eBay

RARE Old Billhead

Famous Early DORY Boat Builder
Hiram Lowell & Son

Salisbury Point / Amesbury, Massachusetts

1888

For offer - a very nice old piece of ephemera. Fresh from an estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! The Lowell boat shop is the oldest boat builder in the country, dating back to the 18th century. Hiram Lowell was very important in the development of the banks dory. Boat and dory builders, row and pleasure boats of every description built to order at the shortest notice. Seine, trawl, and hand line dories constantly on hand. Hiram and Fred Lowell. Billhead for one 15 foot Dory, sent via Railroad to East Boston, cost $18.50. For Nickerson & Baxter. Manuscript ink writing. In good condition. Fold marks, light browning in a couple areas, creases to upper lh corner. Please see photos. If you collect 19th century advertising history, design, American advertisement ad, Americana, transportation, etc., this is a nice one for your paper or ephemera collection. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins! 1810

Lowell's Boat Shop (Hiram Lowell & Sons) is a National Historic Landmark at 459 Main Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

The shop was built in 1793 by Simeon Lowell. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[1][2]

Located on the banks of the Merrimack River, Lowell's Boat Shop is considered to be the birthplace of the legendary New England fishing dory, originated by Simeon Lowell. His grandson, Hiram, further developed the dory into the simplified Banks dory design that became a mainstay of New England's fishing fleets.[3] An historian remarked, "A Lowell's dory to a fisherman was like a hammer to a carpenter". Hiram also created a seminal form of assembly line production that made Lowell's the world's preeminent dory manufacturer of its day. It is said to have greatly influenced Henry Ford's mass production processes.[4] Within the boat shop's buildings remain such interesting historic features as ancient ship's knees, heavily worn floorboards and two centuries of accumulated paint coat the floors. The oldest buildings remaining on the site are combined Greek Revival structures that were built in the 1860s. A cross-beam features annual production figures, branded into the wood from 1897 through 1919, reveal that 2,029 boats were built here, by hand, in the single year of 1911. Lowell's Boat Shop is also a rare survivor of the many various industries for which the Merrimack River Valley region was known. From George Washington to Barack Obama, LBS has remained in operation through every US presidency on property purchased by founder, Simeon Lowell, in the 18th century.

By the early 1990s, it was decided that the boat shop had to function as a charitable institution to insure its continued operation. To facilitate this transition, The Trust for Public Land helped form the Lowell's Boat Shop Trust and purchased the property. In 1994, the Trust for Public Land granted a preservation easement over the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Newburyport Maritime assumed ownership of the shop in 1994.[5][6]

Boat Shop in 2010

Today, Lowell's Boat Shop is a working boat shop and living museum. The shop continues to build dories and skiffs in the tradition of the seven generations of the Lowell family. Its rich history is conveyed through boat building classes, model dory classes, apprenticeships, onsite programs for scouts, local schools and at-risk youth. Because the cost of building wooden boats provides little profit margin, Lowell's Maritime Foundation continues to find creative ways to augment income. Volunteers, mentored by the boat builders, manage the onsite production of a variety of wood based products that are made from wood that might otherwise be considered scrap. Lowell's Boat Shop actively encourages boat building, tourism and maritime fine arts with affiliations with a variety of government agencies and non-profit organizations. During the boating season, members are able to row Lowell's line of dories and skiffs as a part of the Members Open Waterfront Program. The Boat Shop is fully accessible to the handicapped and guided tours are offered by appointment.

In 2012, Lowell's Boat Shop was chosen to participate in an historic project for America's last extant whale ship, the Charles Charles W. Morgan. A group of local high school apprentices have assisted in the construction of an historically accurate Beetle-design whaleboat replica, which will accompany the Charles W. Morgan when her restoration is complete.

See also

List of the oldest buildings in Massachusetts

List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts

National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts

A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about 5 to 7 metres or 16 to 23 feet long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. They are easy to build because of their simple lines. For centuries, dories have been used as traditional fishing boats, both in coastal waters and in the open sea.

