Friendship sloops were Maine's first lobster boats

Sat, 07/07/2018 - 8:30pm

Sarah Thompson

Hundreds gathered for the launch of Blackjack, a 118-year-old Friendship Sloop built in Friendship, Maine. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

2016 photo of Blackjack. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Belfast Fiddlers. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

A high perch. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The crowds were long gone by 2:05 p.m. when completion of the launch was left to mother nature. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Hundreds gathered for the launch of Blackjack, a 118-year-old Friendship Sloop built in Friendship, Maine. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

2016 photo of Blackjack. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Belfast Fiddlers. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

A high perch. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The crowds were long gone by 2:05 p.m. when completion of the launch was left to mother nature. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

ROCKLAND – Throughout the journey from boat storage to public landing, many hands held the support line of the newly restored friendship sloop Blackjack. Four oxen pulled the vessel just as ancestors might have done for other Wilbur Morse sloops 100 years ago. Yet, in the end, the launch completion for Capt. Jim Sharp’s three-year project was left to high tide.

As each set of two oxen were led away from the water line at Snow Marine Park, Saturday, July 7, having done their job, the crowd of hundreds applauded the animals for their work. The vessel, still on its foundation, managed a little further into the water. There, the boat sat. No amount of pushing by hand, or pulling by line, could free the sloop from its berth.

For at least two of the three hours that it took to haul the 118-year-old vessel from the Sail, Power, and Steam Museum to the water, a committed, yet changing tide of people surrounded the intermittently moving vessel and oxen. The crowd’s enthusiasm held strong. They patiently waited for the vessel’s return to water just as the team of professionals and volunteers had patiently toiled Blackjack’s restoration for the past three years.

“It was a hazard to the community,” Sharp told the crowd before a champagne toast. “We replaced everything, and we did so as Wilbur would have done it.”

Friendship sloops were Maine's first lobster boats and are symbolic of Maine's fishery, according to a news release. In July 2015, Captain Sharp and a few Maine legislatures celebrated the 135th anniversary of the Friendship Sloop.

Chellie Pingree read the following statement during the 2015 anniversary: “Much has changed since 1880, but life on the Maine coast retains many of connections to those earlier days. Hard-working individuals still make their living on the water. Tight-knit communities still pull together for each other. And Friendship Sloops still gracefully ply the waters.”

Though Blackjack’s restoration was completed in the profile of Morse’s lobster fishing sloop, without an engine and with wooden lobster traps, she will carry people.

“They will fish like granddad did,” Sharp said.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com