Lobster Boat Built for Merit Walton Bean

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Lobster Boat Built for Merit Walton Bean

Ralph Warren Stanley built this 28' lobster boat, for Merit Walton Bean of New Hampshire and Casco Bay at his 1st shop at 376 Main Street, Southwest Harbor.

“That same winter I also built a boat for a man named Merit Bean [from Berlin, New Hampshire]. He was some relation of L.L. Bean, and he owned property down in Casco Bay. He planned to use the boat down there. Fred Black and I worked together on those two projects [Roland Sprague and Merit Bean’s boats] that winter, and then he went on to other things. That boat we built for Merit Bean was interesting. He was going to bring us a rebuilt automobile engine to use. We had already put the beds in for the engine when he landed in front of the shop one day and says, “I’ve got the engine out on a trailer…” - “Ralph Stanley : Tales of a Maine Boatbuilder” by Craig S. Milner and Ralph W. Stanley, published by Down East Books, Camden, Maine 2004, p. 71-72.