Definition

Strictly speaking, the only true defining characteristic of the dory is that it is planked up with wide boards running fore-and-aft; "It should be well understood, that it is the dory's special mode of construction, not its hull shape, that sets it, and its related sub-types apart from other boats".[1] More generally speaking, the dory can be defined as a small boat which has:

a flat bottom, with the bottom planks fastened lengthwise (bow to stern).

a hull shape defined by the natural curve of a sawn plank (never steam-bent).

planks overlapping the stem at the front of the boat and an outer "false" stem covering the hood ends of the planks.

(with some exceptions) a fairly narrow transom often referred to as the "tombstone" due to its unique shape.[2]

The hull's bottom is transversely flat and usually bowed fore-and-aft. (This curvature is known as "rocker".) The stern is frequently a raked narrow transom that tapers sharply toward the bottom forming a nearly double-ended boat. The traditional bottom is made from planks laid fore and aft and not transverse, although some hulls have a second set of planks laid over the first in a pattern that is crosswise to the main hull for additional wear and strength.

Despite their simplicity of design, dories were known for their seaworthiness and rowing ease, although this reputation owed more to the skill of the operators than inherent factors in the design. Because of their narrow flat bottoms, they have little initial stability and are "tippy". Traditionally, they were designed to carry large amounts of wet fish—often over a ton. They were commonly rowed by experienced seamen who understood the characteristics of the design and could compensate for the limitations. Dories exhibit high ultimate stability, tipping to a point and then stiffening up significantly and resisting further heel. By design they are quite voluminous and can carry a heavy load for their size. Their high sides give ample freeboard even when heavily loaded, and as the load increases, so does the stability.

History

With no clear definition of the type, and few early illustrations or detailed descriptions to go by, the early history of the dory is muddled at best. The first known mention of a dory in detail was in 1719.[1] Until about 1870, there are to be found no recorded dory lines, details, nor any list of particulars that would enable us to say with certainty what the earlier dories were really like."[3] In its most popular form, the dory was created in New England fishing towns sometime after the early 18th century. Howard Chapelle writes, "... some kind of dory boat was in use on the Massachusetts coast as early as 1726."[4] A definite precursor to the dory type was the early French bateau type, a flat bottom boat with straight sides used as early as 1671 on the Saint Lawrence River.[5] The common coastal boat of the time was the wherry and the merging of designs between the wherry type and the simplified flat bottom construction of the bateau initiated the birth of the dory. Other antecdotal evidence exists of much older precursors throughout Europe. England, France, Belgium, and Italy all have small boats from the medieval periods that could reasonably be construed to be predecessors of the Dory.[1]

In 1793 Simeon Lowell founded a likely birthplace of the banks dory, Lowell's Boat Shop in Amesbury Massachusetts. Lowell's Boat Shop has been declared a National Historic Landmark. It is now a non profit working museum still dedicated to building classic dories and skiffs. Simeon's grandson, Hiram Lowell developed the Banks Dory. The major innovation was the straight sides to the new Banks Dory. This made the boats stackable on top one another. This revolutionized the fishing industry because now fisherman would stack 10 Dories on a larger boat and use all 10 Dories at once in order to maximize yield.[6][not in citation given] Founded in 1793, Lowell's Boat Shop of Amesbury Massachusetts is the oldest continuously operating boat shop in United States. It was the first to build these boats in large numbers[dubious – discuss] and excelled at their mass production. In the year 1911 Lowell's Boat Shop produced 2029 dories, averaging 7 dories a working day. A National Landmark and working museum, Lowell's Boat Shop continues to build its dories and skiffs in the Lowell tradition to this day

Dories were widely built from Long Island Sound to Nova Scotia.

