July 2018 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. P H P J L T By Michael Waters A surprisingly long thread connects the
improbable history of the Hampton Boat. This name for, what was, the simplest, cheapest, rudely mundane workboat, keep- ing afl oat through the decades and centuries a horde of rubber booted barbarians, has identifi ed a progression of craft, evolving through the years from an original type into a succession of changing forms; all built to answer the same need and purpose, i.e. a craft aff ordable to the working masses, capable of living through the variety of conditions of the Atlantic on the inshore New England coast and getting the job done; be it bringing home the fi sh, getting out to the islands, checking the gear or any other work requiring callused hands and a strong back. Through the years and changing times the Hampton has morphed into a form of simple elegance and no frills capability that has no equal. About as Yankee as they come.
There is now only one builder of the
venerable Hampton Boat (or Hampden, if you please) in our time and place and that is, (by my standards of age) a youngish En- trepreneur by the name of Mr. John Lentz who has recently purchased from Mr. Dick Pulsifer the business of Pulsifer Hampton Boats. Dick has been the sole builder of Hamptons for 30 some odd years and 118 individual craft. Three together were casu- alties to a boat shed fi re I was sadly told. I’m unaware of any Hampton boats currently afl oat that are not the product of the old shop on Mere Point Road. There are examples of the older forms in regional maritime museums. Charlie Gomes was the builder who passed it on to Dick Pulsifer and it just might be possible that, in a barn somewhere, one of his might still exist. Pulsifer’s fi rst;
“Walrus” does. The Hampton Boat can be considered the grandfather of every existing lobstering boat. This, by virtue of the fact that, ‘round about 1900 to1905 when engine power became realistically aff ordable, (these were the little fl ywheel one lungers) the sailing version of the Hampton was a) already the boat owned by the less than well to do in- shore fi shing family and b) it already had the fl at stern and basic design that was readily adaptable to the new power. Suddenly, you could get out on a fl at
calm day to the farthest grounds and get home before dark or be able to power out of adverse current or tide. Suddenly, you could fi sh in much more challenging waters, get closer in to the ledges, go where you could never hope to go under oars or sail alone. First there was sail and power together, then, when engines got bigger, better and common, just power. I had a pleasant visit with Mr. Lentz
at his shop in Topsham. There were two Pulsifer Hamptons there as we spoke and I learned that John had been doing this kind of refi tting under the fl ag of Pulsifer for some years now and worked with Dick for eight. The recent transaction moves the business from one to the other and new builds will be in John’s capable hands. For readers who do not have a clear
mental picture of the Hampton Boat, how this craft looks and operates in our time, I’ll draw the picture and see if it brings a particular boat to mind you’ve seen only a few times but have encountered in pretty much any harbor on the New England coast. The boat I describe is in the 20 ft range, no cabin, just a standup pulpit positioned in the center of the craft, directly ahead of the small inboard engine that is prized for its
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A Pulsifer Hampton on display at the Maine Boatbuilder's Show.
reliability rather more than its speed. They are all wood, strip planked built, and look much like very old- timey, big Hotel-by- the-Sea motor launches and service craft which some became. Low and sleek they can leave a wake but don’t often choose to. They bring to mind the simplest confi gura- tion that a powered workboat must have to do any kind of profi table service and that is
precisely what they are and were. The sailing predecessor of the powered
craft looked diff erent, especially at the stern, as the Hamptons of very old were all double enders. This makes perfect sense when you look at the when and the where and the what were the people doing to fi sh. I can defend
Continued on Page 10.
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