“Frame-Up!”

Back in the days of iron men in wooden ships, Essex, Massachusetts was an exciting place to be. Many of the schooners that sailed the Gulf of Maine and out into the Atlantic Ocean were built in Essex. It is a heritage that they take great pride in and rightfully so. When a boat was about to be assembled, a cry went out — “Frame-up!” And men all over the boatyard dropped what they were doing and ran to help. Many hands were needed to lift the components of a schooners frames and the carpenters were going to have their hands full swinging iron hammers to slam the nails and plugs into place. They had to be strong because these were the boats that would carry men out into the ocean’s unpredictable temperaments and they had to be fast because the muscles holding the frame into place had human limits — though it might not seem like it at the time.

Today shipbuilding is somewhat different but there are still schooners built in Essex though now they are built for pleasure rather than for men to fish from. Harold Blackburn, son of generations of Essex shipbuilders, built the Thomas E. Lannon which is now owned by Tom Ellis and makes a couple trips a day out into the ocean to give tourists a taste of the old seafaring days. I’ve listened to Harold talk about the building of the Lannon. It was quite an experience. He had to study ancient drawings and crawl down into the hulls of rotting boats to study how these beauties were actually made. He’s a great storyteller, another maritime tradition, and fun to listen to.

The Essex Shipbuilding Museum is a wonderful tribute to those iron men who built those wooden ships. Like almost every small museum in the country raising funds is very important to their continued operation. This year I’ve been invited to be involved with a fund-raiser for the museum that is using the expression “Frame-Up” as its title — the Frame-Up Art Gala. This is going to be quite a spectacular event featuring great food, fantastic wines, delightful entertainment, amazing art — all in an environment worthy of the event. I can’t give the details right now but I’m looking forward to telling you about it when I can.

Sometimes when I see boats like the Lannon sailing out toward the breakwater — with the two Hammond Castles on the far shore, I can’t help but let my mind slip back to a time when the whole harbor was filled with such ships. At the Museum there are photos in which mast after mast tower against the horizon. It takes your breath away. Even though I earn my living sitting at a computer all day, I wonder if I wouldn’t have been happier back in those low tech days. I don’t know.

We are lucky. We live in a time when people chose to preserve the past and are willing to work to do that. In all the many aspects of heritage that this area offers, there is little more worth preserving than the shipbuilding past. Let’s hope the Museum continues to expand and prosper.

Thanks for reading.