Admirers of nautical icon Anna hope to prevent her final bow

Jan. 13—CAPE VINCENT — The Anna, a nautical icon beloved by its legion of fans, is on rocky ground after the owner of the 30-foot Block Island trawler expressed some interest in selling the boat, or at least parts of her.

In early December, Ronald J. Trottier, owner of Anchor Marina, 583 E. Broadway St., where Anna has been "on the hard" for about two decades, tasked Marcie Travers-Barth with selling Anna. Tavers-Barth owns The Coal Docks Restaurant & Bar, across the street from the marina. The restaurant building itself is owned by Trottier, who is not involved in the establishment's business or management.

"The owner has asked that I put it up for sale and handle all offers," Travers-Barth posted on Facebook on Dec. 10, noting that the transaction would not result in any money for her. "Buyer(s) must remove it at their own cost. Let's get her sold and keep her part of the Cape Vincent community."

That post set off alarms on the "The Anna" Facebook group page, which says the boat "has become an 'unofficial' beloved icon of the Cape Vincent community." Group members sought ways to save her. Posted ideas ranged from creating a GoFundMe account, setting up a nonprofit, gauging interest from the Mystic Seaport in Stonington, Connecticut, to placement of Anna on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Jan. 3, in a "Letters From the People" submission to the Watertown Daily Times, Cape Vincent resident Victoria Sperry wrote that Anna is a vital source of tourism with a potential of doing much more. "There are a couple of places in the village where Anna could be displayed (with the cooperation of local authorities) if enough people come together and work to make this happen," Sperry wrote.

"It's a romantic thing on my part, Sperry said on Tuesday. "Anna is beautiful. And so many old boats fade into obscurity. But she really is an attraction. People come here to paint and draw her. It's an incentive for people to come to the cape."

Cape Vincent Mayor Jerry D. Golden said the village would have no means to undertake a restoration project involving Anna and finds the arguments to save her don't hold much water. "It's definitely gotten some attention. It's cool looking. I have a picture of it, as do so many other people. There are people out there who think something different, but to me, there's just no value in trying to restore that or have it on display."

He said the ship has been a topic at village meetings, and at one, a question was asked. "Somebody mentioned, 'If some private investor bought it, restored it and made it pristine and gave it to the village — would they take it?' I'm like, that's a lot of hypotheticals there, but I said you could always present something to the village if that were the case, and we could make a decision at that time."

He added, "If somebody said, 'Hey, you could buy the Anna for $20,000 if the village put up the money,' I would say we wouldn't be interested."

A restored Anna would face another issue in the village. "Where would you put it?" Golden said. "If you put it down on the waterfront, then you are blocking peoples' views and that is never a popular thing to do."

The Anna seemed to have made a small statement when she withstood this week's windstorm. "You can see right through the hull, it's gotten so bad," Golden said. "I guess I'm surprised it hasn't disintegrated more."

Sperry and her husband, George C. Sperry, moved to Cape Vincent eight years ago. They previously lived in Ticonderoga, Blue Mountain Lake and Rochester. For 23 years, George has been a marine surveyor, specializing in wooded boats. A marine surveyor's duties include inspecting boats for potential buyers and inspecting them for insurance companies during a claim. George has been doing that for 23 years.

"I'm in my 70s now, and I get to choose the work that I do," he said. "I'm only inspecting old, old wooden boats."

He's seen Anna several times, although not for any transaction.

"It was built very well," Sperry said. "But even well-built boats, when they're not maintained, eventually disintegrate. And this one is well on its way."

Moving it would require care and preliminary work, he said.

"It can't be moved now without reinforcing it," he said. "Either you have to build a cradle for it and move the cradle or you have to go inside the boat and connect the frames together or stabilize it somehow so it can be moved."

He noted that Anna has a copper-covered bottom.

"I've only seen that once before, and that was on a 1940s trawler that I surveyed in Rochester, " Sperry said. "They'd do that to keep from leaking, but it also keeps barnacles and teredo worms from going into and eating the wood."

The hull sides of the boat are more than an inch thick, Sperry said.

"They appear to be Atlantic white cedar and the frame appears to be oak. It's heavily built. It's rotted enough so that when you walk by it where the planks are popped, you can tell how thick it is and what kind of wood it is."

Anna has been described as having "nice lines."

"That means it has a very graceful shape," Sperry said, and that the vessel also has nice sheer — the curved line that runs along the top of the hull from bow to stern.

"It's a style of boat that was popular 90 years ago," Sperry said. "By its shape, it's designed for the ocean."

On Anna's Facebook page, George Sperry posted a photo of a photo of Anna, taken by someone else, that shows the vessel when she was afloat in Cape Vincent.

"The style of boat is called a purse seiner," he said. That fishing technique deploys a large wall of netting around an area or school of fish. The method has been criticized for the capture of non-target species.

