Marblehead's First Harbor by Hugh Peabody Bishop

Author:Hugh Peabody Bishop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Star Dust.

To get back to 1924, Ralph Conner named his new boat Junior for his five-year-old son. The boat was built with no butt blocks. This meant that each plank ran the full length of the boat. It must have been well built, because Ralph lobstered with it until the late 1950s, when he sold it to Herb Dixey, who in turn gave it to his son. The boat went lobstering out of Little Harbor for over fifty years. I, like Bob, looked up to Ralph and admired his achievements and work habits. He was an extremely talented woodworker and taught me much. In the winter of 1960, we built a fourteen-foot punt together in the same shop in which the Star Dust was built. All his work was the finest kind, as the saying goes. Each year, the Junior was completely painted, just as a yacht would be. His traps and buoys were always in mint condition.

The Junior did not have a watertight floor, so the day’s lobstering efforts would result in salt water and inevitably some kelp pieces and other debris ending up in the bilge. When Ralph put the boat on the mooring at the end of the day’s haul, she would be immaculate. The bilge was painted with red lead. If you picked up the cockpit floor boards, you would see that the bilge had been hand pumped and sponged out. There was never a speck of seaweed to be seen. I could go on, but I think I have made the point that this was the type of man who became Bob’s mentor. They developed a special bond—Ralph at the end of his fishing life and Bob at the beginning of his. I remember being sort of envious of how they related.

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