Ahoy you lubbers! In Yarmouth, a familiar nautical face is set to return to his old haunt
DENNIS − Growing up on Cape Cod, Lou Carrier always saluted the Jolly Captain when he crossed the Bass River Bridge.
For decades beginning in 1960, the iconic plaster seaman towered from his faux-lighthouse perch by what was once the Jolly Captain Motor Lodge on Route 28. Clad in red pants and a blue-and-white striped shirt, the figure beckoned motorists along the South Yarmouth-Dennis line and seafarers across the river.
"It was sort of the kid's responsibility to salute the Jolly Captain," said Carrier, a Dennis native, of the lore. "And if you do it, make a wish. The Jolly Captain will grant your wish."
But in March 2010, a particularly gusty storm blew the Jolly Captain's head off. His headless torso and pedestal were later removed.
Now, in a return engineered by Carrier, a new 10-foot, 275-pound version is set to resume the captain's watch.
A set designer and theme park fabricator for Disney and Medieval Times worked on the Captain.
Carrier said his "mini obsession" over resurrecting the Jolly Captain began in 2015 — in part spurred by watching pieces of classic Cape Cod fade away.
"Even though there's a strong sense of maintaining the integrity of old Cape Cod and all that kinds of stuff, it's slipping away," said Carrier. "And this (the Jolly Captain) is the easiest thing to slip away because it looks like it's too kitschy .... in this new idea of what Cape Cod is."
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The mission seemed like a long shot, especially since the hotel was sold and converted into condominiums in the 1980s under a different name. He tried to contact the condominium manager or residential trustees of the condominiums for several years, before he decided to take matters into his own hands, figuring he'd find a new spot for the figure.
He enlisted friend David Jordan, who is originally from Wakefield but now lives south of Orlando, Florida, for help. Jordan has worked as a set designer and theme park fabricator for Disney, Warner Brothers, Hard Rock International, and Medieval Times.
Jordan drove his "laboratory on wheels" — actually his van loaded with paints, sculpting tools, brushes, and more —to East Dennis in October. For seven weeks, the two worked at the historic Worden Hall on Route 6A, which Carrier and his brother John restored in 2015.
The condo association where the Jolly Captain once stood wanted him back.
Early in the process, through serendipity, Carrier learned the leadership of the condo owners wanted to return to the Jolly Captain name and wanted to commission the construction of a replica of the original figure.
"The moons aligned perfectly," said Steve Agganis, a condo owner and trustee. "It was like hitting the lottery for the captain."
On Feb. 23, Yarmouth attorney Paul Tardif, who is also a condo owner and trustee, successfully petitioned the Zoning Board of Appeals to pave the way for the Jolly Captain's return to his lighthouse. Tardif had already legally changed the condo name back to the Jolly Captain.
"I like the history, I like the old names," said Tardif, who moved to the Cape in 1998. "I never thought the Jolly Captain name was a bad thing. The change occurred well before I got there. We started talking about bringing the name back, and we thought, 'Why not bring the guy back too?'"
'Same rustic look.' The new statue will mirror - and contain bits of - the original.
Jordan melded about 27 bits of the original figure — including pieces of his beard, boot, pipe and neck — together to serve as the captain's heart, tucked inside his chest.
With data they gathered, along with more than 200 pictures from public and private collections, they determined the exact dimensions of the captain within one inch of the original. Jordan also measured the existing lighthouse at the condominiums to understand scale and proportions.
Computer-based color matching was used to help identify the correct paints.
"This new one isn't going to be cleaned up or smooth and pretty," Tardif said. "It's going to be the same rustic look to him. That's going to be the interesting thing, I think."
Carrier said some had suggested painting the captain a bigger smile, but he rejected those suggestions.
"It'd be like if Santa Claus came back and all of a sudden he only had a mustache," Carrier said.
The Jolly Captain's new head is removeable and may travel the Cape once per year.
With a pipe running through the middle of it, the captain's head can be unscrewed. Carrier said they may remove the head for a month each year and have the head travel around businesses inside a plexiglass box with a slit so people can donate to causes related to "keeping old Cape Cod alive," such as historical societies.
Meanwhile, the actual pipe in the Jolly Captain's hand works and can set off fire alarms when tested indoors.
Through the back of his arm is a tube that will go through the side of the wall at the lighthouse. With the help of a fog machine, every 20 minutes or so, the pipe will jettison a huge plume of smoke, said Carrier.
"You never know when it's going to happen," he said. "Now that's one thing the original never had."
Team hopes Jolly Captain to be back on the job by summer.
Before setting out on the project, Jordan said he did not know how memorable the Jolly Captain was to locals. When he returned to Florida and told his longtime butcher about the project, the man — who grew up in Dennis -- "about had a heart attack."
"I've done a lot of work for Disney and all that, but those are huge projects and you might be just a little piece …. this is one of the cool-ugliest things that I've ever done and it'll probably get more recognition," said Jordan.
The hope is to have Jolly Captain back at his post in time for summer. Carrier said he wants to host a "star-spangled" return for the captain, complete with a parade and marching band.
And before the final brush strokes were completed on Christmas Eve, Carrier and Jordan completed a series of stress tests, aiming blowers and fans at the captain to see how he'd fare in high winds.
"There's virtually no chance of that head ever coming off," said Carrier. "It's so festooned in there."
Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Dennis, Yarmouth anticipate return of the Jolly Captain at Bass River
