12' Providence River Boat (2018) - BUTTON SWAN

Built from a lines drawing from Mystic Seaport Museum, taken from the Providence River Boat in their collection. That boat was built by William Henry Monroe under his professional name Button Swan, circa 1875. The boat was documented by Howard Chapelle in his book American Small Sailing Craft.

Our small club of enthusiastic amateurs built her over a 3 year period, drawing on the varied talents of our members, learning a LOT and thoroughly enjoying the process! We made everything including her sails, spars, and oars, and even milled all lumber, the planking coming from a log salvaged from a nearby beach.

Black locust stem and stern post, yellow cedar keel, yellow cedar planking on steam-bent white oak, red cedar seats, and spruce spars.

It’s such an amazing feeling sailing a boat we built, and having her perform so beautifully!

Photos: Dale Simonson, Daniel Friesen
Video: Dale Simonson