December 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. Passed Over the Bar:Winfi eld Lash and William Frappier


photographs, Wes and I, on a snowy after- noon, went down and visited his father at Hatchet Cove in Friendship. The A. C. MCLOON was running lob-


WINFIELD “Winnie” LASH Over the years I was able to sit down


with Winnie Lash a couple of times and dis- cuss his contribution to the State of Maine’s boatbuilding history. Over his lifetime he created a name, especially in heavily con- structed commercial vessels. Unfortunately 9 November Winnie passed away at the age of 97.


wedding anniversary. Six years later after his uncle Scott Carter passed away leaving a partially fi nished passenger ferry under construction, we have the beginning of Lash Brother’s Boatyard.


The following is an article I wrote from a long discussion with Win and his son Wes in 2010.


In the last issue of Maine Coastal News I interviewed Frank O’Hara and included was a photograph of the 65-foot wet-well lobster smack A. C. MCLOON, cut in half on a railway in Rockland. When Wes Lash saw the photograph he remembered that his father, Winfi eld, had lengthened her out. So, with the collection of ‘Atlantic Fisherman’


Winnie was born to Captain Robert and Levilda Carter Lash in Friendship on 5 July 1918. On 13 October 1940 he married Bar- bara Fales and the two recently celebrated their 75th


sters from Nova Scotia to the United States. Win added, ‘He wanted one a little larger. So we added 11-feet. Win began his boatbuilding career over at the Camden Shipbuilding & Marine Rail- way Co. in Camden during World War II. In 1945, he bought a boatbuilding business from his Uncle Scott Carter’s family, when Scott died that year. There was a boat nearly complete in the shop and he was asked if he could complete it. Win completed the boat and then purchased the business. In 1953, Win went to work at Billings Diesel & Marine in Stonington, where he was the lead person on new boat construc- tion. At the time they were building crash boats for the military. He stayed three years before heading back to his shop at Hatchet Cove.


Wes was always around the boat shop, but after high school went to Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute in South Portland. He did not care for it so he returned and went to work with his father and an uncle, Douglas. He worked a winter, before saying there has got to be something better than this and he returned to school. He graduated from there in 1965 and came back and worked full time in the boat shop and has never left. Together they built two or three boats a year. Almost every wooden boat they built was designed by Win. The largest was a 71-foot swordfi sherman that went to Bailey’s Island. However, the average was in the 50-foot range. Wes added, ‘From the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies we probably build as many, if not more, boats of that size than anyone on the coast.’


After 40 years in the business, Win


retired in 1984. He turned to Wes and said, ‘There it is if you want it.’ Wes added, ‘Well, there wasn’t anything to do. But we got a couple of repair jobs and later that winter we got a boat that burned.’


HARVEY GAMAGE To Cuba Continued from Page 1.


partners.”


assure that all our paperwork is in order. Now it is a question of what exactly we will be able to do in Cuba. We are in discussions with Cuban offi cials to insure that we devel- op a long term, respectful relationship that is seen as mutually benefi cial. It is our hope that we will be able to return to Cuba each winter for years to come and incrementally develop close working relations along the coast, conducting a variety of student and even adult programs with our education


They are planning to leave just before Thanksgiving. Greg added, “It is a little later than we expected. It has taken us longer to repair the vessel -- as always seems to be the case. As for crew we actually have more applicants than we have openings and they are terrifi c, qualifi ed sailors. This is great because we are going to be able to assemble a crew that has a super attitude and appreciates the opportunity to witness the changes now underway in Cuba.


In 1987, Lash lost his shop in a fi re. He


had a boat, a Young Brothers, on the ways in the shop that was scheduled to be launched that day. She was a total loss. Also in the shop was an old wooden launch, which was also lost. The biggest loss was the memorabilia that could never be replaced. It was at this time that the shop was moved from Hatchet Cove to in-town Friendship. Wes would rather build wooden boats,


but there is not the demand. So since the kids had to eat he began fi nishing off fi berglass hulls and doing repair work. Over Win’s career he has worked with a number of notable people. One photograph that sparked memories was that of Harvey Gamage of South Bristol. He worked for a time at the yard in South Bristol in the early 1960s, and added, ‘I went down and it was quite a ways for me to get down to Harvey’s.’ So after awhile he began doing the work at his offi ce in Friendship.’


One of the designs he worked on was a 70-foot dragger, which Gamage wanted stretched out to 100 feet. He also designed the Friendship Sloop, which Gamage built for himself.


Another photograph was of B. A. Mur-


phy’s boat shop on the wharf in Friendship. Win remembered Murphy as being well- known for the dories and other small boats that he built.


Next came a photograph of the


WAWENOCK, which is an eastern rigged dragger, built at the Newbert & Wallace yard in Thomaston. Win said, ‘We built about the same time. They used to cut wood for us. [Albert] Condon was their designer. He lived right across here and I knew his brother Maynard very well. Maynard just worked around the boat yards. He was a


good carpenter he could get a job anywhere he wanted it. With the photograph of the 115-foot


trawler ST. GEORGE, Captain Coffi n, of Rockland, I learned that the whaleback was separate from the rest of the hull. Win added that this was usually added on afterwards. He also said, ‘My father used to have a little schooner that brought freight here. We were going into Portland Harbor, and at the time she was brand new, she came in with a fl ag painted on the side of her, because the war was going on.’ The ST. GEORGE was built at the Snow yard in Rockland in 1940. The PAUL S. was built for Win Denbow Fisheries of Lubec in 1951. Win also built their fi rst boat, the 50 foot LIBERTY. One interesting comment made was the well-known designer Albert Condon created the basic design for many of the sardine carriers that were turned out in the area, namely at Thomaston. We talked about the Morses, who moved


from Friendship to Thomaston in the early 1900s. Winfi eld’s father, Robert Lash, oper- ated a coastal schooner, which made runs between Portland and Thomaston. Wilbur and Jonah Morse built together but there was a difference in how they wanted to build. Wilbur wanted to build using steam bent frames and Jonah wanted to use sawn frames. The difference caused a split and Robert Lash moved Jonah to Damariscotta where he built a number of vessels. Robert Lash sailed on the MRYA J.


WOOSTER from 1922 until 1934. He then sailed as master of the LILLIAN from 1934 until World War II started. At that time he became an offi cer of the Portland fl eet.


Continued on Page 20.


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