I went aboard Bluenose II up on the Bay of Fundy in the late 1950s. A year or two later I sailed into Halifax and in a drugstore there I saw aerial photos of a full rigged ship under sail. I asked what ship it was and learned that it was the HMS Bounty which had also been built in Lunenburg. I've never been to this shipyard but it must be a great center of traditional occupations since they have been able to turn out wooden sailing ships long after other yards have been long gone.

The vessel name, Thayer, rings a bell for me but I am not sure I can place it. Is it possibly the name of a coastal schooner that has been sinking for 70 or more years into a mudbank in the harbor at Machiasport, Maine? There are two wooden ships there that have been landmarks for generations. On various trips to the area over the years I have watched them disintegrate. I haven't been there for going on fifteen years so they could be all gone by now but they sure were picturesque.

Thinking of those old coastal lumber schooners is making me homesick.

I worked for a guy who bought a Grand Banks schooner. Stout and stable, it never lost the aura of its heritage and remained determinedly fishy smelling even wnen outfitted as a pleasure boat. My favorite Grand Banks sailing story is Captains Courageous.

I have been nattering about here. I guess all of these things, "Thayer", "Lunenburg", "Bluenose" set off the alarms on my memory banks.

Sourdough