A number of years ago, I was the recipient of a wooden model
boat, handcrafted to scale. My father built it when he was a kid, using plans
he found in an old Rudder or Yachting magazine from the late ’40s—the
Pavana, designed by naval architect, Philip
Rhodes. It has always held my fascination and when I set out to write Uncharted: Story
for a Shipwright, I incorporated the refitting of a boat from that era with
the Pavana in mind. I gave her a new
history and renamed her Mary-Leigh,
built by Buck, the old-timer shipwright of Uncharted.
In my research, I found that the Pavana still exists and bears the distinction of once belonging to L.Corrin Strong, a U.S. Ambassador to Norway. She has sailed between Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Australia, was dry-docked in Maryland USA, and is currently undergoing refitting by a shipwright in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, where she continues to pique the imagination.
One piece of research that continues to fascinates me is the Pavana’s log*. It captures the tail end
of the pre-fiberglass, wooden boatbuilding era, with all its romance. One of my favorite images from the log is a
photograph from May 29, 1949, with the caption, ‘We serve cocktails onboard’,
accompanied by a charming description of one of Pavana’s first excursions. I love the description of how ‘four
youngsters of assorted ages…swarmed all over the boat but did no damage and got
into no trouble’.
Another is of the owner and friends, sailing at
a good heel with the mizzen mast in the background.
But my most favorite
photos are from an old magazine, The
Chesapeake Skipper, (June 1948). They are of the Pavana (previously named Mansurah and changed before launching)
under construction. Although Pavana’s
builder, H. K. Lagare of the Balco Yacht Co. is pictured, I envision old Buck
posing for the photograph, beaming with pride and imagining voyages and
adventure.
In Uncharted, Buck’s grandson, Samuel, stuck in a rhythm of
mediocrity, is restless for that adventure. Buck insists, “The sea is in your
blood, surging with all its turbulence and as subject to longing and
discontentment as the sea is to the tide.” Sam used to laugh it off as the
romantic notions of an old man. He assumed that over the generations his
seafaring blood had thinned, had been adulterated by the contented sort who stuck
around. That he, a shipwright himself, would be one of the guys who married
some local girl and carried on the family business, placating himself with the
occasional weekend sail. As the story unfolds, he isn’t so sure. What Samuel
Wesley does know is that there’s a romance to living on the water and being
skilled in a trade that, for centuries, has been the backbone of the maritime
industry, and the Pavana captures
that romance.
* Thanks Henry Strong, grandson of L.Corrin Strong for
permission to share this log. The remainder of the log may be viewed here.
