Loading...
May 08, 1986 - Boats, Old and NewPage 8A/The Suffolk Times /May 8, 1986 Boats., Old and New By PAUL STOUTENBURGH One of the routine spring activities that has always been part of my life is getting the boat ready for launch- ing. My very first experience with boats was helping my Uncle Henry get his wooden rowboat in for the flounder season. Usually the boat would have been left down by the creek and turned over to wait the winter out. If it was done in haste in the fall the bottom would still have its coating of barnacles that would have to be scraped off. It was here I had my apprenticeship in scraping, caulking and painting. When com- pleted, the old rowboat looked like new with its red bottom paint, sparkl- Focus on Nature ing white sides and battleship grey inside. We had no motor in those early days and you rowed to the fishing grounds. I never remember going flounder fishing but I do remember the old galvanized washtub being brought back with what Uncle Henry called snowshoe flounders. They were really big, as the fading photos in the old album can vouch for. I do .remember going weakfishing which, of course, followed the floun- der season. The most notable trip was one in which we went to a spot off New Suffolk. We'd caught some nice fish, five -, six -, and eight - pounders, but a boy in a boat nearby really hooked into a big one. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Over the side the huge fish came, splashing and thrashing like some great silver monster. Uncle Henry said it proba- bly weighed 15 pounds or more. Then a boat loaded with city folks approached and they called over and asked the young boy if he wanted to sell it. "No siree" came the reply as the-young fisherman proudly stood over his thrashing catch. I was glad - he had kept his catch. This was his day. First Boat Later I was given an old duck boat whose canvas covering was rotten and peeling. I don't remember buying new canvas, and I doubt that I did, for in those days makeshift was a way of life. At any rate, it too got its new coat of bottom paint, probably through the courtesy, knowingly or unknowingly, of Uncle Henry. The topsides had to have a special camouf- lage coating, which I mixed up from some old green porch paint, some house paint and who knows what. It came out pretty good, though, and I used the duck boat for many years with that same camouflage covering. During World War II, it stayed in the backyard turned over awaiting my re- turn. From the small rowing -type boats I graduated to my first inboard, which was an old Great South Bay catboat that someone had converted to power. What beautiful lines it had. She was built with two -inch oak ribs and white cedar planking. Her power was a one - cylinder Grey marine engine from which I still carry a scar. I forgot to retard the spark when cranking and the crank literally flew off and hit me in the head. Each year we'd haul her out on planks with a block and tackle and rollers and cover her up for winter. In the spring, we'd. be caulking and painting and getting ready to put her back in. The duck boat and the putt -putt, as I called her, saw the heyday of the weakfish here in our local waters. It was the period when the party boats out of Jamesport, New Suffolk, Boat- man's Harbor, Southold and all along the bay would go out loaded with thousands of city folks to catch the weakfish. On a weekend you couldn't get near the dock area because of the parked cars. The Shrimp Lady It was the era when chumming with shrimp was the way to go. The shrimp would be caught by a special few who knew just when and where to catch them along our creek edges. In our area we had a "shrimp lady" who worked as hard as the best, and everyone around knew her. A small hand -held net would prod the edges of the bog and along the grasses where the shrimp would be concentrated. Then every once in a while, they'd be ' dumped into the shrimp cart pulled by the. wading col- lector. Shrimp were sold by the quart and many a quart was sold. I can remember the concentration of party boats off Roses Grove. They were there by the hundreds. It looked like a solid mass -- each anchored into the current and each with its cluster of fishermen at the stern chumming away with shrimp and hauling in the thrashing silvery weakfish by the hundreds. Some say that was the cause and decline of the weakfish that they were overfished. Who knows? What we do know is that we've never seen fishing like that in the days since. Starting with my first duck boat, I've had many boats. Times have changed, though. We no longer caulk the bottoms because the boats are made of fiberglass. This also makes painting the topsides a thing of the past. Funny, though, when you look back, we caught more and bigger fish with smaller boats and less expense than we do today. Yet we still call this progress. I'm not sure I'd want to swap today's boat for those of the past, but then it does make you stop and think and smile a little. WEST MILL FUELS, INC. FUEL OIL CASH C.O.D. 300 gallons 689¢ 200 gallons 699¢ 150 gallons 72 940 Premium diesel fuel available. Plus tax as applicablel. Prices subject to change without notice. 296 -5146 Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh RENTAL BOATS -- Nothing remains the same. Years back, wooden boats were common. Today, aluminum and fiberglass have taken over because they can be mass - produced and require less maintenance.