Uncertain sale

Travers-Barth took Anna-related calls for less than a week. Those interested in Anna were then recommended to call Trottier. "When I got those phone calls, it was time to negotiate," Travers-Barth said.

But asked if the Anna is for sale, Trottier said, "Yes and no. There are ins and outs. There's a good engine and transmission in it. There's fuel tanks in it. So if somebody wants to do something with it, my first questions are: Do you have workers' comp? do you have liability insurance? That type of thing, because working on that could be quite dangerous, physically."

Trottier has a tentative plan to save at least one section of Anna.

"If I can ever pull together the right set of economics for a brew pub in the old railroad station, Anna's wheelhouse will be part of the interior decoration," he said. The wheelhouse, Trottier said, would come off in one piece, which would allow easy access to Anna's engine, transmission and other "heavy mechanical items."

He said Anna's diesel engine is a Gray Marine 6-71 series, the marinized version of the General Motors 71 Series. The website Diesel World praises it: "Few of its exploits are more memorable, or meaningful, than when it powered the World War II LCVP, Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel, the legendary Higgins Boat."

A rebuilt "Diesel 6-71 Marine Engine" is listed for sale on eBay for $13,950.

"The engines are still sold on the used market," Trottier said. "They can keep the older boats going."

As for the preservation of the rest of the boat, Trottier said, "We'll see what transpires. I'm more motivated to preserve the wheelhouse. The hull means very little, other than it's taking up useful space, and actually collapsing in place."

Trottier said the Anna was originally in front of his marina but was moved to the shoreline, a stone's throw from the river. "The last time I had to move it was for MetalCraft (Marine) getting in business," he said. "It was parked where they got their office."

The Anna is on his private property, but that hasn't prevented scores of people from venturing to the site along the river, especially to pose for photos with her.

"It's something that gets admired," Trottier said. "It doesn't bother me to some extent. However, the marina can get crowded."

Last summer, Trottier put up signs on the property stating, "No public entry. Dock renters only."

As for the ideas floating around to save Anna, Trottier said, "I don't want to say they are far-fetched. They're just people who don't understand, many times, business. I've been around boats and trains pretty much all my life."

Trottier is president of the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York, Croghan. He has operated tourist train lines in Maine, Colorado and Florida and hopes to develop a scenic railway similar to Adirondack Scenic Railway in the Saranac Lake area. He has a managerial background in the chemical engineering field.

One of the popular ideas for Anna is to have her restored to act as a centerpiece somewhere in the village. "Many years ago, I was in tanks on Fort Drum," Trottier, an Army veteran, said. "So if anything I'd just as soon maybe having a tank as a piece. You see them occasionally at veterans' memorials."

He noted that the Anna, born a saltwater vessel, has no legacy connected to the St. Lawrence River. "It's not like a fishermens' memorial."

Asked if he would have a price in mind for Anna if there was a sale, Trottier said, "Not necessarily," or one he didn't want published. "I'd just assume to see what develops. I know there's a few people who keep talking about it. I'm not critical of them or anything. I just got a lot of things to do."

Anna's final journey

How Anna ended up in the village and to Anchor Marina is no mystery. But for those who don't know, the nautical yarns associated with her are faulty, although captivating: She's a former rum runner. Or she was left behind by some sort of fleeing criminal. Perhaps, some believe, she has ties to the mob. A former Lake Ontario fishing boat?

John L. Stiefel of Cape Vincent, with the help of two other crew members, piloted Anna to Cape Vincent more than two decades ago.

Stiefel, who spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard, is a diver and relic hunter. He needed a companion boat for his operation and found Anna for sale in Providence, Rhode Island. The stop-and-go voyage took a little more than three weeks. But her local service was short lived. Anna was put up on shore after about a year. In a barter pact, Stiefel traded Anna to Anchor Marina owner Trottier in return for dock space for another boat.

Anna is food for thought at The Coal Docks Restaurant and Bar, where it has become the establishment's mascot. There's a large mural of her on a restaurant wall and photos and drawings of Anna dot other walls.

"We have over 100 pictures of Anna that people have drawn and given to us or painted and took pictures of that are throughout the restaurant," Travers-Barth said.

Anna is also on restaurant T-shirts, sweatshirts and on Travers-Barth's business card. "During the summer, we normally have an 'Anna Special' every day," she said.

Travers-Barth said she's "split down the middle" when it comes to Anna's future.

"I know everyone loves to come and see Anna," she said. "But she's on private property and I understand the concern there. If she could be moved and left somewhere in Cape Vincent, I think that would make everybody happy. But there's logistics with the upkeep, maintenance and moving it and insurance. I just want what's best for Anna and hopefully she'll end up somewhere where people can enjoy her."

Asked about Trottier's plan to save the wheelhouse and salvage her mechanics, Travers-Barth said, "I think taking her apart will make a lot of people sad. But again, she's on private property."

"It's had a very short life in Cape Vincent," Trottier said. "That's the irony. Its static life has been tremendous."