June 2008 | MARINE

At the end of World War Two, a battered U.S. Army workboat was found on one of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific with her wheelhouse blown off. Because of her rugged hull, however, she was considered worth saving. T-57, as she was known then, was loaded on a Liberty ship and, along with five other T-boats, she was returned to the M.M. Davis yard in Solomons, Maryland, where she had been built several years earlier.

In 1946, Clyde Bickford, an enterprising Vinalhaven lobsterman, visited the Maryland yard. The first thing he saw was a vast store of surplus war equipment being consumed by a huge bonfire.  In what was literally a ‘fire sale', Clyde purchased T-57 for $6,500 before she could be added to the flames. He named her Laura B, after his mother, Laura Bickford.

Clyde's next stop was a boatyard in Camden where he engaged Horace Ledbetter to rebuild Laura B for use as a lobster smack. During the rebuild Ledbetter discovered further evidence of wartime action, when crudely patched bullet holes were found in the bulwarks.

For the next seven years Clyde, and his brother-in-law Luther Burns, used the 65-foot, 80-ton vessel to transport lobsters from Vinalhaven and other islands to Boston and the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. Clyde's nephew John Bickford worked on her as a boy for local trips to Rockland and recalls, "She was a good rugged boat." Even then Laura B was an all-purpose boat. Paul Chillis remembers, "we took her to high school ballgames on the mainland." In 1952, however, after a particularly violent northeaster, Clyde sold her to Earl Fields, who ran the Monhegan Boat Line.

The T-boat designation stood for "tender."  It might also stand for "tough," since the boats were designated as transport/tugs for use in both the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns. Essentially a heavy-duty workboat, T-57 had been used to haul cargo and to transport personnel ashore from larger ships. In addition to possessing a large hold, T-57 was well armed. With a crew of 15, she mounted a pair of 50-caliber machine guns forward and a 20-mm Bofors gun aft. Several times during her Pacific travels she came under enemy fire. The last attack, on the Solomon Islands, resulted in the destruction of her wheelhouse.

Approximately 170 T-boats were built during the war, 48 by the Davis yard in Maryland. Laura B is the only remaining documented T-boat on the East Coast. She has a sister ship on the West Coast. Niad II has been a fire patrol boat and a police patrol boat in the Seattle area. Later she took charters north to Alaska. For 22 years Niad II was then a beloved yacht/home for her owners until she was recently sold as a pleasure craft to a family near Vancouver, British Columbia for $40,000.

As Laura B approaches her 65th birthday (she was launched on December 15, 1943), she has had a long and varied career. She has made the 10-mile run between Port Clyde and Monhegan Island since 1954. In the process she has hauled trash, trucks and troops (if you count WWII), as well as luggage, lumber and lobsters. Laura B has carried thousands of passengers, assorted animals, including a 350-pound sow, and even a couple of pianos. She is a mail boat, a rescue boat and she does charters. In addition, in the summer she takes tourists to see the puffins on Eastern Egg Rock and visit nearby lighthouses. Laura B is an all-purpose craft if there ever was one.

In 1976 the present owner, Jim Barstow, bought the Monhegan Boat Line business, including Laura B, for $80,000.  At the same time he leased a dock and ticket office in Port Clyde, which he has since purchased outright. In 1995 Elizabeth Ann was bought for the primary purpose of transporting people, which gives the line additional flexibility. In the summer, Laura B carries mostly freight and Elizabeth Ann exclusively passengers. In the off-season when one boat is laid up for maintenance, the other continues to supply the island.

Not long ago a prominent marine surveyor described Laura B as the "finest-maintained wooden vessel on the eastern seaboard". This is no accident.  An article in WoodenBoat magazine entitled "The Care of Laura B" emphasized that "the vessel is cared for with thoughtful precision and nearly boundless energy by her captain and crew." As a former captain, Alan Lord, explained, "We are always poking around, cleaning and scraping. We don't give this vessel a chance to rot".

After years of having her serviced at the Billings yard in Stonington, the crew of Laura B now does most of their own maintenance. She is taken out of service every spring and fall, steam cleaned and carefully inspected. Depending on what is needed, the attention differs each time; the hull, the engine or the electrical system. In fact, the crew probably spends as much time caring for the old wooden boat as they do running her.

Laura B's 65th birthday will be celebrated this summer on July 20 as part of the St. Georges Day festivities. Activities include fireworks, a parade and afternoon tours of Port Clyde harbor on Laura B.