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Groundkeeper: Glenn learns about Rockland Boat Shop. Glenn Billington is a lifelong resident of Rockland and has worked for The Courier-Gazette and The Free Press since 1989.
Going through The Courier-Gazettes of 1957 I came across an item that bent the needle on my Rockland Meter.
It was a great Sid Cullen piece with a bold headline:
Photo by Sid Cullen, Courier-Gazette
The cutline under this splendid photo read:
The White Swan 2 a moment after her launching as her engine was started and she came alive.
Cullen’s account continues: “Axel and Sulo Gronros of the Rockland Boat Shop sent another Sport Fisherman overboard at 1 p.m. Tuesday making the ninth such craft they have sent into ports along the Jersey Shore in recent years.
The new one, The White Swan 2, was built for Capt. Al Johnson of Barnegat Light, N.J. who operates a party fishing business.
She is 42 feet in length with a beam of 12 feet and depth of three- and one-half feet.
Power will be supplied by a 200 horsepower Chrysler gas engine operating through a three to one reduction gear.
Construction details include oak framing, cedar planking, Monel fastenings and mahogany finish.
She is equipped with dual hydraulic steering mechanism and will be outfitted with ship to shore radio phone.”
What could be more Rockland than the Rockland Boat Shop?
I wanted more, so on the way to work I cornered Leni Gronros at Graffam Brothers Seafood in Rockport where he now runs a retail fish market and store. (Also a great family tradition.)
I have known Leni since the late 70s. In his office amid the wooden half models of many boats on the walls (one of which he is certain is The White Swan 2), he told me the history of the Rockland Boat Shop. The business was started by his grandfather Axel and father Sulo. Beginning in 1928 on Warf Street off Tillson Avenue, with a railway down into Rockland Harbor, Rockland Boat Shop would build and launch 176 boats. Leni presented that number precisely and without hesitation.
Of that number were built the following:
A single Friendship Sloop, scallop draggers, tour boats for Staten Island, New York (some still working to this day), lobster boats and yacht style boats.
Rockland Boat Shop was known for their skiffs, which they built in the winters. There are photos of them in Dynamite Payson’s books.
Sulo was a boat designer as well as builder. His designs were used by other builders and not all were executed.
The last new boat was built in 1967. From then on, marine supplies became the mainstay. The marine supply side of the business started sometime in the 1940s after Sulo returned from serving as a Bosun for two years.
Around 1977 I became familiar with the little shop down on Wharf Street off Tillson Avenue when fresh out of college I began working in a lobster shop in Spruce Head. I handled lots of lobsters every day. Our crew would cull 100 crates or more on a good day. Good grippy rubber gloves were essential. I learned quickly that you needed good ones. To get good ones, you had to go to Rockland Boat.
I was also aware that I had not yet earned any real Lobster Cred at that point. I was the kid out of college you know…
I remember my first time through the door. It was dark; it smelled like rope and cigarettes. There were two green Adirondack chairs with old men in them. All eyes were on me as I entered. Doing my best Clint Eastwood, I made my way over to the Edmont Wilson Rubber gloves. The nice old man who waited on me I would later learn was Sulo Gronros, Leni’s father.
I enjoyed my subsequent trips to Rockland Boat for boots and oil skins. And while I never got the merit badge, I felt at home being there and listening to some really good stories.
Now with the passage of time and my enhanced knowledge of the history of Rockland Boat. I realize how lucky I was to be there back then.
Glenn Billington is a lifelong resident of Rockland and has worked for The Courier-Gazette and The Free Press since 1989.
Leni Gronros Photo by Glenn Billington
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