Today many Hollywood producers have employed the iconic form of the dory and they are choosing to use a traditional dory over many of the modern-styles of small wooden boats.[citation needed] Some more notable appearances of Lunenburg dories are in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, at the opening scene when Captain Jack Sparrow steps off the mast of his ship Jolly Mon; the final scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End where Captain Jack is seen sailing away in a smaller Black Rocks dory; Reign III when King Francis and Queen Mary take a few days alone to sail together; Pirate Master Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Burnett’s tall ship based reality TV show; and many more![vague]

The Dory Shop Museum, seen on the right, in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

In Nova Scotia, the towns of Lunenburg and Shelburne maintained a rivalry in mass production of dories. A distinction emerged in 1887 with the use in Shelburne of "dory clips", metal braces used to join frames, versus the more expensive but stronger natural wood frames used in Lunenburg dories. The John Williams Dory Shop in Shelburne was one of several Shelburne factories mass-producing dories. It is now the Dory Shop Museum, operated by the Nova Scotia Museum[7] and continues to produce banks dories.

The Dory Shop in Lunenburg first opened its doors in 1917 when W. Laurence Allen began building Banks Dories for the many fishing schooners that filled Lunenburg's Harbour. Though ownership has changed hands a few times since then, they are still producing dories today using the very same jigs and patterns used 100 years ago. Very little has changed in the way they build their dories, however they now also build many other types of wooden boats as well and offer dory building classes for fishing history enthusiasts.[citation needed]

Traditional types

Beach dories

See also: McKenzie River dory

Decked river dories next to rubber rafts in the Grand Canyon

The western river dory, though sharing features with sea dories, is adapted for a different place and purpose. The key differentiating features are wider beam, more flare to prevent waves coming on board, and extensive built-in buoyancy/storage areas with water-resistant hatches to shed water and keep the boat afloat in the event of a capsize. The first small flat bottomed dory run of note on the Colorado River was made by Ramon Montez and George Flavell on an 1896 river cruise from Green River, Wyoming, through the Grand Canyon to Temple Bar, Arizona.[11] Western river dories have additional special features such as strong rowlocks, long oars, and long blade oars to operate in the highly aerated waters in rapids. In rapids the master rower faces down river to see the rock and or hydraulic obstacles. In a rapid the oars are often used to steer the boat as well as to propel it. The first documentation of this "stern first" technique in Grand Canyon was by George Flavell in 1896.[12] Credit for the "stern first" technique is often given to Nathaniel Galloway who used it on his cruise through Grand Canyon a few months after the Flavell-Montez cruise.[13]

Motor dories

With the introduction of the outboard motor the "semi-dory" or "half-dory" was developed. Because typical dory bottoms are so narrow, the thrust of an outboard motor pushes the stern of the dory down creating a very unstable and inefficient boat. The semi-dory is basically a Swampscott dory with the stern widened and the rocker straightened aft to support the thrust of the outboard motor.[14]

There are other larger power dories, notably the St Pierre dory, about thirty feet long and similar in shape to the Banks dory, and the Boston power dory of Boston Harbor. Most modern power dories have a wider stern to support the weight of the outboard. Because flat bottom boats have a well founded reputation for pounding in anything other than flat sea conditions this type is not widespread. Some designers have taken element of the dory and incorporated these in V bottom boats.The planing shoe is a narrow flat section on the bottom of some V bottom boats that promotes planing at lower speed. The New Zealand designer John Welsford created a plywood, multi chine design with a wider planing shoe, suited to lower horsepower motors (10-30) suited to river and inshore use.

Other dories, and related types

Other, less but traditional types were the double ended surf and gunning dories. The pointed bow and sterns made these boats excel at launching through the surf. Gunning dories were built quite light in comparison to the more traditionally constructed beach dories.

The "dory skiff" is another variation of the dory type. For inshore work the transom was widened, and freeboard was lowered making an exceptionally easy-to-row boat that was more stable (initial stability not ultimate stability) than their offshore cousins. However, they are not as seaworthy as the Swampscott or Banks dories.[15]

The Gandelow, much like a dory design from midships forward, is native to the Shannon estuary in Ireland. The main difference is that, at the stern, the gandelow has upper 'butterfly planks' which are twisted to make the stern wider and more buoyant, while the lower planks, twisted opposite, form a hollow boxed skeg, much like a Sea Bright Skiff. The space created, when covered, provides a netlocker and a platform.

