ROCKLAND, Maine ― More than a century ago, before engine-powered vessels made up Maine’s lobster fishing fleet, a style of boat called the Friendship sloop was the vessel of choice for independent fishermen.
These small sailing vessels — built primarily in Friendship — were so common along Maine’s coast that Capt. Jim Sharp, founder of the Sail, Power and Steam Museum, likens them to “the pickup truck” of the sea during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Once a staple of Maine’s maritime landscape, original Friendship sloops are now incredibly rare. “They’ve all rotted away,” Sharp said.
But a team of volunteers at the Sail, Power and Steam Museum spent the last two and a half years working to salvage Blackjack, one of four remaining Friendship sloops in Maine crafted by Wilbur Morse, who built the largest number of these sloops during their heyday, according to Sharp.
“[Blackjack] was in very poor condition,” Sharp said. “It was terribly rotted away, the keel was broken and it needed everything you can think of.”
The volunteer crew of boat and building enthusiasts completely rebuilt Blackjack, fixing her broken keel, reconstructing her hull and rotted interior. While nearly every piece of Blackjack is now new, Sharp said salvagble pieces were kept to “retain the flavor.”
“It’s like grandaddy’s ax. You’ve got 10 new handles and 18 new heads and it’s still grandaddy’s ax,” Sharp said.
With the work on the 33-foot body of the vessel nearly complete, attention is turning to the sloop’s rigging, which includes a 31-foot mast and a configuration of sails that features trapezoidal gaff-rigged system.
The hope is to have Blackjack seaworthy by July so she can be launched in Rockland Harbor.
Blackjack was originally built by Morse in 1900, about a decade before engine-powered vessels would slowly cause the original Friendship sloops to go extinct.
The Friendship sloops were popular among coastal Mainers because they were easily operated by one person while still being seaworthy enough to handle a day of fishing, Sharp said.
But these sloops were not just the vessel of choice for lobstermen. Sharp said most people who lived on the coast had a Friendship sloop because it served a variety transportation and hauling needs.
“The Friendship sloop was really the pickup truck of the 19th century,” Sharp said. “If you had a boat you could easily go from one island to another or from one village to another and along the ragged New England coast.”
Blackjack found its way back to Maine via Rhode Island, where its most recent owner used the vessel until it was no longer able to go in the water.
“I’m not sure if this [project] is a restoration or a rebuild. [Blackjack] was in pretty sad shape. We weren’t sure it would stay together long enough for it to be transported up here,” Tom Hammermeister, a member of the museum’s board of directors and a volunteer, said.
While Blackjack required extensive restoration, the volunteers working on her welcomed the challenge. Coming from a variety of backgrounds — ranging from woodworking to marine engineering — the volunteers have learned through doing.
“I just like the challenge of it. You come with a basic set of skills and then you learn on top of that how to build a boat,” Robert Guenther said.
However, rebuilding an 118-year-old vessel is nothing like building a modern sailboat. There’s no fiberglass, there’s no epoxy and there’s no construction manual.
The volunteers have rebuilt Blackjack based on old photos and similar sloop plans obtained through the Mystic Seaport Museum, Guenther said.
The vessel has been painted with a flat finish, instead of a modern gloss finish. The crew also used galvanized nails that are exposed knowing that they will rust, but will allow the exterior to remain true to the character of the Friendship sloop.
“We actually want it to age,” Guenther said.
Sharp said Blackjack’s restoration will end up costing between $150,000 to $200,000.
“You can’t think about the expense of it,” Sharp said. “You have to think about the history that you’re saving and the contribution you’re making to the world.”
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