BAGHEERA’s Lineage
To the Editor of Woodenboat:
With one small exception, I thoroughly enjoyed Todd Schwede’s article “Saving BAGHEERA” (WB No. 308) describing the extensive rebuild of the 72′ Alden schooner in 1985–86. The boat was in my family from 1960 to 1975, and during that time I also spent a couple of years trying to save BAGHEERA, albeit as a youngster learning on the job rather than as a professional of Mr. Schwede’s caliber. In my mature years, I used to sail past her on Casco Bay and wonder at how many people, including myself, have put so much of themselves into keeping that boat alive. She is truly something special.
My one exception to the enjoyment of the article, which is not a criticism, is that my family’s ownership is omitted in her pedigree, which includes the following: “She…was owned by the Weir [sic] family from 1948 through 1973.” This is not accurate.
Dale Weirs bought the boat in 1948, but sold her in 1956 to R.S. Brown. Mr. Brown, in turn, sold her to my father, Carter Bacon, in 1960. My father turned the boat over to me in 1972, allowing me to spend two-and-a-half years working on her as I sailed her from the Great Lakes to the Galapagos Islands and back to Florida with numerous friends and family members as crew. In 1975, after our trip, my father sold the boat.
The ownership error in the article is understandable because the U.S. Coast Guard ownership records, on which the claim of “Weir” family ownership is based, seem to indicate that my father bought the boat in 1973.
The confusion arises because BAGHEERA’s federal ownership records were dormant when my father bought the boat in1960. By then she was registered under the State of Michigan system and had state registration numbers on her bow. After buying the boat my father learned that she was a federally documented vessel. However, throughout my childhood and teenage years she was registered as a Michigan boat.
When I took over the boat in 1973, I wanted a proper federal documentation. Over several months I obtained a bill of sale from Mr. Brown and a signed instrument from Dale Weirs’s widow releasing a mortgage on the boat granted to Mr. Weirs by Mr. Brown when he first bought the boat. I submitted these papers to the Coast Guard and obtained a documentation certificate showing my father as the owner. With this in hand I terminated the Michigan registration. The papers were recorded in October 1973, so it looks as if that is when my father first acquired the boat, even though he purchased it in 1960.
I believe that my father, who was only 35 when he bought BAGHEERA and was impatient with legal niceties throughout his long life, did not understand the significance of a documented vessel. He did not hire a lawyer and would have accepted a bill of sale from Mr. Brown because Mr. Brown was listed as the owner on the Michigan registration. I do not believe my father understood that he could check for a clear title by requesting a document transcript from the Coast Guard. Why did Mr. Brown register the boat in Michigan if he had a documented vessel? I do not want to speculate about that. I assume his debt to Mr. Weirs had long since been paid in full by the time I asked Mrs. Weirs for a release.
The lessons: (1) if someone is selling you a boat registered under a state system, check to see if it is federally documented—you might discover a mortgage; and (2) do not assume that a Coast Guard ownership transcript always tells the real story.
Carter Bacon Jr.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Naval Stores
Dear WoodenBoat,
Reading Dr. Jagels Wood Technology column, “Tree Resins in Boat Finishes” (WB No. 307), I was intrigued by his description of the historical use of tar. As most residents of the Old North State will concur, any discussion of tar piques our interest. North Carolinians are, after all, known as Tar Heels!
In 2018, I had the unique opportunity to participate in the archaeological excavation of a relic tar kiln in eastern North Carolina dating to the mid 1800s. Interpreting the remains of this tar kiln led me to a wealth of historical information about tar, its uses in building and maintaining sailing vessels, particularly those of the British Royal Navy, and the naval stores industry in the American Colonies. Dr. Jagels writes that tar is the byproduct of charcoal production, and while this is nominally true, there’s much more to the story. The production of tar and turpentine were the core of the naval stores industry that was a major economic driver in Colonial America and throughout the 1800s, and most naval stores products came from the pine forests of coastal Carolina. Resin harvested from living trees (primarily longleaf pine, pinus palustris) was used to make turpentine and tar. Overharvesting eventually killed the trees, and it was then that kilns were used to force the last bit of resin, in the form of tar, from billets split from the dead trees. An open-source article that describes the technology behind tar kilns and how they were constructed, why Great Britain turned to the colonies as their primary source for naval stores and what they did to promote this industry, can be found in the North Carolina Archaeological Society’s publication, “Anatomy of a Tar Kiln,” North Carolina Archaeology (2018) vol. 76, pp. 48–76 (https://www.ncarchsociety.org/ncarchjournal).
Many thanks to Dr. Jagels, whose columns never fail to inform and inspire me.
Joseph Herbert
Carrboro, North Carolina
The Legacy of Sam Rabl
To the Editor,
Stan Grayson’s article about Sam Rabl (WB No. 307) exemplifies a philosophy that can be valued over a lifetime afloat—boats shaped by simplicity and experience, and by judgment rather than excess. Sam Rabl’s reflections echoed that same truth: that a good boat earns her reputation honestly over the years.
FAIR DINKUM was built by Dean T. Stephens in Alameda, California. She is currently berthed in Toledo, Oregon. After 55 years of stewardship, I can say with confidence that the qualities highlighted in this issue—balance, restraint, and sound construction—are not abstractions. They are the reasons a boat remains trustworthy long after her launch day. One of my quiet satisfactions is seeing FAIR DINKUM under sail on San Francisco Bay in Sam Rabl’s book, Boatbuilding in Your Own Backyard (page 182, Second Edition).
Keith Korporaal
Toledo, Oregon
