ELLIE : A ROWBOAT
If you look carefully at this sweet little boat in the boatshed at the North Island Museum, you will notice that it is unusually small. That’s because it was built by Zenas Burgess especially for Eleanor Hopkins Thornton who was only 5 feet tall.
In 1958 when Charles Cobb was writing about the mackerel seiners of North Haven, he interviewed ELLIE'S builder "Zene" Burgess. Burgess (1864-1960) was described by Cobb as “a man of such sweetness, simplicity and charm that anything he said had a certain magical quality that cannot be transmitted by the written word”. At the age of 93 Zenas Burgess, born on Vinalhaven, was a man whose eyes lit up easily as he spoke about seiners he had served on for about 8 years starting when he was 17 years old.
One of his daughters, Winnie Burgess Ames interviewed in 1976 by the Courier-Gazette, recalled that her father “did most everything which included working as a quarryman. He helped lay the foundation of the Goose Rocks Lighthouse in the Thoroughfare before the turn of the 20th century. Later, working for summer people, he taught Senator Leverett Saltonstall to sail.”
In addition to his skills as a fisherman and boat builder, Zenas Burgess was a well known old time fiddler who also repaired violins.
In 1958 when Charles Cobb was writing about the mackerel seiners of North Haven, he interviewed ELLIE'S builder "Zene" Burgess. Burgess (1864-1960) was described by Cobb as “a man of such sweetness, simplicity and charm that anything he said had a certain magical quality that cannot be transmitted by the written word”. At the age of 93 Zenas Burgess, born on Vinalhaven, was a man whose eyes lit up easily as he spoke about seiners he had served on for about 8 years starting when he was 17 years old.
One of his daughters, Winnie Burgess Ames interviewed in 1976 by the Courier-Gazette, recalled that her father “did most everything which included working as a quarryman. He helped lay the foundation of the Goose Rocks Lighthouse in the Thoroughfare before the turn of the 20th century. Later, working for summer people, he taught Senator Leverett Saltonstall to sail.”
In addition to his skills as a fisherman and boat builder, Zenas Burgess was a well known old time fiddler who also repaired violins.
Eleanor Hopkins Thornton, at left, dressed up as a Uneeda Biscuit girl with Juliette Burgess and Treva Howard
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Zene Burgess at the dock
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Mabel and Zenas Burgess, 1938
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