March 2018 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. O B T A B
BEALS ISLAND – One of the most noted boatbuilders of Beals Island is Osmond Beal. Osmond started building boats with his father and then when his father retired, he continued until several years ago when he turned the business over to his grandson, Erick Blackwood. H&H Marine in Steuben continues Osmond legacy off ering numer- ous models designed by him. In my quest to document the boatbuild-
ers of the State of Maine, Osmond was able to shed light on other builders on the Island and in Jonesport as well as some of the boats they built. The fi rst person mentioned was Bert
Frost. Osmond said, “When Bert Frost moved back here I used to go over there and talk with him a lot. He had built a lot of drag- gers in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, and it was interesting talking with him, because he knew. Merle, that's his brother, used to live over what we call across the island and he used to go over and work with him. He said, ‘Do you work with your father?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘You wouldn't want to work with my brother Bert.’ I said, ‘Why is that?’ ‘Well he's the ugliest thing that I ever saw.’ But he went over there every day and worked with him.” “Bert told me a lot of stuff about them
draggers,” continued Osmond. “I used to go over there every once in a while and he was the nicest kind of fellow to me. He would knock right off whatever he was doing and sit right down there with me. He would tell me about this and that, and if I couldn't un- derstand it, he would get a pencil and a board and draw it out just how it was done. He said the shaft log they used to bore it out than they put a lead pipe in it. You had to put a crease in it, and they would get it down the hole. He said after you got it in there they had a thing, he called it a rat, it was on a big long handle and of course it was small on one end and tapered up to how big the pipe was. He said that you would pound that down there and he said that would roll the lead pipe right out and make it just as round as can be. That is the way they used to line those shaft logs.” Osmond added, “One time he had a
lobster boat he was building and he made the spray rails right in her.” Osmond explained as he planked the boat he would pick where the spray rails should be and then use a thick- er plank to create the spray rail right down the side of the boat. “That's why he didn't have any spray rails they were built right in
her. He was clever,” explained Osmond. However, Osmond learned more from
his father Vinal than anyone else. Vinal worked for Alvin Beal, Harold Gower and Mariner “Lovey” Beal. “The last one that he worked for was Harold Gower,” said Os- mond. “Then they didn't want him anymore and he said, ‘If I can work good enough for them, I can work for myself and that is just what he did.” Osmond remembered the boatbuilders
that were building when he was growing up, Cliff ord and Richard Alley, Junior Back- man, Alvin Beal, Clinton Beal, Mariner and Isaac Beal, Riley Beal (his two sons Adrian and Elihu), Harold Gower, and Ernest Libby, Jr.
When asked if he knew of Maurice
Dow of Rogue Bluff s and later Jonesport, Osmond added, “Maurice Dow built a little boat that my dad had, the fi rst one he had. I think she was 22 feet with a torpedo stern. When I was just a kid I remember going in her. He had a quite awhile. I think he called it the LITTLE BUDDY, but I can't remember. I can remember the number on her, 1D133.” Osmond also remembers the boats RED
WING and THOROBRED. There has been some question about these two boats and Osmond shed some light on their diff erenc- es. He said, “The RED WING, I don't know how she was when she was new. They claim they put a new horn timber in her when she was up to Kittery and she didn't sail the way she used to. They said that she could beat the THOROBRED, but she never did while she was here. I think it was because they turned that horn timber up. The THOROBRED cut right through it and the RED WING stuck her bow up.” When asked about boatbuilder George
Brown, Osmond did not remember any of his boats. Then I asked about Fred Lenfesty and Osmond remembered him. He added, “Freddy built quite a few boats. He worked around with diff erent boatbuilders as I re- member, then he went off on his own.” Like most boatbuilders Osmond
worked with other builders. He said, “I worked with Uncle Mariner two winters and a little bit up at Harold Gower’s. I worked mostly with my dad. Then he got so he couldn't and I took over.” Osmond joined the military and thought
he was going to end of up in the confl ict in Korea. When asked what his last job was he told them he had been driving a truck.
Osmond Beal
Osmond added, “I worked with my wife’s father, who was the road commissioner and I drove a truck. So after we got through basic training, I went into eight weeks of truck driving school. Instead of going to Korea I went to England. I came back in ‘54.” Working with Osmond, was Harry Al-
ley, who said, “He worked with me all my life. He stayed there until we got through. My dad had two, three or four orders for boats. We had just started one over to his place, just laying out the keel, when he had a heart attack. He had to go to the hospital and of course Harry and I just laid around. One day I went over and he was just sitting there at the table. I said, ‘You know what?’ and he said, ‘What?’ ‘You and I have got to eat so
we've got to work.’ We went out into the shop and went at it. We had her all planked, deck on, fl oors in her and were working on the top of the windshield. I remember he came right in through the little door and looked in over and he said, ‘That's a better job than I can do,’ and he went back into the house.” Vinal did return when he got better.
Around 1970, they moved the shop from Vinal’s home in Alley’s Bay to over where Osmond would build the rest of his career. Osmond did fi sh before he went into the
military. He said, “A little bit, mostly with dad and I went with dad when I came home. My father had that Maurice Dow boat, and
Continued on Page 24.
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