The Lost Allure of the Wooden Lobsterboat

Just as soon as they could buy gasoline engines in the early years of the 20th century, lobstermen snapped them up and soon began building boats to suit. As more powerful engines emerged, the boats gradually changed shape, their bottoms looking like double-wedges: V-shaped (vertical) at the bow for knifing through the waves without pounding, then gradually twisting and becoming flat (horizontal) at the stern so as not to squat. These semi-displacement 30 to 40-foot hulls ran very well at, say, 20 mph, usually with marinized automobile engines.

The evolution continued with increases all around: more power, more speed, a sternman or two, more distance to cover, faster hull shapes, and ever-larger boats. Wood had been the universal material until the mid-1970s. Then came fiberglass, big diesels, and offshore lobstering—and this era brought forth lobsterboats approaching 50 feet in length, diesels of 1,000 horsepower, and speeds of 50 miles per hour or more.

Silhouettes are similar and strikingly handsome, no matter the era or material. High bow curving downward to amidships where the traps are taken aboard, then continuing the curved sheer aft to the transom. There’s an open-sided wheelhouse amidships, a low trunk cabin forward of it, and a huge cockpit (aka working platform) aft of it for handling the traps, carrying the bait, the fuel, and for storing the catch.

Ever passionate about all handsome boats built of wood, Maynard Bray snapped photos of good-looking lobsterboats of varying sizes, ages, and locales. His collection here at Penobscot Marine Museum is loaded with lobsterboat photos; here’s a sampling.

Some boats, like this one with unmistakable characteristics, were built for pleasure, not commercial fishing. Austin Goodyear's lobster boat Shepherdess in the very center of a CCA (Cruising Club of America) sunflower raft. "For the event, Austin had rigged a big truck tire between the mooring and Shepherdess so that the visiting CCA boats could conveniently tie their sterns to it." (Maynard Bray, 2021)

A Jonesport-type lobsterboat hauled out on a cradle of spiked-together logs. Note the sprayhood, basic standing shelter, reverse-raked transom, and the vertical winch drum and rail-mounted rollers for hauling traps. I don't know details of boat or location, but sure is a gem of a boat!

Grounding out costs nothing—only time. Here, the sweet little 25-footer Tracy Lee gets the finishing touches and will chug away at high tide.

Occasionally, youngsters add trunk cabins and wheelhouses (aka standing shelters) to outboard boats like Sea Wind, giving them the traditional lobsterboat silhouette, but at a smaller scale.

Set up for towing and hoisting heavy steel scallop dredges in the winter when lobsters are scarce near shore, Bonny Bride will shed her mast, boom, winch and gallows when the lobsters return. Built in Nova Scotia and known as a "Novi Boat," the plumb stem and raised foredeck distinguish her from the typical Maine lobsterboat.

Cedar planking fastened to a backbone and framing of oak have long been favored by builders as well as owners of lobsterboats. The late Carroll Lowell was building this 33-footer when Jon Wilson and I visited him at his Even Keel Marine shop in Yarmouth, ME, in the spring of 1988.

Speed isn't far from any boatbuilder's mind, and sculpting away areas of the backbone so the propeller isn't in its "shadow" is one way of making a boat that's fast. The skeg-built boats of the Jonesport/Beals area, like the Gower-built Laurie Lee, invariably look like this.

Torch in one hand and scraper in the other, and with the hull slightly tipped to starboard, the task of stripping old paint from the bottom isn't too taxing. A cushioned seat makes it downright luxurious!

With a decent bed on a sheltered beach for supporting the weight, a sturdy wharf to lean against, and having been slightly tipped by ballast barrels spread along her starboard side deck, Glenda Glance simply rises and falls with each tide—a convenience for loading the traps that are stacked up on this Beals Island wharf in May, 1988.

The 40' Salar was built for pleasure and has carried on that role ever since Rockland Boat Shop launched her in 1955. She's larger than most others of her type and era, so there's full headroom under the trunk cabin. Salar is still with us, having recently benefitted from Tom Townsend's ownership and upgrading, and is now stylishly outfitted with a galley, head, sleeping and eating accommodations.

Rebecca Jane idles through the harbor toward the pier in the summer of 1991. She had her wheelhouse somewhat enclosed to partly shelter it from wind and spray. Likely, she works during the winter, dragging for shrimp or scallops. Her dry exhaust goes up through the roof in twin pipes, giving off some welcome winter heat, and being a clear indication that the engine is a V-8.

Raised decks were a signature element of Frank Wincapaw's lobsterboats, so it followed that many boats of the Friendship fleet were of this style. After serving as a yacht for Dean Fisher (of Fisher snowplow fame), this boat became a service vessel for the Marine Environmental Research Institute (now renamed Shaw Institute), thus the mast, boom, and transom-mounted swim platform.

Another lobster-type boat engaged in fishery research was the Dorothy M, built on Vinalhaven by "Foss" Maker for Clarence Bennett and used initially in the lobstering trade. Here, during her final days, she's rigged with a mast, boom, and gallows for dragging scallop dredges. Her larger-than-usual size suits her for that kind of heavy work.

All three boats are rafted together for picnicking. The two wooden ones in the foreground (Blue Dolphin and Charlene) have long been used this way, while Ken Carter's fiberglass-hulled Norumbega is taking a break from hauling lobster traps.

Round-fronted trunk cabins, a holdover from Friendship Sloops, were adopted for the power-driven lobsterboats that fished in and near Muscongus Bay. With engines placed aft of the bulkhead, they featured genuine, though cramped, living quarters. Charlene, after her fishing days ended, became a neat cruiser as well as a very fine picnic boat. Later photos will show the more refined wheelhouse that I felt compelled to build. Legend has it that Newell McLain put together the one shown here in only a day while afloat.

Boatbuilder and lobsterboat historian Paul Stubing tries out his working model of the much-admired Will Frost-built Jonesporter Red Head. The actual boat was only 27 feet long and very narrow, with the iconic tub stern once popular along that part of the coast. These inshore lobsterboats, known as "razorcases", had their drawbacks, but were an advancement over the open rowboats and small sailing craft that pre-dated engines. Red Head's low canvas shelter backed by a taller one for steering was the style of the day.

Lobster smacks like the Adelle McLoon used to moor in island harbors such as Frenchboro and buy lobsters directly from the boats that caught them. Each boat's catch was tallied, then dumped into the smack's wet well where the lobsters could live until the smack departed for the canning/shipping plant at Rockland. The same service still prevails, although this smack is long gone and replaced by faster ones that make the trip daily and don't require a wet well.

A cedar-on-oak lobsterboat under construction by legendary Beals Island builder Alvin Beal. His small shop, equipped with a bandsaw, table saw, thickness planer and a few hand tools, was a "make do" operation, as were many shops along the Maine coast back when boats were constructed of wood.

“Alvin Beal built the 31-footer named Two Brothers for a Long Island, NY, customer in the mid-1960s who donated it to Mystic Seaport when still almost new. The boat and I both arrived at Mystic in the spring of 1969, and she served us well as the Museum's workboat for the next several years. Here, she's accompanying the Noank-built (in 1866) schooner Emma C. Berry on her delivery from Bay Head, NJ, to Mystic, CT, in June, 1969.” —Maynard Bray