Bowdoin‘s Makeover

Of schooner Bowdoin’s deep restoration 40 years ago, Maynard writes:

“I’d followed her career closely ever since the MacMillans donated her to Mystic Seaport in the early 1960s. The museum failed to maintain her and got a ton of bad publicity because of it. A grand recovery had begun at the museum when I was hired to run the shipyard there in 1969 and that recovery was part of the reason for my being able to get so much accomplished during the six-years I was there—like create an entirely new shipyard facility, refloat the whaleship Charles W. Morgan, and get all of the small craft inside out of the weather.

Luckily, the Bowdoin had been towed to Camden and was under Capt. Jim Sharp’s care and management before I moved to Mystic.

Jim patched the vessel up and sailed her for a few years after which it became obvious that a full-blown restoration was needed. For this, she was hauled out at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath (the old Percy & Small shipyard site) and Capt. John Nugent almost single-handedly did the work. (Friends of the Schooner Bowdoin still owned her then, I believe, headed by Dr. Edward Morse of Owls Head.) I saw this as a great opportunity to record much of the vessel’s original structure photographically as well as measure it and draw up a construction plan. Although that drawing was used a few years ago when she was re-topped in Camden… it has never been published that I know of, although… Maine Maritime Academy (not Museum), the vessel’s current owner, has copies.”

John Nugent driving a bolt through the end of a deck beam and sheer shelf.

Looking forward at the new deck framing.

Forward hatch serves not only as access to the forward cabin but also as clearance for the heel of the mast when that spar is lowered.

Looking aft at new deck framing.

Looking forward at the deck framing. Note that all pieces are about equal in thickness (siding) which I believe was the custom for Hodgdon and other Boothbay area builders who laid the decking first before the hatches and cabins, using stopwaters where caulking seams ran under the sills.

Closeup showing how frame futtocks are joined together by locust trunnels. Also shows bolts used in the sheer shelf and deck beams. In earlier days before threaded bolts were commonplace and drifts were used, the deck frame-to-hull connection would have been accomplished by natural-crook knees of hackmatack or oak instead of a beam shelf.

John Nugent boring for a bolt in the end of a deck beam.

Closeup of the bow showing how the laminates of the beam shelf come together.

Looking aft showing how top timbers (extensions of the hull frames) emerge above the deck for bulwark support. Some builders used separate timbers called stanchions placed in frame bays.

Showing where new frame futtocks join the original ones.

John Nugent preparing to remove the engine.

Port side of stern near the sternpost and propeller.