Tag Archives: wooden boats
Syria’s last traditional boat-makers keep ancient craft afloat
Khaled Bahlawan hammers nails into a traditional wooden boat he built by hand, toiling under the scorching sun on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to preserve a disappearing ancient skill. “We are the last family that makes wooden ships and boats in Syria,” said the 39-year-old on the shores of Arwad Island, near the city of Tartus. “This is the legacy of our ancestors… We are fighting to preserve it every day”. Located about three kilometres (less than two miles) off the coast, Arwad is Syria’s only inhabited island and a haven of peace in a country torn by 11 years of war. Hundreds of workers, residents and visitors commute to and from there every day in wooden boats, mostly built by the Bahlawan family. >click to read< To see a complete photo gallery, >click here to view< 16:14
Traditional boat builders join forces for interactive series
In towns like Gloucester, Salem and Newburyport, boats were traditionally built near the water, where locals could watch as their hulls took shape. It is a practice that Harold Burnham revived when he started building wooden boats in Essex in the early 1990s, so members of the community could follow each ship through the slow-developing drama of its creation. He has built five ships near the water, including the 65-foot Thomas E. Lannon, which was based on a traditional Gloucester fishing schooner and was launched in 1997. This Saturday, Essex Heritage will launch a series of talks and demonstrations on wooden boat building, rather than a physical ship, but the aim is the same as Burnham’s. 9 photos, >click to read< 15:02
As historic Jensen boatyard shuts down, former employees keep boatcraft alive in Seattle
When word got out last fall that the Jensen Motor Boat Company on north Lake Union would be shutting down, other boatyards wasted little time in trying to hire the company’s skilled shipwrights, carpenters and other craftspeople. There were offers from outfits in Seattle and in Anacortes. The Port of Port Townsend was ready to supply shop space for the entire crew at Jensen, which had built and repaired wooden boats at its Boat Street for nearly a century. “We were all offered jobs pretty much all up and down the coast,” says Peter Proctor, general manager at Jensen until it formally shut down this month . But Proctor and many of his former colleagues politely declined. >click to read< 17:56
CBMM’s floating fleet gets a spring spruce up
Under the guidance of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Shipwright James DelAguila, the maintenance season for CBMM’s floating fleet of historic vessels once again is in full swing, with all work done in full public view. As is typical this time of year, work proceeds with the most-used and popular vessels, including the 1920 buyboat Winnie Estelle, which received some system upgrades and a fresh coat of paint, thanks to CBMM’s dedicated volunteers and staff. The Smith Island crab scraping replica Volunteer and crab dredger Old Point each are receiving minor carpentry repairs, along with fresh coats of paint in advance of their busy seasons. click here to read the article w/2 more images 18:30
With ‘graveyard’ find, preserving Delaware Bay’s past
BIVALVE, N.J. – Years ago, when Meghan Wren was hiking through a boat “graveyard” in nearby Leesburg, she discovered the rotting remains of a wooden yawl. The hundred-year-old wreck so intrigued Wren – founder and executive director of the Bayshore Center at Bivalve – that she began studying how these boats were traditionally used as auxiliary craft to schooners and other vessels along the Delaware Bay and elsewhere. Usually rigged as a two-masted sailing craft, yawls often were favored over other types of dinghy in commercial fishing operations,,, Read the article here 08:44
Old School – Newly launched lobster boat echoes past
Just days after her launching by boatbuilder Peter Buxton and lobsterman Frank Gotwals, Sea Song shows off her sweet lines at last month’s Stonington lobster boat races. Buxton used native white oak and cedar to build the hull he designed for the 38-foot lobster boat. Photo credit and story from Stephen Rappaport @fenceviewer 14:58
