Fire in wood stove

The following are excerpts from letters between Mrs.Betsy Jones, owner of schooner Silverheels, and previous owner Robert Raymond, in 1984.

" We acquired Coaster in October of 1955 from John Shore in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. We were her seventh owner and somewhere at home I have the names of all the others. Murray himself was the first owner and sailed her himself for two years before building the second Coaster.

The winter of 57-58, we brought Coaster south to the Bahamas, living aboard with our two small children for eight months- teaching school in the bargain. Between the Exuma Cays, Saint John, New Brunswick Canada- Over seven seasons we sailed her.  She poked that handsome bowsprit into hundreds of harbors. We sold her to Lael and Dodge early in 1963, the winter before Silver Heels was launched.

You might be interested to know, I was not enthusiastic to build Silver Heels, in fear she would not be as great as Coaster. For us she is, but Coaster was a very great little ship and a very important part of all our lives. Our relationship with Murray ( Peterson ) was very close, and we still see his widow and children often...He was a real artist and a gentleman of the highest integrity, both in his work and in his dealings. I asked him when we first had Coaster if there were any significance in the #101 on the plaque in the main hatch. He replied " You've got to start somewhere." She was his first design ever. He was working for John Alden then, back in 1931."

We met Baxter Still in Nassau, Bahamas in January 1958 while in the yacht haven there.  He was her fifth owner and was, of course, delighted to see her.  He was quite a character and, as I recall, he was the "captain" of or was delivering a large yacht at that time.  After enjoying the "Coaster"  himself for two years, Murray Peterson built Coaster II for himself and should "our" Coaster to someone whom Baxter thought was named "whitey".  Since then we met a gentleman named "Pop" ("Stewart?) Anderson who, I believe, was the second owner.  He kept her in City Island at the very western end of Long Island Sound, lived aboard, and commuted by subway to a job on Wall Street.  He did not cruise very much with her, though he was a member of the Cruise ship Club of America when we knew him.  He is deceased. "Pop" sold her (sorry I have no dates) to a man named Hardy who had four sons and who sailed her again in Maine. according to Baxter. The next owner's name was Grafton.  He had great ideas and added a pulpit on the bowsprit (which had been renamed before he saw her but was in some early pictures) and installed a huge Chrysler Crown engine which was so large it protruded a foot or more into the galley.  We replaced that with the 4 cylinder Mercedes whish was still in when Dodge and Lael owned her.

Baxter still said he bailed the boat out of a boatyard in Duxbury, Mass. (near Plymouth) and took over ownership from Grafton.  Someone told us early on that "Coaster" was laid up in Duxbury during World War II and that  a coat of aluminum paint was sprayed liberally on her metal works.  It was still apparent on the shrouds when we owned her.  Perhaps this dates the change from Grafton to Still at the end of the war. Baxter really sailed her, making two round trips to the Bahamas and at least one to the Virgin Islands. He said he sailed her nonstop alone from the Virgin Islands to Boston.  He did a lot of single handling, and I think, chartered her in the islands.  He did a lot of work on her, added the davits, and changed her color scheme from white, as Murray had her, to the dark green I presume she still wears. Still said by the time he paid Grafton and all the bills owing on "Coaster", he had $8200 in her.  Murray had told us she cost $7500, ready to sail, in 1931. Baxter sold "Coaster" to two men, John Shore and a man name Hart.  They sailed her on the coast of Maine in the summers for several years until Hart sold out his interest.

The first time we saw her we were cruising in our Friendship sloop.  It was love at first sight and we took a whole roll of movie film of her leaving the harbor under sail the next morning.  We noted with pleasure that her owners were gray haired and sure enough within a couple of years she was advertised for sail in "Yachting".  It was October ('55) and she was laid up in Boothbay Harbor at the time- not in very good shape- filthy below and pretty sad all around.  But obviously worth restoring- besides we were hooked.  We bought her from John Shore. Over the winter Jonesy had many telephone conversations with Murray whose help in choosing the new engine was invaluable.  He was obviously pleased that she was to be loved again and taught us so much about her.

