is where it all started, our entre’ to the pleasure boat, smaller yacht industry. I don’t recall just how long we kept that size ad in “Yachting” (chang- ing only to real boat pictures), don’t recall we ever went any larger except for perhaps when an article would be done on a new boat we’d launched or a new model coming on line. Never would have believed anyone would have even noticed it. However, the old saw “If you don’t advertise nothing happens” rang true.


From the advertisement and increased boat sales another sidebar began to unfold. Articles in the magazines. Other publi- cations such as “Power and Motoryacht”, “Boating”, “Rudder”, “Power and Moto- ryacht” began to notice us and asked to be called if we were doing something of in- terest, had a new model coming out, or a boat for a well-known individual. Course, a subtle hint would often be dropped an ad might help grease the skids a bit. And that was okay. Wasn’t long but one of “Yachting’s”s writers, Jack Smith, called, said he’d heard we were doing a boat for Curtis Blake, owner with his brother of “Friendly Ice Cream”. Could he do an article. Jack would come up from New York when the boat, a


Newman 46’ named ANALOKIN (Curt had made up the name but anyone would think it an Indian word) was completed, bring a photographer and collect the information as well as an interview with Curt for the ar- ticle. Launching was on time, though we had work to fi nish, and by midsummer ev- erything was ready. Article was written and that fall appeared in the magazine. There for the fi rst time, completely taking me by surprise, was the term “lobster-yacht”. Immediate reaction was not a good one. I called Jack and gave him “gentle hell” thinking all the hard work we’d done, try- ing for fi ne woodwork, top fi ttings, com- fortability, and beauty would be for naught. We had landed, with this one description, in what I felt was a “touted up” workboat category, not for a second taking anything away from the gorgeous lines of Maine lob- sterboats. However, as time passed the term came to be accepted and was not a handicap at all.


Michael explained, “Our purpose really is to preserve, to protect and to talk about and provide information and interpret Newburyport’s maritime heritage. We are in the storytelling business. We have focused mostly on what narratives we can discover and then carry out an exhibit, demonstration and information on it. We change exhibits out quite a bit to keep things fresh. We have been producing over the last four years now an average of fi ve exhibitions a year. Last year all the exhibits were dedicated to the 250th


anniversary of Newburyport’s found-


ing. This year we have a carryover in which we tell the story of what this town was like about a century after it fi rst separated from Newbury.”


The museum consists of seven galleries and they use a couple of those galleries for change-out exhibits. They have a Coast Guard room, which tells the story of New- buryport as the birthplace of the Coast Guard. “Later this month we will come upon the centennial of the formation of what is known as the Coast Guard today,” explained Michael. “The Coast Guard was formed when Congress combined the Rev- enue Cutter Service with the Life-saving Service in 1915. In 1939 the Lighthouse Service, along with the light ships, were incorporated and at the beginning of World War II the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Certifi cation was added and there you have the main mission of the Coast Guard today. The earliest group of the original Coast


Maine boat, let’s give it a try.” Half way down Long Island Sound, water was piling up around us in towers. “FINS” had only the fl ying bridge station. Budd looks over at me and from under his yellow slicker hood says, “I wonder why we’re the only boat out here today?”


By the time we made Norwalk, could have poured water out of our foul weather gear.


Wasn’t long after we’d found our lo- cation and word had gotten around of our getting in despite the day’s storm than on- lookers began to gather and one was a writ- er from “Boating.” Said he’d like to do an article after the show. Budd agreed to take him out from Three Mile. Pictures came out great so “Boating” decided to use her on the cover that month. Didn’t do a bit of harm to our sales nor our pride and the really neat


Another old time publication I used to enjoy working with and one which would mention the company quite often was “Boating” magazine. In 1977, we fi nished a Newman 36, FINS, for Budd and Judy Levinson of Long Island, New York. It was a busy year for us. Had barely taken res- idence in the new shop and by the end of the year eight boats had gone through the door and into the water. We were about a month past launch date. Budd allowed it was time to get FINS in the water, “All the local restaurants and the coffee shop know Judy and I on a fi rst name basis.” he said with a twinkle in his eye. We fi nally fi n- ished FINS, launched her to much fanfare, damned near ran into the “Boathouse” dock in Manset when we put her in gear. Shift control had the forward on the reverse side. Budd and I took her for a memorable ride to the Norwalk Boat Show that fall from Three Mile Harbor home. Looking out the harbor, weather didn’t look too bad. Budd had checked the report, calling for small craft warnings. Either we head- ed out or no boat show. “What the hell,


Guard goes back to the Revenue Marine which was essentially the enforcement bu- reau that was formed to support the custom houses. Newburyport was one of the ten original custom districts started by Alexan- der Hamilton. The 13 independent colonies got together and negotiated with Hamilton what would be the spectrum of taxation that the federal government would have. These colonies considered themselves sovereign entities and they didn’t want to give up any of it. For Newburyport to be one of those ten original customs districts tells you the importance of the commerce that was here. If you are going to collect customs and du- ties and prevent smuggling you are going to need resources. With the establishment of the Revenue Marine, Congress appropri- ated funds for ten revenue cutters. The very fi rst one was built here in Newburyport, the MASSACHUSETTS. After the Civil War the Revenue Marine became known as the Revenue Cutter Service.”


They also have a gallery covering life-saving and shipwrecks, another on shipbuilding and then one on portraits and artwork of the important vessels and people that came from Newburyport.


If you love maritime history do not miss visiting the Custom House Maritime Muse- um in the centre of Newburyport, right on the water and do not be surprised if you fi nd some ties to the State of Maine’s maritime heritage.


70s Memories - The Oh Ohs


part there were no “scantily clads” hanging off the bow rail. FINS was suffi ciently eye catching in her own right.


The advertising salesmen were a great bunch of guys. And, their often generous expense accounts weren’t too bad either. Always fun to sit down with them, fi nd out what was going on in the industry, catch up on some gossip. I’ve thought over the years that a few just simply enjoyed com- ing to Maine. Couldn’t have been terribly lucrative, what with the distance between coastal towns where boatbuilding of any signifi cance took place.


I occasionally get together with Alex and his vivacious wife Paula of “Andre’ the Seal” fame. Don’t recall ever verbally thanking him, but I’m sure he knows how much his suggestion did for us.


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