E D I T O RO'N S P B IOCOKKSS
Mystic Whaleboat Memories
LEFT: WALT ANSEL HELPING HIS FATHER, WILL, WORK ON A MUSEUM BOAT IN SPRING 1981. ABOVE: WALT AND EVELYN ANSEL. BELOW: WILL ANSEL.
M
y dad, Will Ansel’s, whaleboat building efforts at Mystic Seaport were very big on my horizon as a kid in the 1970s. Will, with Maynard Bray’s support, set out to build the first 19th-century style whaleboat since the last Beetle boats of the 1930s. While beautiful as seabirds, these whaleboats were tools intended for one deadly job and were entirely utilitarian. Their short life span (one to two whaling voyages) was reflected in their practical and quick construction. Beautiful sea boats, great for rowing and sailing, whaleboats also often undertook astonishingly long survival voyages, and there are many accounts of their roles in rescuing their crews from dire circumstances. Although whaleboats were almost extinct outside museums in the 1970s, their legacy was well known. Mystic Seaport needed whaleboats to outfit the whaleship Charles W. Morgan after she was floated off her sand berth in December 1973 and was moved to the Museum’s Shipyard for bottom restoration. Will was charged with the task to build, research, and actively use replica whaleboats at the Museum. His book The Whaleboat: A Study of Design, Construction and Use from 1850 to 1970 (1978; 2nd ed. 1983) was the product of this effort. The 38th Voyage of the Morgan with her complement of ten newly built whaleboats presents an opportunity to revisit and re-
publish this unique study. The new edition Leo pronounced it a “good job.” I remember clearly her graceful look with a white hull, a of the book, which will be published in midrobin’s egg blue sheer strake, and black rails. May, will have two additional parts. One will Together with Mystic Seaport’s demonbe a detailed construction chapter for the stration interpreters (“The Mod Squad”), Beetle whaleboat written by me. The other Will quickly put the new whaleboat to use, will be an in-depth description of the 2013 rowing and sailing her on the Mystic River. National Whaleboat Building project by my Testing this unique craft on the river was to daughter, Evelyn, who thereby will be the open a window back in time third generation Ansel to be to 19th-century whaling. Sea involved in telling the story trials also consisted of a race of the American whaleboat. around Fishers Island against Will first chose to build a modern boats and a rough Leonard whaleboat replica weather passage to Newport, from a boat shop near New RI, under the command of Bedford, MA. This handsome Jan Miles, then mate of Briland beefy boat was chosen liant. These many intensive because it had one of the few PHOTOGRAPH © EVELYN ANSEL boat trials resulted in a broken line plans (at the time) that mast, boom, and rudder fittings. had been drawn by a competent boat The new boat and her crews proved that designer, William Hand. With plans in hand, whaleboats were indeed amazingly able, Will set out to build the boat on the deck seaworthy, and a quick craft that histories inside the carpenter’s shop in the Shipyard had alluded to. where the live oak break table sits today. As a young kid crouched in the bilge, Before getting too far along, Will was spray flying over the hard-pressed whaleintroduced to Leo Telesmanik, the man boat, I have to admit that my feeling of terror behind the Beetle Catboat. As an apprentice was well mixed with history and romance. If in the 1930s, Leo had helped build the last you have a chance, pick up the new edition few New Bedford whaleboats while workof The Whaleboat; the rest of the story is ing for the Beetle Boat Company. Leo was a there —and if you need to build a whaleboat legendary boat builder, who came to Mystic to outfit your whaler, you should be all set. to teach and pass along the finer points of planking a whaleboat to Will. When the Mystic-built “Leonard boat” was launched,
Walt Ansel is a senior shipwright at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport.
SPRING / SUMMER 2014
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