Hi.

I'm Eric ford for made here fore and aft from Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Filmmaker Gabe Gershon focuses on traditional craft and mentorship.

For over 230 years Lowell's boat shop has existed overlooking the Merrimack River in Massachusetts.

Graham McCay, the master boat builder at Lowell's passes on tradition and community at the shop, mentoring William, a 16 year old drawn to the water, and the workshop.

you can watch fore and aft and other great made here films streaming on our website and through the PBS app.

Enjoy the film and thanks for watching.

It seems like everything gets put together pretty quickly.

I remember when I built my first boat here.

Sort of a false sense of progress.

Almost.

You see, it comes together relatively quickly if you're working on it.

You know, every day.

The actual shape, you know, you're like, oh, there's planks on here.

Oh, I'm almost done.

Wow.

And you get the planks all planked up and you start to get the rails on and everything fit, and you're like, wow, this looks like a boat.

Actually, you know, I went from this pile of, of boards laying over by the planer t like, oh, it's an actual boat.

Like, it's pretty cool.

William spent a lot of time on the water as a younger child.

He would visit his grandparents and go out on their boat.

And I think his obsession with boats probably came from his time with his grandparents, but also the idea of him being able to be out on his own on a boat.

One thing he said is one thing I like about boat is I can drive a boat.

He has control of everything.

While he's on the boat.

Earlier on, when he was growing up, sort of being childish and foolish and playing around was never really his thing.

He's not doing it sort of to be interactive and form relationships.

He's doing it because he's got something he's interested in.

I've been woodworking roughly since maybe fourth grade ish.

They've taken shop out of schools.

I've never had that.

That was before I was at the right age.

I've never had anything like that in school, so it's not really as pushed for anymore.

We live in an older home, s it has an unfinished basement.

Low ceilings, not a terrific space, but he's taken it over for the most part.

Early on, it was where we kept whatever tools and storage and stuff that we had.

Over time, it evolved.

And now he's set it up as his shop.

There's a lot of saws going and routers whirring.

I try to stay away from the basement as much as possible.

I think you valu the thing more when you've got to know where it's come from, or if you've built it.

I have a lot less stuff than I used to have, but I, you know, take better care of it.

I'm more careful with it.

I sort of know know the limits and, and I value it more.

I grew up as a neighborhood kid about, I don't know, not even a quarter mile down the street.

This place, the boats, everything was part of the backdrop of my life.

It is funny being here and growing up in the neighborhood of Lowells because, you know, right ove there is the busy Main Street.

I mean, I would pass this place four or 5 or 6 times a day, every day.

And even then it was always kinetic.

There were boats coming and going.

A new boat show about front.

New boat would be in the river.

The reason that I love a dory, is the beauty in their simplicity.

If you break down the design of a dory, it is extraordinarily simple.

When you see the constituent pieces, there is nothin terribly beautiful about them.

But when they all come together, it turns into a thing of beauty.

What makes a dory a dory?

That is a question filled with semantics.

The true definition is that it has a flat bottom that is pointy on both ends and planked longitudinally, meaning for an aft.

And because of the pointy nature on either end, they could ride to the seas.

Well, the ends are almost the same rake, meaning the same angle.

So whether you're taking away from the bow or the stern, the boat's going to act the same.

In the case of you know, the halibut fishery.

You could take a dory if you're hauling a line with a halibut over the side, a 600 pound halibut, you can lean that edge of that dory right down to the water, pull the fish in and then lean back, and it brings the fish out of the water and flops out into the boat.

In the same way that a plumber might wield a torch and a wrench or fisherman could use a dory as a tool.

They were suited well suited to all sorts of different jobs, and because of that, they were widely used for almost everything.

That's the first boat I built.

First boat you built?

By myself yeah Why Is it there?

Because I used to live in that house and, they got married.

Got married in it, and they bought it from me.

I was in high school.

Lowell's Boat Shop is one of our nation's treasures.

Personally I'm in love with wooden boats.

