Harold Gower: Boat Builder, Part II

by Brenda Tredwell

Harold Gower was a highly regarded wooden boat builder on Beals. Will Frost brought Gower to Beals from Westport, Nova Scotia, in 1925. He built boats at the famed Frost shop before opening his own shop.

A fire leveled the Gower shop in 1971 and Dodge wonders whether Alley’s original Belva M is ‘still alive’ - and if Alley’s second Gower boat (built,1949) was the one lost in the fire. Gower’s interview with Lynn Franklin supports Dodge’s belief. In re-counting the 1971 fire, Gower told Franklin “I had a boat in here that burned up in a shop fire. She was 22 years old with all galvanized fastening and she was just as fair as the day I built her. I had her in here to refasten the bottom. He was afraid of her. When she burnt up, the nails in her were perfectly good. The galvanized was right there on them, just as good as they ever were.”

Gower’s words suggest that the boat Alley had built in 1949 was the one that went in the blaze – along with Lewis Alley’s newly built boat.

Carol Davis recalls, “I clearly remember the day the boat shop burned. My mother looked out her window and said, ‘I believe Harold Gower’s boat shop is on fire.’ The black smoke was rolling. I never felt as comfortable going into the new shop as I did the old. But loved to watch Harold work.”

Gower’s health was poor at this point, but he was a fighter. The debris was cleared, and Doug Dodge rebuilt the shop.

Dodge’s wages are marked in Gower’s Ledger beside the others - Dodge would accept only $30.00 weekly. The first diesel engine Dodge installed was for Boat No. 88, built for Kenneth Gordon of Cape Elizabeth.

Dodge was raised by Harold and Nella Gower from the age of 4, on, working in the shop until going off to vocational school in Portland to study Automotive Engineering, then to “airplane school” at Hanscom Field in Massachusetts. In January 1969, Dodge started teaching at Calais Vocational Technical College.

Excellent records were kept on Gower’s eleventh boat, built for Kenneth Beal in 1939, for the cost of $470. The 32 x 8 Velton was later named Rascal. The succession of owners, some who painted another name on the stern, is as follows:

1.)Kenneth Beal – Velton

2.) Vernal & Erroll Woodward,

3.) Bert McGuire Sr. – The Leatherneck,

4.) Alan Alley – The Arlanting

5.) Ben Bean

6.) Carl Presley,

7.) Russell Batson,

8.) Rasccal’s Current owner, Captain John Williams of Addison, donated Rascal to Beals Island Historical Society.

Gower, born November 18, 1899 died September 4, 1972. “He’d gone to bed Sunday and never woke up.” Doug remembers.

The last boat from his shop, for John Emery, was started in 1972. “We had it almost planked,” said Dodge, “A lot of the time, (Gower) set up on the foredecks, watching.”

Dodge finished the 40' boat alone. This boat, number 111, cost $8,775.00. By 1970, Gower’s asking price averaged out to $200 per linear foot. Gower’s shop attracted fishermen and islanders interested in his work. One photograph shows Avery Kelley inside the ribs of a good sized boat. “Kelly went sardining in the Queen D’Ana,” said Dodge. When he wasn’t fishing, he’d drop by the shop.