A Fish Tale from Purgatory Cove Fish Dock & Marina
The Boat Shed - Purgatory's Piece of History
Published: Monday, July 25, 2011 5:00 am
By: Sam, Lefty and Wade – Proprietors
Well, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove. Sam’s not been too happy lately. Seems that magazine fella was as good as his word and put some of the news from Purgatory Cove in his magazine and Sam’s phone has been ringing off the hook ever since. Well, actually once or twice a week and actually Sally answers the phone.
Anyway, one of the callers was asking about the boat shed – it being a World War Two surplus Quonset hut and all. Sam said his dad bought it war surplus from a yard at the big naval base west of here. The price was right (or Sam’s father wouldn’t have bought it) but it had to be moved over here.
Now, Quonset huts are prefabbed and come in pieces. The boys in the field had to put them together like a giant erector set, but Sam’s dad didn’t have that option; it was fully assembled when he bought it. Not only that, but it had been near the water all that time so every single nut and bolt was rusted together. It wasn’t about to be disassembled.
Lucky for Sam’s father, another guy had bought a couple of rusty old barges that he was gonna bring up the lake to haul gravel and sand and he talked the barge guy into loading the Quonset hut on one ‘em and delivering it to the cove.
All went well until the barge guy hit the flats – literally. He got the barge stuck on one of the sand bars in the flats. Unfortunately, it wasn’t high water at the time and the barge was well and truly grounded. The barge guy was fit to be tied. He ended up having to leave the barge behind and wait for more spring rains to get it off.
In the meantime, the boys at the hunting club used the barge and hut as a combination club house/duck blind. And blind those ducks would have to be not to spot the barge and hut combination. There was quite a collection of empty longnecks inside when it finally got moved.
Come more spring rains, the barge guy came back and got the barge close enough to the shore that they could off-load the hut. Sam’s father put sections of logs under the hut to act as rollers and drug the hut over to its present location. Eventually he poured a concrete floor inside. I don’t think the county ever found out where that missing load of concrete went. Sam installed an old wood burning stove he found at an auction and that’s Lefty and Wade’s favorite spot during the winter.
It’s getting up in years now and has a few leaks where the rust has eaten through, but the blue tarp covers most of them. The caller suggested Sam see if the boat shed qualified as a historic building but we’re pretty sure Sam won’t, he hates bureaucracy of any sort.
Oh, the other thing Sam’s father bought was a bunch of stencil sets in different sizes. Sam still uses them for anything to do with Purgatory Cove. The sign out by the road, the work boat and even the old pickup truck are all stenciled with those old stencil kits.
Other than that, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove.