And so this is like, Shangri-La for that kind of a thing.

I guess ultimately, for me, it is a picture of authenticity.

There is so much history and patina in this building from the hands that have worked here over the years.

It's the kind of place that you can go and really get a sense of the actual history that took place there, because it literally oozes out of the walls.

Lowell's ultimately is a museum now working museum, but historically was a Dory factory.

It became a National Historic Landmark.

And what we are today, which is a working museum, nobody does it anymore because it's not worth the effort to try.

It is difficult to run a business within the confines of a museum and a historic property, and all of that nonprofit with educational programs and the difficulty setting the timelines is definitely a result of that.

In the case of wooden boat building, it's really difficult to make a living at these days.

We're sort of carpet bombing now with the knowledge and skill so that it doesn't get lost.

I would say for the preservation of the craft and the skill it is fortunate that I live down the street and have ended up here and was able to have a little bit of crossover with the old timers and glean some of that knowledge so that now I can pass it along.

But I'm hoping that in, we'll say 50 years when I go, there will be scores of people that have this knowledge and can pass it on and be able to do it.

I'm really drawn to old boats just because almost how real they feel.

And it just makes them, you know, more special.

Not going to find another boat like that.

You could you can take measurements after they make plans, but it's not like it's going to ever be another one that's exactly the same.

And that's really something that's, you know, so unique to handmade boats.

Why would you want a handmade boat that's exactly the same as the next one.

You come along there.

They row better because they turn slightly better in one direction than the other.

And that's, that's that's what makes them cool.

For me, I am drawn to the sea and seafaring and.

Thinking about tha in terms of traditional wooden ships and things like that, because that's really my interest.

The feats that humans.

Accomplished with very little and the roughest terrain possible is amazing to me.

And sea stories, sea adventures capture my interests.

When I'm out there, which I've had the good fortune to be on a big wooden ship.

I'm just constantly thinking about the the people that had the knowledge and the skills and the materials to put it together from an early age, to be able to physically build a boat for a craft that could take you.

The sea was the height of craftsmanship.

It's an interesting thing to me that people have paintings of sailing ships on their walls, but not a painting of an oil tanker.

Every ten years or so.

We get an order from a resort out in New York State called Mohonk Mountain House, and they have a fleet of ten boats or so of ours.

and they every decade they'll renew a couple of them.

So this happens to be a time when they want three new boats.

And I gave them the option of having one of them apprentice built this summer.

I'm planning and sort of budgeting my time to be here quite a bit and be working on a Dory for Mohonk Mountain House, and hopefully be done in a reasonable amount of time.

It's going to be kind of similar to the one that that I built for myself a couple summers ago.

It's going to be a little bigger, a little more complex, sort of next step up, and it's going to be for someone else.

Any time I do something for for someone else or outside of this, if I'm, working on someone's house or something like that, it's it's another level of of sort of, anxiety, I guess.

He'll be building a boa that people will be using for, you know, decades out in, in New York.

And he'll be able to go out there himself.

Maybe he'll have his, and get engaged out there or something, I don't know.

So we're getting the frames on now onto the boat.

I've got the two aft ones.

For William, as part of this, you try to keep them engaged and try to keep him interested because he does catch up so quickly on things.

One of the things we did was sign him up for a weeklong trip on the Harvey Gammage, which Graham will captain sometimes, and that was when he first met Graham.

It was the summer after sixth grade.

Lowell's Boat Shop did a one week trip.

We sailed up the coast and into Maine, and that was the only times I've really not been with, you know, near somewhere.

And I was I was related to, besides school overnight field trips.

I was not terribly thrilled to go on that trip.

which really surprised some of the people at Lowell's.

Now, I didn't want to go.

I was not happy.

Would not admit to my parents that I, I enjoyed it.

It turns out he didn't enjoy the trip that much.

He was he was young and it was it was all high schoolers.

So I think the social aspect of it wasn't for him but the boating certainly was.

I think he was 12 years old and he immediately started the crowd, not just because he was about that big, but because he he knew a lot.

