See lobster boat sketch graphic.

Staff Writer

BEALS ISLAND — For admirers of the Maine lobster boat, this is hallowed ground.

This small island south of Jonesport is recognized as the birthplace of the modern lobster boat and still puts its stamp on a majority of the lobster boats built in Maine.

There are only four boat shops on Beals today, down from nearly a dozen 50 years ago when fishermen from all over New England came here to buy wooden boats. Yet several of the town's well-known builders have licensing agreements with fiberglass manufacturers, and boats of their design are moored in almost every harbor in Maine.

These builders, Ernest Libby, Calvin Beal Jr., Osmond Beal, and others, all began their careers working in wood. By the mid-1980s, they had translated their designs to fiberglass. Since then, wooden lobster boats have become a rarity in Maine, except for a few that have been exceptionally well cared for -- and relics rotting by the water's edge or covered with sheets of fiberglass for reinforcement.

The youngest of this generation of builders is Calvin Beal Jr., who at 63 is now building one last boat from start to finish, a wooden 28-footer named Little Girl that he is working on with his son, also named Calvin.

Beal said he wanted to build a wooden boat, something he hadn't done for 20 years, because his son had never seen how it's done. In all likelihood, Little Girl will be the last wooden lobster boat built on Beals Island.

"I don't believe they'll ever build another one around here," he said.

For just this reason, a team of people from the Penobscot Marine Museum and the National Park Service who are attempting to document traditional Maine lobster boats stopped by Beal's shop a month ago. They brought a suitcase-sized device that uses a laser to measure a boat and convert the dimensions into a line drawing. Little Girl was one of 11 wooden hulls they documented in the Jonesport-Beals area. The team also has made trips to Stonington and Mount Desert Island for the same purpose.

"These things are fading from view and disappearing," said Penobscot Marine Museum director Niles Parker. "We have to do something to see what we can do to preserve them."

For his part, Beal is concerned with another Beals Island tradition, that of trying to build a boat faster than the one you built before. Beal and his son began work on Little Girl in April 2006, stopped for the lobstering season, and started up again this January. They intend to launch the new boat in time to compete in the July 4 lobster-boat races on Moosabec Reach. With a diesel engine that will deliver up to 400 horsepower, Beal said he believes the boat should reach 40 mph.

Beal designed Little Girl in the style of the boats built on Beals Island in the 1970s. The boat is framed in oak and planked with cedar, all from trees cut in Washington County. The hull is painted white with a red bottom and buff trim that Beal said was favored by local builders. "Some of them called it the Beals Island chrome," he said.

Beal, whose own lobster boat is made of fiberglass, is not one to express nostalgia for wooden boats. For a fisherman, he said, "glass boats are the way to go" because of their lower maintenance requirements and longevity. Building Little Girl was more difficult than he expected, he said, because local mills have gone out of business and quality wood is scarce.

But lobster boats were more unique when they were built of cedar and oak, he said. Builders always made small adjustments that came to define each boat. "You could still tell whose boat was whose," he said.

Beal's son said building Little Girl has been more demanding than he'd expected, too. He said his previous experience hadn't prepared him for the close tolerances and patience required for working in wood.

"You've got to be 10 times more qualified to do this than build fiberglass," he said.

Despite the extra effort, Beal seemed pleased with the results in his own reserved way.

"This boat came out fairly good," he said. "Better than most."

Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:

sharkness@pressherald.com