{"id":11861,"date":"2019-05-17T21:38:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T01:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2019-09-08T00:35:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T04:35:38","slug":"essex-clamming-skiff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/05\/17\/essex-clamming-skiff\/","title":{"rendered":"A Century After They Built The Last Known Essex Clamming Skiff, Constructing A New One"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE<\/strong>: I’ve been commissioned by the Essex County Community Foundation to help document\/promote cultural projects from its Creative County Initiative, which is supported by Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On a damp recent morning, four students from the Northshore Education Consortium\u2019s Topsfield Vocational Academy<\/a> were busy helping construct an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum. It was probably the first time anyone had built one of these vessels in about a century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis boat is a replica of the boat hanging on the wall. That one was lent to us by [Essex shipbuilder] Harold Burnham,\u201d says Christopher Stepler, Operations Administrator for the museum. The skiff had been hanging up in Burnham\u2019s barn, having been in his family since new. \u201cIt belonged to his great aunt. We believe it was built in the 1920s. It\u2019s the last known example of an Essex clamming skiff. \u2026 A lot of these boats only had to last a few years. Then you could throw it away and start all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essex clamming skiffs were icons of the town. You might call them symbols of its clamming soul. Historically, they were ubiquitous knockabout utility boats. They were designed so a single person could row it out to the Essex clam flats. It would sit in the mud as the tide went out and they dug clams. Then they\u2019d use the skiff to haul their catch back in. The skiff was light enough for one person to drag it back up the beach when they returned. \u201cIf you start looking at old waterfront photographs in the area, you\u2019ll see small boats like this,\u201d says Jeff Lane, a boat builder and instructor at the museum.<\/p>\n

\"Building<\/a>
Building an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The skiff building is part of the museum\u2019s \u201cBy Skiff and Basket\u201d project<\/a>, funded by a grant from the Essex County Community Foundation\u2019s Creative County Initiative<\/a>. Supported by Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation<\/a>, the initiative aims to mobilize North Shore artists, arts organizations and community and business leaders to enhance life in Essex County.<\/p>\n

Students will launch and row the skiff on Friday, May 31, with the high tide around 10 a.m. The museum will offer public workshops teaching how to create traditional Essex clam baskets on May 19, June 23 and Sept. 8 and 15. And the skiff will be featured in an exhibition about the history of Essex clamming technology that is scheduled to debut June 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what people have been building here for like ever,\u201d Topsfield Vocational Academy student James Desmond of Rockport says. \u201cIt will be cool to see it all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still carrying on these historical methods,\u201d Susannah Winder, Education and Group Program Coordinator for the museum, says, \u201cbut using them today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Essex<\/a>
Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those Skills Are Still Attainable<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum\u2019s shipyard sits off Main Street in Essex, right on the bank of the Essex River. Here the Story family built boats from 1813 to the end of World War II. The society bought the property in 1993 and has maintained it as a working facility for building, repairing and launching vessels.<\/p>\n

A couple years or so ago, about halfway down the shipyard, one of the buildings sprouted a workshop\u2014a sort of tent of plastic shrink-wrap stretched over a frame of wood and PVC pipes. \u201cIt\u2019s crude and unattractive to look at, but cheap and effective,\u201d Lane says.<\/p>\n

\"Building<\/a>
Building an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The workshop smells of turpentine and smoke from the wood stove in the corner, which has kept the space heated over the winter. In the middle of the dirt floor stands a low platform upon which a revolving crew of about 10 Topsfield Vocational Academy students have been constructing the Essex clamming skiff since last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting the kids to buy into something and follow through and complete a project,\u201d says Mark Webster, a woodshop instructor at the vocational school alternative education program, which serves middle and high school students from 10 public school districts across the area.<\/p>\n