He was quiet, but you could tell that he knew a lot.

In sort of true William fashion.

He didn't tell us much.

He's he's not really one to to talk about other people or sort of to, to focus on that aspect of relationships.

And we didn't know Graham.

So I guess we sort of slowly, over time learned about him.

Halfway through the week, I asked him why he wasn't an apprentice at Lowell's, and he told me that he was working the other side of the schism, at which point I was like, how many 12 year olds?

Youth words.

Schism?

Yeah, he definitely seemed to know what he was talking about.

He was very, very confident.

He said, you'r not in the apprentice program.

Or were you?

Why don't you join?

And I was like, oh, no, you know, I'm I'm 12.

That's just that's a little too young for the program.

And he's like, oh no, no, no, you should really do it.

Oh, maybe I'll think about it.

He seemed sort of genuinely interested in getting me and getting people involved in it.

Certainly his concern at that age was people taking him seriously or, you know, are they going to give me the freedom?

I think probably when he first went there, he didn't know if it was going to be the sort of place that, you know, they tell you what to do all the time and how to use the tools.

My shop is in the basement, which is not the most accessible place to to get a boat in or out.

And then I was sort of thinking about the boats and I was, you know, well, what if I, what if I built a boat like, that's similar to what I do?

And so I started looking at that.

I offered him to come here and build a boat for himself during that summer.

And he thought about it for a minute and said, sure.

You know, it's on this side, the other side.

I lined it up and then I flipped it.

Now the next day on this side, but not over.

What about.

This is like four years ago.

I don't know, because I was too young.

And then I tried.

How many times you hear I'm too.

You're too young.

I've seen him go from now middle school to high school, and it's interesting to watch him develop as a person as well.

When he came here was a shy, shy, young 12 year old, and now he's coming into his own.

In the beginning, when I was here at the apprentice program, I, I didn't really talk at all.

I was pretty young to be in it.

I was the youngest, youngest there.

I think at the time it was a little intimidating, a little a little scary, you know, lots of people.

It was a lot busier than it.

It has been ever since.

On any given day will hand William 1 or 2 of the younger kids to then teach.

William, being independent as he is.

It was kind of like he has this thing he's doing and people he's meeting and people he's he's working with, and it's sort of his own relationship.

It was more sort of, yeah, drop him off at the shop and he's going to work on stuff.

Now.

He gets rides home from various people.

Graham letting him do his thing and giving him a certain amount of measured independence and freedom was why he then started to open up and started to to really like it.

He's just become a much more confident, self-assured person, and I attribute that directly to his time at Lowells.

When you talk about William finding his voice, I think that is one of the things too, when you have to sit there and direct somebody and motivate them.

I think more so than anything that helps you find that voice.

And so he is absolutely, at this point, a mentor from being here and boatbuilding.

I've gained a lot of self confidence in myself in talking to other peopl and dealing with other people.

I bus dishes at the point a little less enjoyable.

And then I dishwasher at Joppa sometimes, which I don't love dishwashing, but everyone super nice there.

Just trying to juggle all that and manage it.

I had someone ask if I could babysit next Saturday and I don't want to say no because I feel bad, you know, not because I know they need a babysitter and it's a lot of trying to say no, that I'm not very good at.

I see him all summer at the American Yacht Club.

I happen to be there.

But, he was, And this is one of those mentor things.

He was asking me, you know, where do you go with the sandbar?

Where do you do this?

And blah, blah, blah, and I was like, what do you what do you do?

What do you get up your sleeve?

It's like, I, I'm taking someone.

So I finally got out of them that he was taking this girl out for, for a boat ride and wante to know where he could pull up safely on a sandbar for a picnic or whatever.

But we looked at the tide chart and I pointed out a couple of spots, and then I just happened to be over there when he showed up at his age.

So much can change in a matter of months.

What's happened with, with Williams Mahone project since February is is very little.

I say very little.

That's not fair.

