From the Daily Comet:
Jonathan Boudreaux, 13, was the youngest person to ever enroll in wooden boat-making classes at the Louisiana Center for Traditional Boat Building.
A November 1994 Daily Comet article describes Boudreaux as “the next generation” of Louisianians to keep the state’s wooden-boat tradition alive.
Tom Butler, center director, made a prediction 16 years ago about Boudreaux: “We’ll all be died off, and this guy is going to still be building boats.”
Boudreaux, now 29, is still making boats, though they are fabricated from cold steel and weigh hundreds of tons.
He is a naval architect and marine engineer, an integral player in the construction of large supply vessels, tugboats and offshore barges.
....
Boudreaux learned about the University of New Orleans’ naval-architecture and marine-engineering program during his senior year in high school. He said he knew instantly that is what he wanted to do.
“I love boats, their power, what they do, what they’re capable of doing,” he said.
....
Butler said many former students have reached out to him over the years, but Boudreaux’s story is particularly meaningful.
“I got kind of emotional,” Butler said. “(The tradition) went on to another generation.”
Tom Butler in the article is Grandpère. After 31 years, Tom finally has a building to house the Center's fine collection of wooden boats, some of them quite old, boat building tools, pictures, art work, etc., but the building, which is owned by the city of Lockport, Louisiana, is not quite finished, and the museum is not officially open. However, boat building classes are presently being taught in the museum. The boats are all made of wood, and the students in the classes are taught the old ways of building wooden boats.
The museum is a historic old building, built in 1917, which was formerly an old Ford dealership. It's ideal for a museum which houses sizable boats, because the set of large doors in the building, which were used to move cars into the showroom, are now used to move boats into the museum. Below is a picture of the building.
The next picture shows some of the boats, still jumbled up. In the center is a very old dugout canoe.
UPDATE: I corrected the date of the building from the 1930s to 1917, after a sharp rebuke from Tom. My bad. I should have let him proofread the post.
How wonderful for Tom, and congratulations to him, that this is becoming a reality. Maine also teaches young people to build wooden boats. The reliance on the sea for fishing is something else we have in common.
ReplyDeleteAmelia, the old boat builders who taught the classes years ago, but who have now passed on, built the boats without plans. Since then, naval architects have taken the lines of the boats they built, so now the teachers who replaced them can teach with plans, if they so choose.
ReplyDeleteThe town center of Lockport looks like a 1930s movie set in some areas, because places of business have not been tarted up with modern storefronts.
Thank you for sharing this, something of historic and cultural importance and GP's passion.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Paul. The building still needs work, and, of course, there's always a shortage of money to do what needs doing, so it's a grant here and a grant there. Before the economy went belly up, Tom was fortunate to get two major grants from the state to get the building to where it is now. What's left to do is minor work, but it doesn't come free.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely! Boat building ;=)
ReplyDeleteBTW and OT, Yesterday I boarded the Götheborg, a modern replica of an East India cargo ship from the 1730es, built a couple of years ago here.
ReplyDeleteIt has sailed to China, as did it's fore-mother in the 18th century before it sank quite near to Gothenburg harbour...
Göran, lucky you. There's something wonderful about wooden boats, and the old boats are very special to me - replicas, too. And I love sailing boats without the noisy motors.
ReplyDeleteMimi, what a wonderful husband you have, and what a wonderful project that he's worked on all these years. Instead of sitting in a rocking chair, he's still working hard in his retirement.I hope the people of south LA help make this museum a great success. But the best part is the students that he's helped over the years.
ReplyDeleteGinny, thanks. Tom was put out that I had the date of the building wrong. At the time the building was built, Ford was selling Model-T cars.
ReplyDeleteTom was a bit concerned about having the youngster in the class for safety reasons, but it all worked out quite well.
Grandmere --this gives the best kind of chills and shivers --cuz before I became a priest, I was a 'material' historian --or in other words, a material culture anthropologist-historian, and I loved documenting this kinda thing --I did houses and structures mostly --but BOATS!!! How WONDERFUL!!! Building a boat without plans --except the plans in one's head... it is a kind of jazz almost....
ReplyDeleteMargaret, the old boatbuilders were amazing. I'm not talking only about skiffs and pirogues; I'm talking about large shrimp boats built without plans. A friend of Tom's did a video on a couple of the builders titled "By Hand and By Eye".
ReplyDelete"Where are your plans?"
"In my head."
Love it! Give Grandpère mes felicitations. God bless him for passing on this art.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gift this will be for the present and the future!
ReplyDeleteOh this is so cool! I've always been fascinated by maritime history, naval architecture, etc...
ReplyDeleteWhat an ancient and elegant art. What an interesting fellow that Grandpere is. Nice about the young'un too.
ReplyDeleteWhat timber is the dugout canoe made from? Attractive grain.
ReplyDeletewv asperger!
Thanks all. Tom is pretty special.
ReplyDeleteLapin, Tom said the dugout is made of bald cypress. It was found near Grand Isle, La.
I thought from the attractive grain that it might well be cypress. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Tom! He gave me a tour of the building a couple of years ago - and it was fascinating.
ReplyDelete