'Emotional' maritime history revival in Kittery: 1930s rescue boat lands at Wood Island

KITTERY, Maine — It’s not technically accurate to call Friday’s relaunching of the Mervin F Roberts rescue boat a homecoming, but it’s safe to say the fully restored 1930s vessel is right where it belongs.

In a grand maritime ceremony two years in the making, the Roberts returned to the sea at the town dock at Kittery Point and was rowed by oar out to the former U.S. Life Saving Service station at nearby Wood Island. There, the boat was placed in a custom-made steel cradle and then hauled up a one-of-its-kind marine railway into the building, which is currently undergoing a $5.8 million renovation.

Among those manning the oars was the rear admiral in charge of the Coast Guard’s First District, and wooden boatbuilder Nate Greeley of York, Maine, the craftsman who restored the Roberts to its former glory. They led a parade of more than 35 watercraft of varying size and types from Pepperrell Cove to Wood Island, including kayaks, paddleboats, sailboats, motorboats, and a wooden rowboat built and manned by Traip Academy students.

“It was very emotional, a lot of people got choked up,” said Sam Reid, president of the Wood Island Life Saving Service Association. “This was really a high-water mark, for Wood Island and the Coast Guard.”

The old station, literally falling apart just a few years ago, eventually will be the site of a maritime museum, and the Roberts will be a featured attraction. As is the case for many stories in the 21st century, the path that brought the surfboat to its new home started on Facebook.

The backstory: The Wood Island miracle in Kittery

Back in 2020, WILSSA board member Laurence Bussey happened to notice a Facebook ad for an old surfboat. The craft turned out to be a rare Type SR Pulling Surfboat, meaning it was a revised version of an earlier model and powered by oar.

What’s more, experts say, this very same boat was previously berthed at the former Isles of Shoals station just outside Portsmouth Harbor, neighboring Kittery. Tim Dring, a maritime historian and former president of the U.S. Life Saving Service Heritage Association, said it is one of just a half-dozen of its type still in existence, and the only one that has returned to sea.

The Coast Guard had a little more than 100 of these vessels built in the 1930s and ‘40s at its shipyard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, according to Dring. The surfboats featured a watertight deck and self-bailing ports on each side, as well as air casings below-deck for added buoyancy.

Dring said the use of these boats was “more a matter of tradition than necessity” once motorized boats were brought into use, but for stations with beachfront, these lighter vessels were “easier to handle through surf than a motor surfboat.”

Up to eight crewmen would man the oars, while a coxswain took the stern with the steering or “sweep” oar. They could also carry up to 14 rescued passengers, in addition to the crew.

Among those manning the oars of the Roberts on Friday were Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger and WILSSA board member/retired Coast Guard Capt. Jim McPhearson —  sort of a living reflection of this unique branch’s past and present.

More: A boatbuilding class links Traip students to Wood Island Life Saving Station

Roughly 125 people crowded onto the tiny island Friday for the event. A bagpiper performed at both the pier and the island, and the ceremony included a cannon salute as well. Coast Guard chaplain Floyd Grace gave a benediction. When it was all said and done, the Mervin F Roberts was home.

“We weren’t really christening it, we were rededicating it,” Reid said.

Who is Mervin F. Roberts?

This particular SR Pulling Surfboat was named for Mervin F. Roberts, a World War II Navy veteran and beloved longtime resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Roberts once served as a board member and advocate for a boating school in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In honor of his advocacy, the school named one of their boats after Roberts. In the late 1990s, when the institution was unable to repay Roberts for a loan, administrators signed over to him ownership of the boat bearing his name.

Roberts later had to sell the boat. But when the community of Old Lyme learned of Wood Island’s interest in bringing it to a planned New England maritime museum, family and friends of the nonagenarian decided to raise funds to purchase the Roberts and donate it to WILSSA. Roberts, who was 98 years old at the time, had served the town for decades as a selectman, fire department chaplain, Boy Scout leader and member of various boards and commissions.

But most importantly for this particular story, Mervin Roberts was also a man of the sea. He served as a young Navy officer during World War II, earning four campaign medals, including two with combat stars. He remained in the Naval Reserve after the war, and later served Old Lyme as shellfish commissioner along with his other offices.