Our first cruise in July 1956 was short because of numerous delays in getting her ready to leave the boatyard.  We did go east from Boothbay as far as Northeast Harbor and then sailed her her home to Harwickport. I find no log for the summer of 1957 and suspect that we were so busy preparing for the trip south that we must have cruised only locally- which isn't too bad with Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard easy day's runs. "Coaster" left here on October 4, 1957 for the trip to the Bahamas.  We went west through Long Island Sound, through New York Harbor, and down the New Jersey coast.  Then up Delaware Bay and down Chesapeake Bay.  The Intracoastal Waterway really starts at Norfolk, Virginia the southern end of Chesapeake Bay.  We left there with our two children, aged 7 and 9 and a young Scottish girl on October 29th, arriving in Miami on November 29th with plenty of time spend along the way for sightseeing and a haulout for paint near Palm Beach.  The distance in nautical miles from Harwickport to Miami via this route i 1631.

We crossed th Gulf Stream from Miami Beach to Cat Cay on December 8th.  We spent Christmas and indeed over three weeks, at Man O' War Cay, Abaco, where we had friends, and then cruised on south to Eleuthua, Nassau, and the Exuma Cays as far as Georgetown.  We returned to Abaco in mid-March.  We sailed back to Palm Beach on April 6th and started our return up the waterway on April 15th.  We sailed 1309 nautical miles in the Bahamas.  Grand total for the trip was 4491.  We arrived home on June 8, 1958, by inside route again. Shortly thereafter we sailed around to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod where we took part in the welcoming ceremonies for the Mayflower II which made her landfall then, as the Mayflower had in 1620. No log found for summer 1958. In 1959 we cruised from the Cape offshore to Boothbay Harbor overnight and thence to the St. Johns River in New Brunswick, Canada.  We were underway July 9 to August 11. 1960 we again sailed offshore to the coast of Maine, this time to Southwest Harbor.  We stayed along the Maine coast, going only as far east as Rogue Island, then cruised home.  We were gone August 6-28.

In 1961 we wen through the Cape Cod Canal and to Provincetown before running offshore to Southwest Harbor, Maine.  (We often do this because we are so anxious to get to that glorious cruising area quickly.  Then we come home along shore into the prevailing SW winds.)  Again we cruised only as far as Rogue I and returned home- dates July8-August 18.  It was in Camden on August 5th that we signed the contract with Camden Shipbuilding Co. to build Silver Heels.  The event took place aboard "Coaster". In the fall of 1961 we took Coaster to Long Island Sound so that we could sail her there in the fall and spring because we were still living in Jew Jersey and it was an easy trip from there to Darien, Conn. We set sail from Harwickport for Maine on August 12, 1962, but if my log is to be believed, that was the end of our cruising on Coaster.  Not so, of course, but I don't recall where exactly we went that final summer.   I know we visited Camden to see Silver Heels.

We think you might be interested in the larger improvements we made during our ownership.  In addition to installation of the Mercedes OM 636, we added about four iron keel bolts.  It was impossible to remove the old ones so we drilled new holes and added the new ones.  The stern showed signs of rot so we pried loose the planks-a monumental job because the hatch nails came out complaining and in like new condition- and installed a beautiful piece of white oak.   Before going south.  Jonesy also engineered and installed an electrical refrigerator, quite a phenomenon in 1957.  Don't know what is there now, but his device froze 80 lbs of water with a coil (also a couple of ice cube trays on top of the block) and simultaneously kept the little fridge cold.  It worked very well and was essential in the Bahamas.  While we owned her, she was always kept in "Bristolfashion", the binnacle polished daily by our children, and flags flying. Don't know if you West Coast TV news covered the sinking of the "tall ship" on its race form Bermuda to Nova Scotia, but Murray's daughter Suzy Howell was navigator on the Marques and was lost.  Needless to say we are devastated.
Hope you enjoy all this. 
Best wishes,
Betsy"


There are more letters, but this one contained the most information. Hope this is as interesting to you as it is to me. I will get the other pictures to you
tomorrow.
Cheers,
Jared