Cranberry Island is not far off
of the mainland in Friendship, Maine but to a 12 year old boy, Albert
Simmons, it was far enough to require personal ingenuity and inventiveness
in making ones own toys. At about the age of 12 Albert, the son of a lobster
fisherman, started building and carving out his own small boats to entertain
himself. Sometimes he even created a 'string of boats'.
After High School Albert enlisted in the navy from 1956 through 1960 and served on a Landing Ship Dock 25, making three trips to the Mediterranean, and was on active duty there during the Lebanon crisis. Albert had boot camp and engineering school in Little Creek, Virginia but there were times 'there wasn't much too much to do so I built boat models'. These models which gave him his background in experience were done from kits.
Most
everyone who grows up in Friendship has a chance to become a lobster fisherman
and this was the case for Albert. When asked by the 6th grade interviewer,
Alexiee, for the oral history project co-orchestrated by the Friendship
Museum and the Friendship Village School, 'when did he start lobstering'
he replied," When I was twelve years old. I started out with a row
skiff, and then I graduated to an 18 foot double ender lapstrake skiff
which I built myself. She was powered with a 5-cylinder make and break
Hartford which I started by rotating a big fly wheel."
Albert is lobstering from his third boat right now, a 30 foot fiberglass, a typical lobstering boat which is painted white and is powered by a 305 V8 Chevrolet diesel engine. She is named Holly Anne after the previous owners' daughter.
Albert elaborated on his wood working experiences by explaining, "When my children were young, I built a 14 foot skiff with solid sides. And we named it "Ecto" after the ghostmobile in the movie Ghostbusters."
Peggy, Albert's wife said, "We figured Ecto I was an ambulance, Ecto II was an airplane, so Ecto III would have been a boat. The skiff was used by Peggy to row her children around in Hatchet Cove, and many a grand celebration was had aboard her; nary a ghost was found only good ole' Maine family fun surrounded by sun, sky and sea.
Between the years of navy service and 1990 Albert was busy becoming a husband, father, grandfather, and served as the Friendship Volunteer Fire Dept's fire chief. Along with these roles he was a avid hunter and enjoyed working with his hunting dogs and participating in the annual deer hunting season.
Around the year of 1990 Albert began making finely detailed 'working
boats' like purse seiners, fish draggers and sardine carriers. The sardine
carrier he built was the "Pauline". The "Pauline"
still plies coastal waters after being renovated. She serves as a sight
seeing boat that carries summer people out of Rockland. Albert's preference
is to create a working boat although he has created other models like
lobster boats and a whaling dory with all the finite details.
When
asked why he took up this hobby he replied, "It gives me a sense
of accomplishment and it is a lot of fun. I enjoy Grafting the small detail
items by hand." When asked how did you lean how to do this, he replied,"
It's kind of something that comes to you." I would call that a good
case of natural talent.
On at least one occasion Albert has been com-missioned to do a particular boat. On another occasion Winfield Lash who owned and operated the Lash Brothers Boatyard, and who drew up the plans for many boats gave Albert the lines for a fish dragger and from those plans Albert was able to do an exact model to scale.
At present Albert has two boats 'going', a lobster boat and an updated fish “dragger.” When a boat is completed, Albert usually display sit in the local hardware store run by Susie Simmons, and quite often it sells from there. When asked if the selling of the model was an important factor, Albert replied," If you started selling your boat models a lot and there is a great demand for them then it could become work not pleasure."
On the fish dragger models Albert said. Dragging is a dangerous business. Albert elaborated, "You can get plans for the hull. Each captain sets up his dragger the way he wants it; mast, boom net rolls, and fishing equipment. The bottom draggers go anwhere from 25' long to 50' feet. Right now there is bottom draggers fishing in this area for flounder, shrimp, haddock, polluck, and cod fish." There are some lobster fishermen in Friendship that convert the lobster fishing boat into a shrimp dragger during the shrimping season.". That might be a good idea for Alberts' next boat model, a Friendship Lobster Boat rigged into the shrimping mode.
Linda DeRosa is president of the
Friendship Museum.
Her tireless work made this edition of Gaff Rig possible.
Thank you, Linda.
Back Yard Yacht Builders
A non-commercial association of amateur boat-builder enthusiasts.
All our wooden boats are Stevenson designs.