D. Alan Carr
Kittery, Maine — Calling Friday’s relaunch of the Marvin F. Roberts rescue boat homecoming isn’t technically accurate, but it’s true that the fully restored 1930s ship is right where it belongs. It is no exaggeration.
In a grand maritime ceremony that took place over the course of two years, Roberts returned to the sea at the docks in the town of Kittery Point and paddled out to the former U.S. Lifesaving Service Station on nearby Wood Island. There, his boat was placed in a custom-made steel cradle, and then carried that kind of sea-rail to the building. It is currently undergoing a $5.8 million renovation.
Among those who operated the oars were the Rear Admiral in charge of District 1 of the Coast Guard and wooden shipbuilder Nate Greeley of York, Maine. They lead a parade of more than 35 of his vessels of various sizes and types, from Pepperell Cove to Wood Island, including kayaks, paddleboats, yachts, motorboats and wooden rowboats built and crewed by Traip Academy students. Did.
“It was very moving and many people suffocated,” said Sam Reed, president of the Wood Island Lifesaving Services Association. “For Wood Island and the Coast Guard, this really was a high water mark.”
An old train station that literally fell apart just a few years ago would eventually become the site of a maritime museum and Roberts would become a featured attraction. The journey I took started with Facebook.
Backstory:Kittery’s Wood Island Miracle
In 2020, WILSSA board member Lawrence Bussey stumbled across a Facebook ad of an old surf boat. This vessel turned out to be a rare type SR pull her surf boat. So it was a revised version of the previous model, powered by oars.
What’s more, this same boat was previously docked at the former Island of Shoals base just outside Portsmouth Harbor, adjacent to Kittery, according to experts. Maritime historian and former president of the American Lifesaving Services Heritage Association, Tim Dolling, said it was one of only six dozen of its type still in existence and the only one to have returned to sea. said.
Dring said the Coast Guard built just over 100 of these ships in the 1930s and 1940s at a shipyard in Curtis Bay, Maryland. Surfboats were equipped with watertight decks and self-draining ports on each side, as well as air casings below decks for increased buoyancy.
Dring said that once motorized boats came into use, the use of these boats was “more a matter of tradition than a necessity”, but at the beachfront station these lighter vessels ” It’s easier to handle in surfing than a motorsurf boat.”
A crew of up to eight man operated the oars and the captain took stern with steering or ‘sweep’ oars. It could also carry up to 14 rescued passengers in addition to the crew.
Among those assigned to Roberts’ oars on Friday were Coast Guard Maj. Gen. John Mauger and WILSSA officer/retired Coast Guard Col. Jim McPherson.
more:A shipbuilding class connects trail students with the Wood Island Life Saving Station.
About 125 people flocked to the small island on Friday for the event. Bagpipes played on both the pier and on the island, and the ceremony also included an artillery salute. Coast Guard Pastor Floyd Grace offered the benediction. Marvin F. Roberts was at home when all was said.
“We didn’t baptize it, we reconsecrated it,” Reid said.
Who is Marvin F. Roberts?
This particular SR Pulling Surfboat is named after WWII Navy veteran and long-time favorite of Old Lyme, Connecticut, Marvin F. Roberts.
Roberts was once a board member and advocate for a rowing school in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In honor of his support, the school named his one of the boats after Roberts. In the late 1990s, when the agency was unable to repay Roberts’ loans, management transferred ownership of a boat bearing Roberts’ name to him.
Roberts later had to sell the boat. But when it was learned that the Old Lyme community was interested in bringing Wood her island to the planned New He-England Maritime Museum, family and friends in the 90s decided to take Roberts Decided to raise money to buy and donate to his WILSSA. Roberts, who was 98 at the time, has served the town for decades as a recruit, fire minister, Boy Scout leader, and member of various commissions and committees.
But most importantly for this particular story, Marvin Roberts was also a man of the sea. won. He remained in the Naval Reserve after the war and later served Old Lyme as Commissioner of Shellfish, among other positions.
