Wooden Boats

A few weeks ago, we visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, once the largest port on the N.E. coast of America.  It was renowned for its fishing, whaling and shipbuilding industries over the last several centuries.  The first wooden schooner was supposed to have been built there in 1713.

We popped into the little Maritime Museum there and I got speaking to the lady behind the desk.  I asked about the dilapidated old schooner sitting in the dock outside, the Sylvina W. Beal (above).  She told me it was a Maine Schooner and that on Wednesday of the next week it was going to be floated and sailed along the coast to Essex where it was going to be completely re-planked by Harold Burnham.

"And who is Harold Burnham?" I asked.  "He's a well-known boat builder in Essex, just down the coast from here," she said. "He's built a number of the schooners that you see around this area.  In fact, somewhere I have a photo of four Burnham schooners in a line during our Annual Schooner Festival. And the other schooner out there, the Ardelle, was built by Burnham too."  

That's the Ardelle above.  You can read more about her at https://schoonerardelle.com/blog/ including a photo of the seemingly impossible "Essex Side Launch."

Click on "Read more" below

This got me thinking about wooden boats. I was interested because my brother lives near the historic river port of Maldon, in the County of Essex, in England.   Maldon is still a center for wooden boat building and many of the old Thames Sailing Barges (below) and East Coast Smacks have been restored here.

In fact, over a period of several years, I have watched this new wooden boat being built in Maldon. (Yes, the same Maldon where Maldon Salt comes from).  Here is the hull in progress (below).  

And that hull turned into the boat below about two years later!  So, there are definitely skilled shipwrights and wooden boatbuilders in Maldon. And who knows, maybe their ancestors took off for America many moons ago and started building boats again in Gloucester and in the town of Essex nearby?  

It also occurred to me that there is a town near Maldon called Burnham-on-Crouch.  Could Mr. Harold Burnham, a boatbuilder from eleven generations of Essex boatbuilders, have somehow come by his surname in England many centuries ago?  Some more research is warranted here.

Meanwhile, back here in the 21st century, after our visit to Gloucester, we were driving back home to Winchester and just chanced to pass through the little town of Essex.  We stopped by the salt marshes and looked around what appeared to be a boatyard.  And sure enough, there was the boat shed of  Harold Burnham who was going to sail the Sylvina W. Beal from Gloucester to Essex for re-planking on Wednesday next.  What are the odds?

The lady in the Maritime Museum in Gloucester had told me that he managed to get these huge schooners half way into his boat shed with the other half out in the water. That must be quite a sight.

I had actually bought a book (above) by Harold Burnham from this museum lady to send to my brother Mike in England because he himself has built several wooden boats in his garage in Boreham, Essex, (England), but no schooners to my knowledge--yet!

I googled Harold Burnham and a whole pile of interesting articles came up on him.  Have a look at: https://burnhamboatbuilding.com And also check out this YouTube video on Harold Burnham which is even more fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJWvUv4tIBc

So that was our "discovery" of Essex and its boatbuilding history.  Hard to believe that it was once the main supplier of schooners to Gloucester and other Atlantic fishing communities. There was even a sign for the Essex Shipbuilding Museum there (below) but it was closed on Sunday.  Essex was formerly a part of the town of Ipswich and was then known as Chebaccho Parish.  English settlers arrived there in 1634.  Some of Harold Burnham's ancestors might have been with them because his forefathers were said to have started building boats in Essex in 1640.

Veronica and Max liked looking at all the boats (and rusting trucks) in the boat yard and clambering over things.  They even got some free doughnuts from a lady who was part of some big birthday party in one of the buildings! I hope to go back there again on our next visit because I am sure there must be some linkage between the Essex of Massachusetts and the County of Essex in England.  We shall see.

As we walked out of the boatyard, I saw this little stone memorial (below) and became even more convinced that the town of Essex and the county of Essex were somehow linked. 4,000 wooden boats built here between 1650-1982?  That is quite an incredible production history for a little town like Essex, MA.

And right by the side of Mr. Burnham's boat yard were these beautiful salt marshes.  Yes, we definitely have to go back to Essex!