HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- When construction started on the new gundalow this past May (2011) at Puddle Dock on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum, a team of professional boat builders was hired to put the new wooden boat together under the direction of master shipwright Paul Rollins. Every day they are accompanied by experienced and novice volunteers of all ages. Volunteers spin cotton and oakum, staini the planks, sand, seal bolt holes, and manufacture the trunnels (wooden tree-nails that peg much of the boat together). The are a critical part of the team. (Continued below)

“The addition of over twenty volunteers working at the Puddle Dock Shipyard has helped us stay on an aggressive track to launch later this year,” says Molly Bolster, Executive Director of the Gundalow Company.

Portsmouth resident Pete Winthrop is one of them: “I was uncertain about what I could contribute as it had been sixty plus years since I had sanded, varnished and worked on my family's sloop. It did not take long to find modestly unskilled projects.”  What does it mean to be working on the new gundalow? “When putting in volunteer time of six to eight hours a week you begin to sense that you are part of the team and are making a meaningful contribution. Recently, while working in the interior of the hull, I stopped momentarily about two-thirds aft of the bow and looked forward. The ‘spoon bow,’ the deck beams, the knees and the hull planking, the sound of the caulking hammer, each was sending a message. This is for real. I took a deep breath and said to myself this is great, wonderful, and fabulous.”  Winthrop shared the moment with one of the skilled craftsmen and acknowledged that “we were participating in something very special, something grounded in New Hampshire's early history. This new gundalow will be a platform not only to make the past come alive but also to introduce and highlight the challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Volunteers hail from Brentwood, Greenland, Hampton, New Castle, Newington, North Hampton, Nottingham, Portsmouth, and Stratham, New Hampshire and Berwick, Eliot, and York, Maine. They work daily aside the boat builder crew, as well as provide interpretation, support education programs and help maintain the Captain Edward H. Adams.

About the Gundalow Company: Since 2002, the non-profit Gundalow Company has used the Captain Edward H. Adams – a replica modeled after the last gundalow to carry cargo on the bay – to provide “dockside” programs to more than 100,000 visitors.  Recognizing the need to get students of all ages to genuinely connect with their rivers and bay, the Gundalow Company is building a new gundalow that will be certified by the U.S. Coast Guard for passenger-carrying vessels. The shipyard at Puddle Dock is open daily from 10am-5pm with admission to Strawbery Banke, or free to members through October 31, 2011

For centuries, gundalows connected up-river seacoast communities with Portsmouth, the region’s seaport and primary market town.  Harnessing the wind and riding the tide, gundalows moved bricks, hay, firewood, and goods crucial to the economy and everyday life. The Gundalow Company takes its inspiration from the vital role of those historic gundalows, vessels unique to the Piscataqua Maritime Region.  This new gundalow’s educational purpose is as important for the future as its predecessors were for the past. For more information, or to become a volunteer visit www.gundalow.org or call 603-433-9505.

Photo: Credit Ralph Morang. Left to Right/ Back Row: Joe Taylor, Cliff Punchard, Peter Happny, Geno Scalzo, Pete Winthrop, Andy Ritzo, Phil Geraci, Nate Piper. Front Row: Dennis Glidden, Paul Rollins, Sue Kaufmann, Nate Greeley, Nick Brown