I've had my eye on this sweet little catboat docked off the rear of Floyd Norton's boathouse for the past couple of weeks. I ran into Floyd at Depot Market yesterday and was glad to have a chance to inquire about it. According to Floyd, this boat was built by our own Manuel Swartz Roberts in his shop - now Old Sculpin Gallery - that happens to be diagonally across the street from where she is now berthed. Floyd says, "She's right where she belongs, back home." Floyd also told me that the boat was donated to the MV Preservation Trust (full Vineyard Gazette story: link). He also shared boyhood memories of climbing down into the boats as Manuel was building them and gathering up the wood shavings. "He'd give me a pot of copper paint and a brush - I thought I was really something."
Old Sculpin Gallery, the former home of Manuel Swartz Roberts' boat-building shop. The wide wood floor of the gallery still has the worn spots - in the shape of a boat - that reveal where Manuel's main work area was.
I would have loved to have found the original owners name, but this was the best that I could come up with.
ReplyDeleteThe Edwina B. is one of only three surviving catboats designed and built by Manuel Swartz Roberts in his boatbuilding shop, now the home of the art gallery, Old Sculpin.
Originally built as commercial fishing vessels, these classic New England craft were also popular with summer residents as sturdy recreational boats.
After passing through several hands, the Edwina B. was acquired by George Griswold in 1968, who returned her to the Vineyard in 1989. The boat was given to the Preservation Trust in 2010 by George Griswold, Jr. and Wendy and Boatner Reily. She is moored at the Norton Boathouse, across the street from the wharf building in which she was built.
Good job, Allouise in finding the above info (with thanks to the Dukes County Historical Society).
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