Welcome to the home page for
the
Steam Launch CAPTAIN BELL
Updated - August 24, 2019
Click here for a report on the 2020 steaming season. This is a work in progress and is updated often.
When we changed the name of the boat (see below) we obviously had to change the name board. This wonderful work of art was created by the late Jack Abendroth when he lived in Wheeler. Jack had carved and sandblasted the sign out of a single piece of Cedar....then coated it with several layers of really good paint. It's hard to see here, but that is real gold leaf on the ships' wheels!
The CAPTAIN BELL now lives in BELL'S BOAT BARN...in the back yard at our home in Wheeler. The building was a necessity...the boat wouldn't fit in the old space any more. When the old Caulkins boat trailer gave out a number of years ago (it rusted - and gently lowered the boat to the ground with a geriatric sigh), we bought a new EZ Loader. The new trailer, while much nicer than its predecessor, does carry the boat about a foot higher than the previous model. The relatively low doorway of the "Church", the building on the lower half of the property that actually once WAS a church and which served as the boat's home for her first 15 years, barely allowed access for the boat on the Caulkins trailer...and we had to remove the stack each time we wanted to take it in or out of the building...no easy task! So with the arrival of the new trailer came the new building. That was a bit more of a transition than we were planning, but once it was built, we were pleased that the steamer was in new quarters. As you can see, the barn has full 12-foot doors, so the boat can be rolled in and out at will...with stack intact!