But, it's, it's not quite even halfway along.

At this point in December, I'm not terribly stressed.

There comes a day in March when the sun is out and it's about 55 degrees, and that a lot of the snow starts to melt.

And that's the day that I start to freak out.

What looked like a long winter of time has turned into a very short runway, and now you've got all these projects that need to get pushed out and cut that out.

The rake, the transom.

So you want made it.

Do you want me to get a second one of those cardboard pieces right.

So we're getting the frames on.

Now onto the boat.

I've got the two aft ones.

It's more pressure in the sense that it's for someone else.

They're paying for it.

They expect something good.

Theyve got expectations to meet With a new blade, that cut is going to be nice and pretty.

You can establish your center line.

It's the dark one.

My mom doesnt like me missing school for things let the glue set.

Im going to run this through the planer.

Yeah, let's do that.

Well get the fire inside.

Yeah.

Now someone is paying you for your services and the stakes are a little bit higher.

I think for him, that transition is just another step towards maturity.

It's over now, William.

yeah, there ain't nothing to do.

I'm going to be board fishing.

For William, going up there to see his boat built.

Well, looking beautiful in a lineup of other boats that have been built by me many years ago, built by the Odell's 20, 30 years ago.

And even being built by Fred Tarbox, who was a long time boat builder here and was here in the 80s.

It's funny with the ones that we rebuilt, you can see the age on the old parts too.

It's an interesting historical lineup of the continuity of the process and the passing down of skills here.

And I think for William, it's not necessarily going there and getting in the boat that he built.

That would be, I think, as rewarding as going there and watching a family take out the boat that he built, be there for th launch, be there for, for the, you know, first, first time in the water and all that stuff is, is pretty special because it's not going to happen on every boat that I work on Its going to look real shiny next to us You know, you can sweat and toil in the shop, but it's not until th benefits of of this, you know, you get to see your work in the wild and you get to come out.

And the benefit of, of getting to stay in a beautiful place like this and getting, you know, treated as he just was, was like a, like a hero.

That makes the toil and in the shop a lot easier, more rewarding in the dull times.

You know, when you're sanding for three hours and you're just like, why am I doing this?

You can look back at those those kind of, you know, this kind of experience to to really understand.

Well that's it.

Yeah.

Two more, two more.

You can trace that.

And you can hit it with the power planer.

We were going to pick u the boats today from the shop, and I was walking in there to go grab something in the building, the whole building bed, and like, the corner that I worked in for the last year is just empty now.

And it's, you know, it was like that a year ago and haven't seen it like that for a while.

Now it's stunning.

Now it' going to start all over again.

William is at a point where he sees this place as, you know, his in a way, and that's all that we can hope for in that he's comfortable in all aspects here with everybody here.

And I think that has implications in the rest of his life.

I think it's the sort of place that is always part of your life.

It's been so formative, certainly in his childhood now.

And I think that's true for a lot of people that go there.

And for me, I'm psyched that he's a freshman still, you know, and it bums me out.

If he was coming into this as a, as a senior, like I'm and lose him next year.

Now as a freshman ideally he will be here for another, you know, 2 or 3 years and be a mentor and a role model for some of these younger guys.

Maybe for another William out of the crowd.

It's been cool to sort of have the younger kids come up and work and, you know, see how how they are.

And some of them are pretty good and pretty, pretty promising.

And at the end, I think what we're trying to turn out more than a boat builder is perhaps a better human being, but one that is more self-sufficient, confident, and just has a a greater feeling for community.

And that's really what it is, is, is a community.

It preserves so much of Amesburys history Newburyports history of all these towns that are around here on the river, that it's not really just a museum or just about boats.

It's a lot about community.

I own this place so much that that it feels a little bit like I should be be be here, you know, all the time, you know, because someone's got to take over for him.

And I don't know, maybe that will be me.

Maybe.

Maybe he'll hang in long enough that I can go be an engineer and then retire and come hang out here.

That would probably be the best.

I'll be awesome, we'll see.

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