Launch day is an exciting milestone for any builder, but it was even more so for a resourceful Maine-native who crafted his vessel by hand. In this photo from May 25, 1966, Fernald “Fern” Carter’s family boat Nancy Ruth is about to depart on its inaugural ride. She’s packed with Fern’s family and friends. On the bow are Nancy and Ruth, Fern’s two daughters for whom the boat was named, and on the roof is his son Eugene.

Often described as hardworking do-it-yourselfers, the Carter family moved to Waldoboro from Swan’s Island in 1950, eventually settling on Gross Point, where other relatives later joined them. Fern worked many odd jobs on Swan’s Island, including digging clams, lobstering, cutting wood and Christmas trees, and repairing and rebuilding old boats.

Fern really wanted to learn to build boats, so in the 1960s he and his brother Bert converted an old chicken house into a boat shop. Nancy Ruth was one of the first boats Fern built there, receiving assistance from his friend Ernest Poland Sr. of Bremen, who came from a family of boat builders. (Poland was also a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant in World War II and flew more than 83 combat missions as a tail gunner with the 444th Bombardment Squadron.) Poland worked alongside Fern to teach him boatbuilding skills as the brothers established Carter Boat Shop. He helped Fern hand-plank Nancy Ruth’s hull and continued to provide oversight until he started his own business, Poland Boats.

After building about a dozen boats in the chicken house, which was so small they had to move the boats outdoors before installing the pilothouse, the brothers moved Carter Boat Shop to a cow barn next to Fern’s house, where they built two or three 28- to 34-foot lobster boats per year, mostly for family, friends and local customers.

The Carter brothers built their boats for sturdiness and sawed much of the wood themselves. While some of the mechanics changed over time, the design remained fairly consistent. Fern often invited customers and friends to work on his boats, and he negotiated prices to account for their labor and donations of materials. “Some people tell me we work too cheap, and other builders say they wouldn’t want greenhorns around,” he once commented to reporter Red Boutilier. “But a boat is more than just a well-shaped piece of wood to us. We like to put a little friendship into it. And who can put a price on friendship?”

The Carters launched their boats on the East Branch of the
Medomak River, transporting them there via truck, tractor, oxen or a combination, depending on how muddy it was. Launch days were always big celebrations that many people attended, and each boat was christened with a bottle of hard liquor for good luck. Fern continued to build boats until about a year before he died in 2004. 

March 2025