WHAT: "Linking Lives: The 200-year History and Role of Sail Ferries on Lake Champlain" with James Bullard and Douglas Brooks.
WHEN and WHERE:
CONTACTS: Pat Kelly, director of Lake Placid North Elba Historical Society, 524-0959, or e-mail thehistorymuseum@verizon.net; or Naj Wikoff, coordinator of John Brown Coming Home, 523-2445, Ext. 108.
WEB SITE: www.johnbrowncominghome.org
E-MAIL: johnbrowncominghome@lakeplacid.com
LAKE PLACID — Memories and memorabilia of sail ferries on south Lake Champlain get the attention real fast of James Bullard and Douglas Brooks.
Bullard, a retired ferry boat captain and Brooks, a shipwright, are always looking for those with long memories or fuzzy photos of the wind-powered, simple flat-bottomed boats that carried two-leggeds, four-leggeds and wheeled conveyances to a dozen landings dotting the lake.
Bullard and Brooks's illustrated lecture, "Linking Lives: The 200-year History and Role of Sail Ferries on Lake Champlain" will be presented today at the Sherman Free Library and Nov. 4 at the Northwoods Inn in Lake Placid as part of the 150th commemoration of the "John Brown Coming Home" festivities.
On Dec. 6, 1859, the abolitionist's body was transported on a sail ferry from Arnold's Bay in Vergennes, Vt., to Barber's Point, south of Westport. Though Bullard and Brooks don't expect anyone to recall Brown's cortege, they are open to new information.
"When I was running the ferry years ago in the '70s, '80s and '90s, people would come across and say, 'Here's an old photograph we found in Aunt Agatha's bureau. Maybe it's of interest,'" said Bullard, of Westport. "This happened any number of times. The photographs showed old cars and old horse and buggies and hay wagons on various ferries on the south lake."
FULL CIRCLE
At their first lecture in Ticonderoga, Brooks and Bullard were schooled on certain histories by descendants of sail-ferry owners.
"Some of the members of those families could engage in the discussion and tell about their family memories," Bullard said. "It did happen in a couple of instances. For me, it's a very rewarding experience. I hope it's equally rewarding for anyone that comes to the lecture. I had more fun and learned just as much if not more as the people who were sitting in front of me."
Thirteen independent ferries operated from Crown Point and Whitehall and in between.
"They were small," Bullard said. "We're going back before the Civil War here. If you look at a map of Bridport, (Vt.), there's a road leading to a ferry landing right straight into Middlebury called Market Road. It's part of (Route) 125. The old route is still there."
In his estimation, the railroads killed the ferries and trucks killed the railroads.
"We've come full circle," Bullard said. "The trucks are what destroyed the Crown Point bridge. The trucks got longer, and the bridge has stayed the same."
Are sail ferries a green alternative?
"Wind power is always going to be there," Bullard said.
SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION
One of the earliest sail ferries operated in 1785 between Chimney Point in Addison, Vt., and Port Henry, according to "Lake Champlain Sail Ferry Replica Project" by Brooks. Five years later, settler John McNeil operated a sail ferry between Charlotte, Vt., and Essex. Ferry owners or local carpenters built the crafts, which ranged between 30 and 50 feet in length.
"They are a very unique vessel in some ways and not unique in some ways," said Brooks, who was the project manager for the Weatherwax, a mid-range replica sail ferry built by Tri-Coastal Marine Inc. in 2001 and '02.
"They are a very simple box-type scow hull, extremely simple construction. The mast is not set to the center line of the hull. It's set over on one side. The reason for that is the sail ferries always depend on the wind blowing directly up the lake or directly down the lake from the north. They always set sail to the downwind side of the boat, so the sail, boom and rig were not swinging across the deck where all the passengers were."
Though the boats may have been built by the owners, Brooks deduced from the rare ferry images that the sails were professionally constructed in Burlington and Plattsburgh sail lofts.
"None of the sails look weird or out of place."
The unnamed ferries were known by their owner's name, for example Wilkinson Ferry, or by a location.
"You don't see names until they become motorized."
Sail ferry owners received state charters to operate.
"There's a rich history that has disappeared. It's a very interesting and untold story. I had some ambition of ultimately publishing something on the subject. There's a lot on naval history and the big commercial ships on the lake but no one has systematically looked at this subject."
Bullard and Brooks's lecture series was spurred by the John Brown Coming Home commemoration.
"John Brown's widow had to convince the ferry owner to go out on the lake," Brooks said.
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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