Unfortunately, Roberts passed away in December 2020. This comes just a month after he started a fundraiser to buy his old boat. His obituary listed “Waterman” among several other accolades. And in honor of his 50-year service as a fire chaplain, his coffin was brought to his burial site in a procession of Old Lyme fire engines less than a week after he was born.
Before he died, Roberts also gave the Wood Island organization a framed photograph of a surf boat crew in action. This photo will someday be displayed in a museum.
On Friday, his daughter Edith Mayne brought a gallon of water from the Connecticut River to the Kittery Point ceremony to redecorate her father’s old boat. Some was poured into the boat, while others were consumed by the participants. A contingent of about 25 people from Connecticut traveled to honor Roberts.
The surf boat’s actual hull number has yet to be confirmed, but Dring said this week, “I’m fairly confident that this particular boat did indeed work on both Burnt and Shoals.” rice field. Wood Island also had a similar ship during its active service days.
Local stations at Burnt Island Station and Appledore Island near Port Clyde, Maine, as well as Wood Island, were staffed by both former Lifesaving Service and early U.S. Coast Guard surfmen. Formally established in 1878, the Life Saving Service consisted of hardy men who set out in wooden boats to help sailors in distress in stormy seas. In 1915, under President Woodrow Wilson, the Life Saving Service merged with the Shipping Revenue Service to form the Coast Guard.
The boat that would become the Mervin F Roberts was sold in the 1960s as a Coast Guard surplus and was eventually taken to River School in Connecticut.
Once Wiltha got Roberts, Greeley was brought in to work his magic. Until recently, he was doing his finishing touches in his button factory shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It’s a work of art.
“Everyone we spoke to was like, ‘You gotta call Nate,'” Reed said recently of Greeley’s 30-year wooden boat reputation.
All the restoration required new wood, Greeley said. The project also included his 4,000 copper rivets, hand-installed exclusively at Greeley.
Roberts is 26 feet long and 7.5 feet wide. Under one of his on the boat’s benches, the battery system is hidden invisibly, but along with the steering oars, the benches are made for two, eight oarsmen.
The keel is made of wood from the former Newcastle home of the famous American Impressionist painter Edmund Tarbell. This house was destroyed by fire in his 2016. Tarbell said he bought a Greek Revival-style house in 1905 as a summer residence and built a studio behind it. House overlooking the Piscataqua River. The loss of this historic home rocked the small town of its time, but now, in a small way, some of it is making history again.
“Out of terrible things came great things,” Reid often says.
Wood Island Maritime Railroad History
The Pan Am Railway (now known as CSX Transportation due to its recent acquisition) offers the former railroad rails used to create Wood Island’s unique marine railroad and the historic 1922 Based on the plan, a boat cradle was constructed in galvanized steel. The rail was originally built in the 1890s and was formerly used by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Reed said they were dismantled after World War II and stored near Route 1 in Kittery for about 75 years.
The railway, which now sits at the old Wood Island Station, is believed to be the only remaining structure in the entire country.
The station was decommissioned in the 1940s after World War II when the Coast Guard decided to move Portsmouth Harbor Station back to New Castle. The building is owned by the town of Kittery, but was headed for demolition after decades of being empty and falling into disrepair.
Since its founding in 2011, WILLSA has raised funds to restore the old, crumbling structure to its heyday of crimson and pearls. The planned museum at the site will honor the hardy souls who served the island and other coastal stations for more than a century, dubbed “Storm Warriors” by journalists of the time.
Two wooden rowboats built by Traip Academy students through a partnership program with WILSSA will also be stored on an island just off Kittery’s Fort Foster.
Portsmouth Harbor station moved to Wood Island in 1908 after Jeffreys Point station in Newcastle closed. It was in service with the Life Saving Service until 1915, then operated as part of the United States Coast Guard until 1948.
To date, approximately $5.3 million has been raised for this project. Donations to complete the renovation work can be made at woodislandlife Saving.org.