The cot, a protean Irish traditional boat, has variants quite similar to dories, although some have a transom bow as well as stern, resembling a jonboat. (The boat name originated as a word for an open dugout canoe, coit, but became used for many types of small open boats.)

The dory type spread by contact among fishing fleets, and was naturalized in many countries.

Modern interpretations

The Gloucester light dory, a modern dory designed by Phil Bolger

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the dory style. Many contemporary marine architects and backyard amateurs have been experimenting with the dory type and refining the type to some extent. These boats are designed primarily for pleasure and utilize new building materials and techniques not available to the originators of the dory. The basic form remains however ensuring the survival and growth of the type. New England is no longer the center of dory construction and dories have been built all over the world.

Modern dory designers include Phil Bolger of Gloucester and John Welsford of New Zealand. Most modern dories are about 15–16 feet long, built of lightweight plywood, fastened by fibreglass tape and epoxy resin. They are much lighter than traditional dories and compensate for the lack of initial stability by having slightly wider bottoms and very low (8 inch high) seats and are fitted with skegs for directional stability. Welsford recommends the carrying of a water container on a rope that can be thrown to either the bow or stern to adjust trim in different sea conditions. Unlike a conventional wide bottom dinghy it is dangerous to sit or stand in the extreme ends due to the minimal displacement. Modern designs, like their traditional counterparts, gain significant stability when heavily laden amidships.

Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 16,283 at the 2010 census.[4] A former farming and mill town, Amesbury is today largely residential. It is one of the two northernmost towns in Massachusetts (the other being neighboring Salisbury).

History

Settlement period

In 1637 the first English settler in the Salisbury-Amesbury region, John Bayly, crossed the Merrimack River from the new settlement at Newbury, built a log cabin, and began to clear the land for cultivation. He intended to send to England for his wife and children, but they never did rejoin him.[5] He and his hired man, William Schooler, were arrested shortly for a murder Schooler had committed. The latter was hanged for it. Bayly was acquitted. Given the fishing rights on the river by the subsequent settlement, provided he would sell only to it, he abandoned agriculture for fishing.[6]

On September 6, 1638, the General Court of Massachusetts created a plantation on behalf of several petitioners from Newbury, on the left bank of the Merrimack, as far north as Hampton, to be called Merrimac. They were given permission to associate together as a township. Middens of shells and arrowheads marked the former locations of native villages. They had fallen victim to smallpox. The area remained in possession of the tribes along the Merrimack, who hunted and fished there. The settlers formed a militia to counteract the possible threat of conflict. One especially abundant site of middens at the top of a hill, from which a river cascaded, was called by the settlers Powawus (Pow-wow), from the native congress believed to have been held there, and the river, the Powawus River.[7] The hill is part of the left bank of the Merrimack and the river originates in New Hampshire. Today this cascade, sometimes called falls, remains sunken in an urban environment, from which it tends to collect debris.

The settlers of the plantation, who entered Massachusetts Bay Colony through Newbury, were rebels in a cause shortly to be settled by the English Civil War (1642-1651). Although nominally subjects of the crown, they did not in any way obey it. They did maintain close ties with the Parliamentary cause in Britain. The supreme government of the colony was the General Court, which functioned autonomously, passing its own laws, establishing courts, incorporating townships, assuming the power of life and death over its colonists and providing for the overall defense of the colony. They established a Puritan church rather than the Church of England, enforcing this establishment with severe penalties.

