1943 ❖ SINBAD of the SAN JUANS

SINBAD
ON 243428
Location: Hix Bay, Shaw Island, WA.
Photo by Rod Peterson, 1971.

During the winters of the depressed 1930s, Shaw Islander Art Hoffman (1900-1981) was off work from his engineering job on the NEREID and other local cannery tenders. He and his younger brother Delbert (1903-1992) would leap at a chance to hop in Del's launch to motor out to neighboring island beaches, combing for logs. They saved them for a tow to the Spencer brothers' sawmill on Blakely Island.
      "Unc" carved out a scale half model, hauled home the raft of sawn lumber and the keel for SINBAD was laid near the shore of Hix Bay. The oak framed boat was 36-ft lod and 32.9-ft registered length x 9.3-ft B x 4.7-ft D. She was launched in 1943 on the site where Art's nephew, Henry, would later build his sawmill. A sawmill and a sawyer both of which later became well known to many future homeowners on the island.
      The fishing vessel was built with the idea of trolling and was rigged for dragging for scallops for a few years. According to Henry, "Unc used to drag up a lot of different stuff.' One day he was particularly thirsty and it's said, he pulled up the drag to find a nice, cold bottle of beer.
      Later, when he bottom fished for cod and halibut he would take a load to Bellingham once a week. Later still, the boat was used for gillnetting."
For more stories –– Henry Hoffman's book search