Harold Burnham (right) and shipwright Peter Little select stock for frame futtocks.
beginning in 1870; he built more vessels than anyone else in the three-plus-century Essex tradition, beginning in a partnership with Moses Adams at the age of 17, and working on his own by the time he was 25. His son Dana continued the business after buying the shipyard property from his brother’s widow in 1944. He built draggers there, but eventually the business fell victim to a deadly combination of fixed-price contracts and post-World War II inflation. Dana met his contracts but lost everything. He rebuilt his life with a yacht service yard, which he sold in 1985. The yard eventually because the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, and in the spirit on that 1668 decree, that’s where the THOMAS E. LANNON was built.

Dana Story’s position in this history is unique. He was born in 1919 when his father was 65 years old, so you might say he has a foot in both the 19th and the 20th centuries. Few

papers, and went to sea. His plan was to ship for half of the year and build boats for the other half, but hanging out in union halls waiting for jobs wore awfully thin. And then came love, then came marriage, then came Harold and the baby carriage. A shore-based job looked better and better, and building boats was the thing to do. His recent projects include the rebuilding of a 1953 Crosby Striper, a new bow for a local lobsterboat, and work on the rebuilding of a SPRAY replica. He also took – and continues to take – paying guests lobstering in his rebuilt Friendship sloop.
Although he never paid the bet, when Harold’s uncle Alden died he left to Harold’s grandfather the site of the former Burnham family shipyard. The land sits on a small creek that feeds into the Essex River, and on the land today are a house and a barn. And in the barn is Harold Burnham’s shop. You can lob a rock across the creek and into the yard of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, which is the former site of the A.D. Story Shipyard.

Shipbuilding at Essex had reached its crescendo as the 19th century turned into the 20th, and the legendary Story yard, under Arthur D. Story, led the way (see WB No. 61). The significance of A.D. Story’s property as a shipbuilding site goes way back, for the Parish of Chebacco, in 1668, had decreed that a portion of land alongside the Essex River be made available "to the inhabitants of Ipswich for a yard to build vessels and to employ workmen for that end." Arthur D. Story’s yard was adjacent to that land, which must be crossed every time a new hull is launched. A.D. built vessels at that site beginning

The sternpost is lowered into place. Harold signals to the crane as David Savoie guides the timber’s heel.

Erecting frames. Between paid shipwrights and volunteers, an average of eight people worked on the LANNON at any given time.

in 1870; he built more vessels than anyone else in the three-plus-century Essex tradition, beginning in a partnership with Moses Adams at the age of 17, and working on his own by the time he was 25. His son Dana continued the business after buying the shipyard property from his brother’s widow in 1944. He built draggers there, but eventually the business fell victim to a deadly combination of fixed-price contracts and post-World War II inflation. Dana met his contracts but lost everything. He rebuilt his life with a yacht service yard, which he sold in 1985. The yard eventually because the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, and in the spirit on that 1668 decree, that’s where the THOMAS E. LANNON was built.

Dana Story’s position in this history is unique. He was born in 1919 when his father was 65 years old, so you might say he has a foot in both the 19th and the 20th centuries. Few people, if any, will argue with the statement that Dana Story has a more intimate grasp of shipbuilding at Essex than anyone else alive. Naturally, I wondered what he thought of Harold Burnham’s work.

"I just laughed," said Dana of his initial reaction to a vessel being built in Essex after the trade’s nearly 50-year dormancy. (The last schooner to slide into the Essex River had been the 50’ yacht EUGENIA J., in 1949.) "Articles would come out in the local paper saying that the boat would be launched in June, and I would look at them and laugh, and say, ‘They don’t know what they’re getting into. He’s not going to build that boat outdoors starting from nothing.’ And time would go on; September came and October came and nothing was happening down there, and I thought…if they’re going to get that thing done in June…Well, I just laughed."

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