In the early spring of 1639 about 60 planters took up residence on land cleared by the natives. In May an elected planning committee of five laid out the green, the initial streets, the burial ground, and especially the first division into lots, apportioning the size of a lot to the wealth of the settler.[8] On September 4 the General Court named the town Colchester, but in October changed the name to Salisbury, probably at the instigation of Christopher Batt, from Salisbury, England. A soldier, he trained the first militia. In November the General Court appointed a government of six, which required that every lot owner take up residence on his lot. They began to assign lots west of the Pow-wow river. On October 7, 1640, the General Court incorporated Salisbury; that is, it granted legal recognition by the colony to a township of that name, with its own government, empowered by citizens populating a territory of legally defined boundaries. The original Salisbury was many times larger than the present. From it several townships were later separated.[9]

On January 12, 1641, a town meeting ordered the first roads north and west of the Pow-wow to be laid out. On April 21 another meeting granted to William Osgood 50 acres of "upland" and 10 of "meadow" along the Pow-wow provided he build the town's first sawmill. It utilized a water wheel driven by the Pow-wow.[10] The mill produced lumber for local use, but also pipe-staves for export. In these times before the separation of Newburyport and the opening of Newburyport Harbor by dredging a new channel, the export route ran down the Pow-Pow, across the Merrimack on a ferry where the public landing now is, over Ferry Road, partly abandoned as Old Ferry Road, and along what is now High Street, Newburyport, to the docks of the Parker River near Lower Green, Newbury. A gristmill was added to the Pow-wow river location in 1642. The 90-foot (27 m) drop of the Powwow River provided water power for a subsequent mill complex. In 1642 also the town ordered 30 families to take up residence west of the Pow-wow and form a "New Town." No volunteers responded.[11] However, this date, the first legal recognition of a municipal entity on the site of Amesbury, is termed its "settlement" by many sources.

On May 10, 1643, the General Court divided Massachusetts Bay Colony into four shires: Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk. The choice of these names was etymologic relative to Boston (Norfolk is "North Folk," etc.). Norfolk contained Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, and Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), none of which had exactly the borders they have now. This division was a legal convenience based on the distribution of courts. Since the first establishment of four courts on March 3, 1635, the General Court had found it necessary to multiply and distribute courts, so that the magistrates would not spend time in travel that they needed for settling case loads. The main requirement for membership in a shire was incorporation.[12]

Private occupation of the west bank of the Pow-wow went on as East Salisbury citizens sold their property and moved to New Town.[13] However, New Town remained a paper construct without enforcement. On January 14, 1654, articles of agreement adopted at town meeting divided Salisbury into Old Town and New Town, each to conduct its own affairs. The border was the Pow-wow. The agreement went into effect on January 19, 1655. In New Town a new government was voted in, which claimed authority over "all matters of publicke concernment."[14] They still paid taxes to Old Town and expected services from it. The board of Old Town contained some members from New Town for fair representation.[15] This agreement also was known as a "settlement", but not in the sense of occupying land, which was already occupied.

On May 26, 1658, New Town petitioned the General Court for independent town status. However, Old Town reneged on the settlement. The petition was denied. The issue focused on religion. The law established the Congregational Church, which meant attendance was mandatory, on penalty of a fine for each missed meeting, and the church and preacher must be maintained from taxes. Old Town simply could not afford to lose the taxes to a new church. Minister Joseph Peasley of New Town and his congregation attempting to defy the General Court were summoned into District Court at Ipswich "to answer for their disobedience" and were fined there. Peasly was enjoined from preaching.[16] The issue dragged on. Another petition was denied in 1660.

The burden of attending church several miles away became so great that New Town built a new meeting house and requested the General Court to find a preacher. The court yielded to the petition of 1666, granting the "liberty of a township" to New Town. The town was unofficially incorporated; that is, a government was constituted and officers elected, on June 15. It was named New Salisbury, but in 1667 the name was changed to Amesbury on the analogy of Amesbury, England, which was next to Salisbury, England.[17] This basis is unrelated to any etymology of the two names. Amesbury was officially granted incorporation under that name on April 29, 1668.

