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The site of the Washburn & Doughty Shipyard has been important to shipbuilding for centuries. As local historian Barbara Rumsey has noted, “There’s an unbroken thread of shipbuilding that reaches back centuries in East Boothbay. There were vessels built here in the 1700s and maybe in the 1600s, but the unstoppable stream of launchings started in the 1820s.”
According to Rumsey, shipbuilding at the current Washburn & Doughty site began in the 1880s, when Frank Rice began building boats at this location. In the 1890s, he founded Rice Brothers with his brothers, Henry and Will. Frank left the yard in the early 1900s to build next door in the current Shipbuilder’s Park.
According to Robert Rice, descendant of the Rice brothers, the Washburn & Doughty building that burned to the ground last Friday was originally constructed by Henry and William Rice in April 1917 to house two steel-beam trawlers being constructed. At that time, the Rice Brothers’ main construction building was located 300 feet to the north. Rice reports that last Friday’s fire was not the first time a major fire occurred at this site. In July 1917, the Rice’s main building burned to the ground, with boats under construction inside (see Rumsey article for more on this fire). The building was a total loss, but no one was seriously injured. Because of the new building, Rice Brothers were able to continue to operate. “Everyone was lucky be-cause they were building those two trawlers in the other building, so no one lost work,” said Rice.
Without government assistance and meager insurance, it was touch and go for the Rice Brothers for a time, said Rice, but they were able to recover. The Rice Brothers successfully shifted their operation to the new building area and remained in business there until 1956. In their 67 years of business, the Rice Brothers shipyard built more than 100 large vessels, such as yachts, rumrunners, minesweepers, light-ships, fireboats, and trawlers, as well as many smaller boats and engines.
From 1956 to 1984, Rice reports, “The shipyard passed hands so many times and the people were only there a few years.” One notable owner was Alfred Fuller, of the Fuller Brush Company family, who bought the yard in 1962 and operated it until about 1969. According to Rice, it was Fuller who closed the alleyway between the two buildings and raised the structure by 15 feet. These were the only substantial changes to the Rice Brothers complex until Washburn & Doughty expanded its office space last year.
In 1977, Bruce Doughty and Bruce Washburn were working days at Bath Iron Works, and working nights and weekends on their dream of building their own steel boats. They were joined in this effort by Harpswell neighbor Carl Pianka, an electrical engineer with Bell Telephone. The trio’s first vessel, a 70-foot steel trawler, was constructed at a rented site in Brunswick. In 1978, Washburn and Doughty left BIW and set up their first shipyard at the old ferry slip property in Woolwich. The ship-yard’s work was met with enthusiasm by the industry and one good boat led to another.
In 1984, Washburn & Doughty purchased the current yard and building site in East Boothbay from the boatbuilder, Edward T. Gamage. Washburn & Doughty Associates (Pianka retired in 1997) grew over the years to become one of the top steel construction ship-yards in the Northeast. Since then, they have launched 76 vessels from their East Boothbay shipyard, including fishing boats, ferries, casino boats, barges, passenger cruisers, research vessels, and tugboats. Four more tugboats were scheduled to be launched in the next year.
Washburn & Doughty’s ship-building success can be tied to its ability to deliver a superior product on schedule, to capitalize on new technologies, and to recognize and meet the needs of the marketplace. They have also remained true to, and expanded upon, East Boothbay’s heritage of building high quality ships.
While the Rice Brothers recovered from their July 1917 fire, they were able to move their operation to their new building and keep working. Washburn & Doughty does not have this luxury. They do have neighbors, but it seems unlikely that anyone could provide the space needed to build the large vessels constructed at Washburn & Doughty.
Rumsey reports that by the 1880s in East Boothbay, “the village was tied tight to shipbuilding and its identity was fixed.” She also notes that in the 1800s the East Boothbay shipyards were a crowded but co-operative place: “At times there were half a dozen shipyards crammed into the little space. When they ran out of elbow room, they teamed up in every possible combination -- whatever worked to get the job done and get the boat over.”
Presumably, that same air of
co-operation to “get the boat over” will prevail again in East Boothbay, and
Washburn & Doughty will be back building ships, and creating shipbuilding
history, again soon.
