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By
Pat Maher
The
club members agreed that a dock and "float" should be
built for club members use at
Beckett
Point. The visual and physical clutter of too many rail and
pulleys systems that
were
now littering the beach attacked the Point's beauty like a
creeping plague! The rails
were
hard to take care of, they were easy to trip over, they rusted,
they collected seaweed
that
wasn't always cleaned up, and they were ugly to look at. And
when members opted out
of
fishing , sold their place, or just lost interest, the rusting
rails of cast off mining carts,
and
other mechanical pressings and extrusions remained of the beach.
This
was a time of the smaller boat. Clinker-built, lapstrake, and
even a plank-board
style,
built upon "ribs" were as common as Fords. You could
fish the choppy waters of
Discovery
Bay
with an almost tattooed
authority if your boat had a round bottom and a
decent
keel! They didn't develop the system of hauling boats to the
beach from the
comfort
of your backyard, via boat trailer, until the late 1940's. Those
early trailers were
sometimes
nothing more than a decent beam plopped across and errant auto
axle. I think
the
"patrol" had fan with that issue! The idea for a
"float" and attached dock had come. It
would
be a temporary holding spot for the many fisherman boats to rest
between tides, or
maybe
go in for a lunch with out having to beach, and thus, scratch
and endanger your
boat's
hull.
Some
members used the "Indian" anchoring system. That is
where you took a light
anchor,
attached plenty of rope to hit the bottom, then you ran a long
line from that
anchor
up the beach to an available log or bulkhead. Your boat was
attached to the
anchor.
The anchor was attached to that long line up the beach. To
activate the method,
you
placed the anchor gingerly on the bow plate of the boat. Then
you gave a mighty
shove
to the boat, sending it to your choice of a resting place. At
the appropriate moment,
you
pulled the anchor off the boat's bow plate, sending the anchor
to the bottom. To
retrieve
the boat you used the beach line to tug the anchor to you and
the boat hopefully
came
along. A float and dock would be the ideal project to build to
help solve these
anchoring
and storage problems. Tugging a heavy boat up the beach on
"rollers" was no
fan.
Tying up to a float would be much easier on the back and
temperament. The time
had
come. Build a dock and float.
Being
that it sometimes blows a gale from the south at Beckett, it was
decided to build
this
structure on
North
Beach
. My grandfather, Peter Norby,
consented to have it in front
of
his place at
Lot
8 A. The main pilings were built
of very heavily creosoted logs. Long
4"
by 10" joists ran out on top of cross beams of considerable
size. The main pilings
were
set in concrete bases. A very substantial hand railing ran the
fall length and on both
sides.
The dock structure was about 5 feet wide and ran out about 75
feet.
The
float itself was made of very large logs, maybe 5 or 6 in
number. They were tied
together
with cross beams about 4" by 10". Planking was set on
top of this. They even
made
a diving board on the sea-ward end for those hardy enough to try
it! I did. Once.
The
float decking had boat tie-up rails along the fall length on
both side. You could tie up
your
boat or even pull up small skiffs on top for awhile. Kids used
to fish for bull heads
and
other assorted piscatorial delights. It was a busy place.
To
get to the float from the dock, you walked down a long
commercially made gangway.
The
gangway was "acquired" from the old government dock
and warehouse at Diamond
Point.
The warehouse there supplied the Federal quarantine station
located on Diamond
Point
when
Washington
State
was only a territory. Later,
during two world wars, the
military
added touches to the dock and warehouse. They put in the nice
gangway that
found
its way to Beckett Point. I think the club got permission to
"borrow" it. I think. The
end
of the gangway had a roller on it so that it would roll back and
forth with the raising
and
lowering of the tides. It sometimes squeaked. We would ignore it
for a bit then
someone
would volunteer to go and deftly apply some much needed grease.
It was
usually
my grandfather Pete Norby who would do it. In fact he took over
the total
maintenance
of the float and dock system. Axel Swanson, who had lot 8, next
to Norby's,
would
pitch in and do some of the duties.
One
incident that affected the final look and quality of the dock
was the U.S.Navy. Our
military
had, during W.W. 2, decided to moor several large ammunition
ships in
Discovery
Bay
. They were anchored out about
half a mile south of the point and on down
to
about Gunstone's clam digs and property. They were big , gray,
and obnoxious. But
we
collared our contempt for this intrusion on the scenic beauty of
the bay by telling
ourselves
that "it was for the war effort!" It even paid
personal dividends for my
grandparents.
One day a landing barge was lowered off the ship with the ship's
captain
on
board with his jeep. He landed right next to the dock where
grandpa Pete was sawing
logs.
Down came the bow of the landing craft, off came the jeep with
the captain.
Grandpa
and the captain started talking, they went into the cabin and
somehow a bottle of
rye
appeared. That resulted in boat trips out to the ship for
dinner. I sat with the crew
watching
movies on the big deck, while my grandparents played cards with
the captain.
Grandma
also was given "goodies" impossible to get by
civilians during this war time
such
as real black pepper, and canned ham. I got free pie from the
ship's bakery!
The
ships' crew had a penchant for visiting various girls that spent
the summer at the
point.
My aunt was one. About 4 girls and 4 sailors borrowed the ship
landing craft for a
moon
light cruise around the bay. As the girls jumped aboard, I was
bribed by the sailors
with
a couple of those delightful pies to NOT tell what was going on.
I didn't tell. The
pies
were appropriate payment for my silence! However, on their
return near
midnight
,
they
crashed into the dock, re-routing the direction that the pilings
were supposed to be
pointing
in. Like up? They were now near horizontal. As was expected, the
captain found
out
about this and with the threat of "keel-hauling" the
errant crew, the next week the
U.S.
Navy
repaired the dock. They did a wonderful job. It was even better
than the original.
Thus
the touch of the military had left its print at Beckett Point!
The
dock and float were used for many years by most people at
Beckett. It was the
starting
point for those fabulous fishing derbies where great lunkers
were brought in and
hung
on a overhead beam that also held the fish scale. The float was
also the launching pad for many
fireworks
gatherings. For the "4th" beach parties, you could
hang a sack of
clams
or crabs over the side of the float to keep them in the proper
environment until the
eating/cooking
festivities started. But, alas, time took its tole. Not only did
the dock and
pier
show the ravages of time, but grandfather Peter Norby was
showing age and aches .
He
lost interest in repairing the facility and so did everyone
else. It became dangerous to
walk
on, no one wanted to do the winter haul-out of the large float,
so it was thought best
to
"do it in." It was done in except for the concrete
imbedded pilings. I have one picture
of
the last set of pilings, looking like a Japanese Tori with a
dominant cross beam tying
the
two piling tops together, with the sun going down behind. I have
the memories of the
work
and fan that was as commonplace as the tides .
Pat
Maher
May 6, 2003
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