Unfortunately, Roberts passed away in December 2020, just a month after fundraising efforts kicked off to purchase his old boat. His obituary listed “waterman” among his several other accolades. And in honor of his 50 years as fire chaplain, his coffin was transported in a procession of Old Lyme fire engines to his burial site less than a week later.

Before he died, Roberts also gifted the Wood Island organization with a framed picture of a surfboat crew in action, which will someday hang in the museum.

On Friday, his daughter Edith Main brought a gallon of water from the Connecticut River to the Kittery Point ceremony to rededicate her dad’s old boat. Some was poured into the Piscataqua River, some was poured into the boat and some was consumed by participants. A contingent of about 25 folks from Connecticut made the trip to honor Roberts.

Although the surfboat's actual hull number has not yet been confirmed, Dring said this week “we are reasonably confident that this particular boat did indeed serve at both Burnt Island and Isle of Shoals.” Wood Island also had a similar boat when it was still active.

The Burnt Island station near Port Clyde in Maine, and the local station on Appledore Island were, like Wood Island, manned by surfmen of both the old Life Saving Service and the early US Coast Guard. Formally established in 1878, the Life Saving Service was made up of hardy men who would row out in wooden boats even during the stormiest of seas to aid mariners in distress. In 1915 under President Woodrow Wilson, the Life Saving Service was merged with the Marine Revenue Service to form the Coast Guard.

The boat which was to become the Mervin F Roberts was sold off as Coast Guard surplus in the 1960s before eventually making it to the River School in Connecticut.

Once WILSSA obtained the Roberts, Greeley was brought in to work his magic. As recently as this week, he was still putting on the finishing touches in his shop at the Button Factory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and, truth be told, the restored surfboat looked almost too beautiful to be returned to the sea. It’s truly a work of art.

“Everybody we talked to said, ‘You’ve gotta call Nate,” Reid said recently of Greeley’s 30-year reputation building wooden boats.

The restoration required all new wood, “clinker-built,” meaning it was put together by planks overlapping each other, according to Greeley. The project also included 4,000 copper rivets installed by hand, by Greeley alone.

The Roberts is 26 feet long and seven-and-a-half feet at its widest. An electrical battery system is tucked hidden out of sight beneath one of the boat’s benches, but it’s built for eight oarsmen, two to a bench, along with the steering oar.

The keel is made from wood of the former New Castle home of famous American Impressionist painter Edmund Tarbell, which was destroyed by fire in 2016. Tarbell purchased the Greek Revival-style home in 1905 as his summer residence and built a studio in the back of the house, overlooking the Piscataqua River. The loss of this historic house shook the small town at the time, but now, in a small way, a piece of it is making history again.

“From something terrible has come something wonderful,” Reid likes to say.

The history of marine railway at Wood Island

Pan Am Railways — now known as CSX Transportation after a recent acquisition — provided the former train rails used to create Wood Island’s unique marine railway and also built the boat cradle with galvanized steel, based on historic plans from 1922. In yet another Seacoast connection, the rails, originally constructed in the 1890s, were formerly used by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

They were dismantled after World War II and then stored near Route 1 in Kittery for about 75 years, according to Reid.

The railway now in place at the former Wood Island station is believed to be the only such structure remaining in the entire country.

The station was deactivated in the 1940s after World War II, when the Coast Guard decided to relocate its Portsmouth Harbor station back to New Castle. The building is owned by the town of Kittery, but was headed for demolition after falling into disrepair from decades of sitting empty.

Since its creation in 2011, WILLSA has raised funds to restore the broken-down old structure back to its crimson-and-pearl prime. The museum planned for the site will celebrate the hardy souls – referred to as “storm warriors” by journalists of the day -- who manned the island and other Seacoast stations for more than a century.

Two wooden rowboats built by students at Traip Academy through a partnership program with WILSSA will also be kept at the island, located just off Kittery’s Fort Foster.

The Portsmouth Harbor station was relocated to Wood Island in 1908, after the station at Jeffrey’s Point in New Castle was shut down. It was manned by the Life Saving Service until 1915, and then continued to operate as part of the US Coast Guard until 1948.

About $5.3 million has been raised for this project so far. Donations to complete the renovation efforts may be made at woodislandlifesaving.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Wood Island Life Saving Station in Kittery ME greets Mervin F Roberts