The ferry boat Prudence was built in Boothbay Harbor more than 100 years ago at a shipyard that no longer exists. Passengers can still take a ride in this historic vessel on the Penobscot River in Bangor.

Christened the Madeleine when built in 1911 by Irving Reed Shipyard, the ferry boat has been registered in service with the federal government every year since. Current owners of the boat (she's had a few) and historians are proud to note that the Prudence is one of the oldest steamboats in the nation that has been in continuous service.

Descendents of Irving Reed attended the boat's 100-year anniversary celebration in Hyannis, Mass. last year and have put together a book of photographs, articles and historic documentation culled from a number of sources about the Prudence. 

Hy-Line Cruises, the second largest passenger ferry service in Hyannis, sold the Prudence to Downeast Windjammer Cruises in Bangor last year. Since May, the boat has been touring the Penobscot River. Hy-line is celebrating its 50th anniversary and its owners spent a great deal of time finding a home to retire “the old gal” that launched the company.

“She's a beautiful boat,” Murray Scudder, the operations director at Hy-Line said. However, the boat is too expensive to continue to maintain and there is not nearly the same degree of interest from tourists to see the Kennedy compound as there was when his father and uncle launched the passenger ferry service, he added. “She's perfect for Maine.”

Brothers Richard and Robert Scudder bought the Prudence in 1962. At the time they ran a service station in Hyannis and many of their customers wanted to see the Kennedy compound from Nantucket Sound. The two brothers used the Prudence as a sight-seeing vessel and later expanded to offer ferry service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket after purchasing other boats. 

“If you learned how to land a single screw vessel, you could handle anything,” Scudder said, recalling his own experience navigating the waters behind the Prudence helm from 1980 to 1982. He agrees that such a large boat (57 feet long) with just one shaft and propeller could be difficult to maneuver, but maintains the boat was well made. He said the boat functioned as a training vessel for many employees.

Captain Steve Pagels of Downeast Windjammer Cruises is the proud new owner of the Prudence. Pagels navigated the waters with her all the way to Bangor from Hyannisport.

“She is a special piece of history,” Pagels said. “Just having a vessel that survived over a century, it's remarkable.”

Maneuvering such a boat requires some skill as all of its functions are mechanically driven. All of these devices are still in place and functioning: a rope around the shaft behind the wheel turns the rudder and a copper speaker tube from the wheelhouse shoots down into the hold. Pagels also pointed out the coal hatches and the original steam engine bed, the foundation where a steam-powered engine would have been placed.

What is the Prudence?

Called a “coastal steamer,” the boat currently runs on a 60 horsepower diesel engine. Boothbay Region Historical Society's Barbara Rumsey edited a collection of essays entitled “Historical Sketches, Vol. III,” in which Alden Stickney and Shirley Race contributed the essay “The Steamer Enterprise.” According to that essay, the Madeleine was originally gas-powered, but was built to look like a steam-powered vessel.

“The craftsmanship of these boats was phenomenal,” Freeport resident Tim Reed said during a recent interview. Reed is the great grandson of Irving Reed, owner and founder of the Boothbay Harbor shipyard that built the boat. 

Tim Reed knew about his family's ship building history in Boothbay Harbor, but had only learned about the existence of the Prudence last year. Tim and Donna Reed attended the boat's 100-year celebration and rechristening in Hyannis, Mass. hosted by Hy-Line Cruises. 

They traced the boat's history from its roots in Boothbay Harbor to Boston Harbor to Providence, R.I. to Hyannisport, Mass. and then finally back to Maine. Tim and Donna compiled all of their research, including many photographs and copies of the boat's original registration documents, in a book for Tim's father, Dennis I. Reed. 

Tim Reed said he had hoped to learn more about his grandfather Rodney Reed and great grandfather from their research, but has been unsuccessful. However, looking back through the porthole of time, Reed learned more about how these boats were made, and what it must have been like for the builders in the early part of the 20th century. “They did it all with hand tools; that alone makes it fascinating,” he said.

According to information Reed gathered from the historical society and other sources, Captain Frank Gethro commissioned the Madeleine to be built by the Irving Reed Shipyard in 1911. It was built then with just a single deck, but later a second deck was built onto it. Captain Gethro had started a ferry service in Boston Harbor. He ultimately used the boat to take day laborers and workers to Castle Island and other points throughout the harbor. In addition to passenger service the boat was used to haul supplies and equipment. 

Gethro died in August 1919 during steamship inspection drills aboard one of three ferries he leased from the city of Providence, R.I. He commissioned two other ferry boats to be built at the Irving Reed Shipyard before his death, the Frances and Loretta. The Madeleine suffered significant damage after fire erupted in the boiler room on July 4, 1920. 

The boat was sold the following March to Providence Island Navigation in Bristol, R.I., which paid to have it rebuilt at a local lumber yard, Wardwell Lumber. For the next 41 years, the boat re-named and re-christened as the Prudence, ferried passengers, livestock, automobiles and freight. According to Reed's research, the boat survived three hurricanes, following one where she was found hung up in an old oak tree. 

The boat was sold again to the Scudders who launched Hyannis Harbor Tours, a company they later renamed to Hy-Line Cruises. The company invested in a restoration of the Prudence in 1979 and contracted the Billings Shipyard out of Stonington to do the work.

The Irving Reed Shipyard: a thumbnail sketch

Irving Reed launched his Boothbay Harbor shipyard with his business partner Percy Adams in 1905. According to historians Stickney and Race, the yard built a number of steam-powered vessels and other boats for the next 60 years.

In 1917 the yard was sold and operated as the East Coast Ship Company. With Reed at the helm as superintendent, the company built many boats during the years of the first World War, including a 67-foot schooner called the Flying Cloud. Reed bought his shipyard back from the company following the war and ran it until his death in 1934.

Reed's son Rodney took over operations at the shipyard and re-named the company Reed Brothers. Throughout WWII, the younger Reed oversaw the building of plane re-armament boats. The shipyard continued after the war and made fishing draggers and pleasure cruisers. 

A fire burned the main building and several boats down to the ground in 1957, but that did not stop the shipyard from restarting. They continued to build boats up until the late 1960s when Robert Marsh purchased the property from Grace Reed, Rodney Reed's widow who had been running operations there since her husband's death.

Visitors to Boothbay Harbor will not be able to find the shipyard today, though there are many others still operating in the area. To learn more about the Prudence in its present location, visit the Downeast Windjammer Cruises website: downeastwindjammer.com. The Boothbay Region Historical Society also has books and original documents about the Irving Reed Shipyard, in addition to others that once graced these shores.