Poetic Advice on the Sinking of a Dragger

[stormpetrel]

The following was passed on to me by Al Lunn of
Woods Hole, Mass. Al is one of those guys with many trades and talents. Among other things, he's
a boatbuilder, restorer of wood & canvas canoes,
and an instructor at the Woods Hole Historical
Museum's boat restoration program. He told me this
story (true) this a.m.
There was a wooden dragger docked in WH which
sank in a storm a couple of weeks ago. For reasons that will be clear if readers finish this post, the name of the boat and the owner will not be given. After the boat sank, a few of the WH regulars noted that in the past 10 years, they had
never seen the boat hauled for repairs or maintenance. So of course they started speculating
on the cause of the sinking. No bottom paint, and
so the worms ate thru? Old cotton caulking which
finally gave way? Etc.
Al meandered down to the docks and spoke to the owner. HE said it was because the power went out,
and the electric bilge pump didn't work. When Al
asked about the condition of the bottom, the
owner shrugged it off. And then he said he planned
to retrofit the boat to go swordfishing off Nova
Scotia. Al couldn't believe it, and replied something like" I wouldn't take that boat out of
sight of land!".
Afterwards he was thinking about it, and penned
this poem, which he plans to leave at the boat:

Of boats and ships there's much to know
Before upon the sea you go
The place to gain this goodly knowledge
is right out there in nature's college
The sun and moon and winds that blow
Will help you learn what you must know
So, my friend, have a critical eye
To all the dangers you may spy
Wooden ships need iron men
Not some guy to push a pen
Put your faith in good white oak and
Let's just hope you don't go broke!
--Al Lunn, Woods Hole, Mass.

[Ian McColgin]

There are boats like this in every harbor. To recall but three:

In one place a livaboard - a scroffulous old ChrisCraft went down so fast and so quietly in the night that we feared her owner might have drowned aboard. Parties dove and searched and there was no body. Eventually the marina owner, rather than dispose of properly, set a construction barge over the site and let that, with each tide, grind the wreck deep into the mud. Local pollution was so bad that I'm told no one noticed any additional slick.

In Hyannis for many years the remarkably named St Jude drifted about bankrupting at least three sets of dreamers.

Most wonderfully, the trawler that sank at her mooring (right near Granuaile) three Fourths of July ago made beaucoupbucks for a local salvor who pulled her up a total of five times from three different harbors before finally getting the contract to scrap her.

Once upon a time you could walk away from a hulk - like old what's his name walked away from the Wiscasset schooners - but those days of wood and no oily machinery or tanks are past. Both common stewardship responsibility and the law require that mariners remove their toxic waste.

If the owner down at Woods Hole doesn't jump, he'll be facing some serious fines.

Ed. to add: Everyone is trying to keep Al producing his rhymes.

[ 11-21-2005, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: Ian McColgin ]

[chucksw]

Never hauling for repairs and maintenance sounds like a good starting point. It doesn't take much money or brains to own a vessel and mismanage it. Fortunately no one was killed or put at risk because the idiot tried to take it out fishing. Up in Washington, the registration fees and excise taxes are horendous for a larger boat, I'm paying over $400 a year and it now includes a small percent for derelict vessel clean up.

[Tom Hunter]

"Once upon a time you could walk away from a hulk - like old what's his name walked away from the Wiscasset schooners - but those days of wood and no oily machinery or tanks are past."

If memory is correct old what's his name dropped dead. My understanding is that method still works, though I have no personal experience with it.

[stormpetrel]

So what do people think about Al's poetry? Should
I encourage him to write more? He was talking about penning a few lines about the characters
at the boat shop, but since I'm one of them, I
didn't know how to answer that! I guess I want to
focus him on other targets. Anyway, I thought it
was neat that this old boatbuilder guy was also
a poet!