At the school woodshop in Topsfield, they build beds, bureaus, armoires, tables and doghouses for homes, police departments and fire departments. (If the school ops to take a project on, they only charge for the materials.) The school also offers training in automotive, veterinary, metal shop, and childcare work. And they\u2019ve got a full culinary arts program. Webster says, \u201cOur goal is to get them a diploma, get them some experience, get them a job reference, and get them on their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tools<\/a>
Tools lay atop measurements of the lines from a century old Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the third year the academy has partnered with the museum. Previously, Webster brought students to help build a Grand Banks dory for Gloucester\u2019s Schooner Adventure and helped maintain the Essex Shipbuilding Museum\u2019s Schooner Lewis H. Story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the woodshop, you\u2019re making furniture,\u201d student James Desmond says. \u201cBut this is something you can use, ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just building a boat,\u201d Webster says. \u201cIt\u2019s teaching them some more work ethics.\u201d They put math to practical use. \u201cWe learn about the history of boat building and how people lived back in the day and what was involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old ways, like the clinch nails,\u201d Topsfield Vocational Academy student Justin Barnes of Lawrence says. \u201cThey\u2019re nails here that they bend up to hold a piece of wood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great project for these guys to work on because it\u2019s simple enough to grasp, but it\u2019s complex enough that it\u2019s challenging. It\u2019s almost entirely hand-tool work. Which is great experience. But it also ties it into the history of it,\u201d Lane says. \u201cI really feel they get a better idea of how things were built in the past. \u2026 Those skills are still attainable. Those skills are still here. We\u2019re not that removed from the knowledge of those skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Webster of Topsfield Vocational Academy (right) and students measure a century old Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keep This Boat Honest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historically, Essex clamming skiffs were constructed in small boatyards throughout Essex and up and down the coast. The students and adults began constructing their replica by studying Burnham\u2019s old skiff. Via a process known as \u201clofting,\u201d Lane says, \u201cthese guys took the lines off of that boat, which is recording its measurements and its shape. Then they drew it out full size on the bench over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students made patterns of the frames\u2014or interior ribs\u2014then went looking for those shapes in living oak trees around town that folks allowed them to harvest. \u201cIf you look closely, you can see the frame follows the curve. That\u2019s where the trunk branched out into a limb,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThey are two pieces, which was typical of that type of construction in that time period. You have to join them somehow because trees don\u2019t grow in U shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The side planking and bottom are pine from \u201clocal tree companies when they have to take them out of people\u2019s yards,\u201d Lane says. \u201cAlmost all the wood was milled right here on site or adjacent to our site.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve built the skiff from the stem of locust wood that forms the bow to the transom that forms the back wall.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Webster of Topsfield Vocational Academy (left) and Jeff Lane, an Essex Shipbuilding Museum boat builder and instructor, work on an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The in-progress skiff sits on a building bed, with the vessel held in place by 2×4 props pressing down from ceiling beams. \u201cYou bend the rocker into the boat. The rocker is the curve in the bottom of the boat. \u2026 So the building bed has pins in it that hold the bow and stern up. That\u2019s where the props come in, to hold the middle shape of the curve, the rocker,\u201d Lane says. With a curved bottom, the skiffs \u201crow nicer. It makes for a better boat. You want the ends of the boat out of the water, or almost out of the water. \u2026 Because if you\u2019re dragging the stern through the water that stern causes a lot of drag. You need some depth just to carry some weight, but you want the ends out of the water as much as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen on to your planking,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThere are three planks on each side of this particular boat. \u2026 They overlap. It\u2019s called lapstrake. There\u2019s a bevel cut into the top of the preceding plank. Then you have to mach that bevel to the next plank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plane the top of it to make it at an angle,\u201d Topsfield Vocational Academy student James Desmond explains. \u201cThen we overlap the two pieces. Then we use the clinch nails to connect the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to carvel planking, in which a hull is composed of boards that abut each other with cotton pressed between to seal the seams, lapstrake construction saves in planks and framing and creates \u201ca skin that has some structure of its own,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThese boats were built like this because it was faster and more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Susannah<\/a>
Susannah Winder, Education and Group Program Coordinator, planes an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The planks are fastened together with clinch nails, sometimes spelled clench nails. Lane says, \u201cWe have bronze ring nails, which come from real factories, but these copper clinch nails come from Strawbery Banke [Museum] in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They\u2019re still running antique nail machines. They start with a sheet of copper and can bang these out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinch nails \u201cget folded over on the inside, so they\u2019re almost like a staple. That way it has excellent holding power,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThe two planks you\u2019re fastening are very thin. \u2026 There\u2019s not a lot of wood there to grab. By folding it over and fastening it on the inside, you\u2019re making a much stronger joint.\u201d<\/p>\n

As April came to a close, the students were working on the skiff\u2019s risers, which hold up the seat. They had only to construct the seat, a false stem for the bow, a kind of mini keel called a skeg, and some stiffening braces called quarter knees and the breast hook.<\/p>\n

\"Building<\/a>
Building an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with the skiff project, beginning May 19, the Shipbuilding Museum will offer public workshops on how to construct clamming baskets of the early 20th century based on instructions from Maine craftsman Billy Ray Sims. They\u2019re built from galvanized wire with white oak splits woven through the top. (Today clammers tend to use plastic grocery hand baskets and then empty the clams into a mesh bag like an onion sack.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know when the last Essex clam basket was made,\u201d Stepler says. \u201cThey were in use until something better came along. It is a transition that has no firm date. Just like when they started putting outboard motors on the skiffs and moved to aluminum, it has no firm date.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the replica Essex clamming skiff is finished, the museum plans to have Ian MacDougall \u201crow down the river using the boat and baskets and dig a tide of clams and come back on the rising tide,\u201d Stepler says. \u201cIt will be the first trip using one of these boats and the baskets together for decades. \u2026 It\u2019s a symbolic connection of the past and the present. It\u2019s a way to keep this boat and these baskets honest. If we didn\u2019t get the boat disgusting and muddy and full of clams \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t feel as good about it. It\u2019s just that little bit of historic integrity. If you build a beautiful working boat and then you don\u2019t work with it, as a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Essex and the shipyards and the industry that worked here, it doesn\u2019t feel complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Essex<\/a>
Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Essex<\/a>
Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Essex<\/a><\/p>\n

Essex Shipbuilding Museum (left) and H.A. Burnham shop in Essex, April 26, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: I’ve been commissioned by the Essex County Community Foundation to help document\/promote cultural projects from its Creative County Initiative, which is supported by Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation.\u00a0 On a damp recent morning, four students from the Northshore Education Consortium\u2019s Topsfield Vocational Academy were busy helping construct an Essex clamming skiff at the Essex Historical Society […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,120],"tags":[605,567,604,357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11861"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11869,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11861\/revisions\/11869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}