NORWALK, CT – The new owner of the historic oystering sloop The Hope is working to put some wind back in the old girl's sails.
The nearly 70-year-old vessel, the last wooden sail-powered oystering sloop built for working the beds of Long Island Sound, has mostly sat outside The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk for the last 25 years as a moored reminder of bygone times.
But ownership of the 56-foot sloop recently has gone through exchanges that bring The Hope full circle to some familiar connections who are intent on keeping a unique part of Norwalk's maritime history alive.
The Maritime Aquarium recently transferred ownership of the Hope to the Norwalk Seaport Association, which – as one of the Aquarium's founding organizations – had donated the historic vessel to the Aquarium shortly after its opening in 1988. And the Seaport Association transferred ownership to Shenton King, whose father, Richard, was president of the Seaport Association when the Seaport first took ownership of the Hope back in 1981.
Working together with King Industries, Inc., the Norm Bloom & Son Oyster Co. and shipwright Joshua Herman of Long Island, Shenton King is giving the historic sloop a complete overhaul. He plans to have her sailing again on the Sound next summer.
"This is really a 'good-news' story, with The Maritime Aquarium and the Norwalk Seaport Association cooperating to see that a piece of local history is preserved," said Jennifer Herring, president of The Maritime Aquarium. "We know that The Hope is in truly good hands and look forward to seeing her sailing for years to come out on the Sound."
Constructed between 1945-48, the Hope's roots truly are here in Fairfield County. She was designed by oysterman Stanley Chard and built on Brush Island in Greenwich's Indian Harbor by Chard and his nephews, William and Clarence Chard. Her keel is said to have been hewn from a giant white oak on Brush Island felled during a hurricane. Her frame and planking are of white oak trees cut on the then-Benedict estate across the harbor from Brush Island. All of this was cut into lumber at a sawmill in Norwalk's Silvermine section.
Upon retiring, he converted her to an "excursion" boat. In 1971, Chard sold the Hope to Jack Spratt of Old Greenwich, who gave her some upgrades and used her for family sailing until he sold her to the Seaport Association in 1981 – thus beginning the Hope's current story arc.
King said The Hope's importance goes beyond his fond memories of sailing on her with his dad via the Seaport Association.
"She represents a time in history that is soon being forgotten, where people made things by hand and tool, rather than clicking a mouse to receive something made in China a week later," King said. "Children need to know that people like the Chard family of oystermen – who built this boat by hand – were able to because they were skilled in the art of boat-building. Restoring Hope is, in a sense, restoring the knowledge in today's children that people must be skilled and work hard to provide for their family and community. For me, it's really a mission of education and respect of a time past."
King, a member of the Norwalk Seaport Association's board of trustees, said he expects that The Hope will be displayed occasionally, perhaps to passengers who travel in the summer aboard the Seaport Association's Sheffield Island ferry. But those details will be worked out next year.
For now, The Hope is out of the water at Norwalk Cove Marina for inspection, repair and repainting. She'll get new decking soon, and her mast will be stripped down and restored over the winter.
"How wonderfully contrasting will it be next summer," Herring asked, "to have the historic Hope back out on the water at the same time as we launch the Aquarium's new research vessel, a state-of-the-art hybrid-powered catamaran? Different times. Different ways. But both worth celebrating."