Many who pass by the Stillman Dining Hall on their way to Mass may have noticed an elegant wooden boat in dry dock above the serving line, visible from the plaza near the church. Those who have entered the dining hall will surely have seen it, set against a string of international flags that represent the different countries of those present in the School for the present academic year. While the boat has become a familiar sight, her story remains largely untold. It is worth looking into for historical purposes, and perhaps even for theological insight. Well, concerning the latter, I will spare the reader extended and specious theology here, other than to note the figurative significance of boats in our faith. We might begin with the nave, the central area of a church which is dedicated to the people of God. Nave, related to “naval” or “navy”, is etymologically derived from the Latin word for ship, “navis,” and has long stood as a metaphor for the Church. We also might think of the “Barque of Peter,” a boat also representing the Church, drawn from the waters of baptism, joined to the fisherman, called to be fishers of men. This boat of salvation harkens back to another, the Ark of Noah, which carried all the ancestors of today’s humanity, preserved from the waters of destruction. In Christian typology, the wood of the Ark also alludes to the wood of the cross. Perhaps in our present liturgical season of Advent, we might relate this wood to the wood of the manger, the vessel carrying the infant Savior. Further, boats are supremely significant for us at Portsmouth Abbey, often portrayed by its iconic boathouse. We have had an historic connection to the sea here, witnessed in part by the tile of this very journal, “The Current,” a title chosen in part to evoke the waters flowing by us here, situated on the Narragansett Bay. 

 

Framing underway

 

 

Planking added to the frame

While stories of boats and seafaring often swell with the tide, we should perhaps distill this tale down into some simple details about the history of the gig that sits in our dining hall. The Colette, as she was christened in 1997, was constructed here on campus some 25 years ago. The name Colette is a tip of the cap to Colette Belanger, the Abbey’s seamstress and upholsterer at the time of construction, who kindly was displaced from her workspace as it became transformed into a boatbuilding shop. The space then gained the name, “The Loft,” which it has kept to this day. Brother Joseph Byron was very involved in the project, which he described as “the brainchild of Jeremy Nivakoff ‘97 (now Prior Benedict of the monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy), Peter Elliot ‘97, and Joe Alfred, the former business manager.” In an article written while the project was still ongoing, Br. Joseph wrote: “Twelve students and a boat-builder have taken over the old science classroom adjacent to tennis courts 1 & 2 and turned it into the first Abbey Boatbuilding Shop. Each Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the sounds of calculation and industry can be heard on the lower campus as teachers work through the details of a 27’ four-oared rowing gig.” The “old science classroom,” now “The Loft,” is several generations removed from science, and the tennis courts are now known as the Healey Plaza, a lovely green space graced by a five-streamed fountain. And the byproduct of the “calculation and industry,” after a handful of brief voyages, rests comfortably in the upper campus, floating over the dining hall.  

The planning and design for construction of the gig was much more complex than its simple elegance would suggest. The concept evolved to consider a gig design based on Mike McEvoy’s “Floating the Apple”, a rowing program for New York City’s Hudson River. Advice was sought from Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, in the person of recently retired Dana Hewson, for many years its shipyard director and curator of watercraft. Hewson directed the group to Warren Barker, a masterbuilder from Westport, Massachusetts, whom Brother Joseph calls “the boat-building genius behind the construction.” 

For the landlubber who knows nothing about “gigs” (such as myself), a gig is a boat specifically designed with rowing in mind, particularly on the sea. The website for The Isles of Scilly offers the following explanation: “Back in the mid-19th Century, around 200 men worked as pilots on the Isles of Scilly. Today, gigs (specially-designed sea-faring rowing boats with six oarsmen and a coxswain) are raced purely for pleasure particularly throughout Cornwall and the south west of England. Their heritage on Scilly, meanwhile, remains very much a part of island life – dating back to the days when they helped incoming ships to navigate the waters, smuggled goods from abroad and performed daring rescues.” Former business manager for the School, Joe Alfred, very active in getting the project going, saw the project in connection with his role directing the School’s Outing Club. The idea of developing a rowing team for the school lay behind some of these plans, though the water most readily available to us on our shores was not the typical flat-water setting for sculling. Brother Joseph relates, “At that point, I came into the picture and thought it would be an interesting educational twist, given our location on Narragansett Bay, to take the design and build it in the unique and famous local Herreshoff tradition of Bristol RI. Alumnus Joe Raho ‘72 was enthusiastic about this and funded the project. So, we did it with Warren’s expertise in Herreshoff construction.” 

Colette has been out on the water about five times. While the inspiration to build the boat had originally contained some hope for competition, this never did come to fruition. Br. Joseph comments that, “Unfortunately, the boat never competed because the faculty member who would have done so moved on just as the boat was completed. So now she’s a thing of sculptural beauty rather than a sleek competitor.” Her maiden voyage was a brief excursion on Narragansett Bay. She then soon travelled to the Westport River for an annual family rowing event - which she won! Most recently, the Colette was refloated when the student builders had their fifteenth Alumni Reunion weekend. Prior to this excursion for the fifteen-year anniversary of its construction, the gig “languished in the hayloft of the old barn,” gradually demanding a thorough cleaning.

The gleaming, elegant, homemade construction was then put on display in the Winter Garden, where it could readily be viewed by all, and could be moved easily outside when a nautical adventure was afoot (or more space inside was needed). Eventually, its present drydock in the Stillman Dining hall was selected for long-term storage, as well as for visibility, and Colette has not touched the water since.