By then the days of unquestioned Puritan power were over. The English king had been restored in 1660, followed by the execution of the leading Puritans as regicides and an attempt to bring the Puritan colony under control of the crown. Charles II attempted to take more of a role in colonial affairs, generally without success. The long struggle between the royalist governor and the General Court began, that court losing much of its power. They were preoccupied for a time by King Phillips War (1675–78), the last maximum effort by the natives to rid themselves of the Yankees. At the end of it the creation of the Royal Province of New Hampshire took away several towns in northern Norfolk shire, brooking the power of the General Court. Massachusetts was reduced in size from most of New England to roughly its current borders. The Court now dissolved Norfolk Shire, transferring Salisbury and Amesbury to Essex County. The issue was by no means settled; the previous northern Norfolk Shire changed colonies a few more times before finally voting to stay in New Hampshire.

In 1876 Merrimac was created out of West Amesbury. In 1886 West Salisbury was annexed to Amesbury, unifying the mill areas on both banks of the Pow-wow River.

Post-settlement

Beginning as a modest farming community, it developed an aggressive maritime and industrial economy. Shipbuilding, shipping and fishing were also important. The ferry across the Merrimack River to Newburyport was a lively business until the construction of bridges to Deer Island. Newton, New Hampshire, was set off from Amesbury in 1741, when the border between the two colonies was adjusted.

In the 19th century, textile mills were built at the falls, as was a mechanized nail-making factory, believed to be the nation's first. The Merrimac Hat Company produced more hats than any of its competitors. Beginning in 1853, Amesbury became famous for building carriages, a trade which evolved into the manufacture of automobile bodies. Prominent manufacturers included Walker Body Company, Briggs Carriage Company, and Biddle and Smart. The industry ended with the Great Depression. Amesbury also produced Hoyt's Buffalo Brand Peanut Butter Kisses.

Newspapers in the 19th century included the Amesbury Daily News, Merrimac Journal, Morning Courier, Evening Courier, New England Chronicle, Transcript, and the Villager. Newspapers in the 20th century included the Amesbury Advocate, Amesbury News, Amesbury Times, and Leader.[18][19]

In 1876, the town of Merrimac was set off from Amesbury.

Twentieth century and beyond

In 1997, the town changed its status to a city, and adopted the mayor and municipal council form of government, although it retained the title "Town of Amesbury", as voters "thought Amesbury was too small and quaint to be a city".[20] Voters approved a charter amendment in November 2011 changing the city's official name to the "City of Amesbury" and removing references to the old "Town of Amesbury" name.[21] The city's seal still bears the name "Town of Amesbury", although the City has put forth a bill to correct the seal with the new name.[20]

The community has an impressive collection of early architecture, particularly in the Federal and Victorian styles. Following a recent restoration of the historic downtown, many new restaurants opened. The "Doughboy", a memorial sculpture by Leonard Craske, stands on the front lawn of the Amesbury Middle School. It was dedicated November 11, 1929. Craske is best known as sculptor for the "Fishermens' Memorial" in Gloucester. There is here a monument erected to Josiah Bartlett, who was born in Amesbury.

Nearby towns :

Cities

Amesbury

Beverly

Gloucester

Haverhill

Lawrence (traditional county seat)

Lynn

Methuen

Newburyport

Peabody

Salem (traditional county seat)

Towns

Andover

Boxford

Danvers (Salem Village)

Essex

Georgetown

Groveland

Hamilton

Ipswich

Lynnfield

Manchester-by-the-Sea

Marblehead

Merrimac

Middleton

Nahant

Newbury

North Andover

Rockport

Rowley

Salisbury

Saugus

Swampscott

Topsfield

Wenham

West Newbury

Census-designated places

Andover

Boxford

Essex

Ipswich

Rockport

Rowley

Salisbury

Topsfield

Other villages

Annisquam

Ballardvale

Beverly Farms

Bradford

Byfield

Clifton

Magnolia

Merrimacport

Rocks Village

Plum Island