The Day Glenna Faye Was Saved By Her Village
To some of our readers you all may recall my lust for one of the nicest boats in our town, if not the Bay. Glenna Faye, a late 1940’s round stern Butler Built dead rise. If you are not familiar with her, she has been in service since the late 40’s and a serious workhorse. Never restored, but maintained and used. ALOT.
Every year she goes up on the Rails and is worked on, patched and then back to work. She loves it, we love it, and the Rogers family clearly loves it.
So what happened. Well, Glenna Faye was working like she always does, working the Traps, and she went up and Down on a wave and a trap stake. Which are basically huge poles that hold nets. And within one minute, went down with a huge hole.
There was a small row boat in the area as well, that saved the crew. But Glenna Faye was all but done. With just a small portion of her bow sitting up like a shark fin.
Reedville as a community jumped to the rescue. Competitors, friends and anyone that could help was there to an emergency patch, and place floats to get her to the point where she could be brought into the Railway to be brought up.
I am going to butcher this story which has many very dramatic details, as in some of the crew that could not swim that survived by some amazing heroism on the Rogers part. But todays story is some found photos that show how a community came together within minutes and saved the ship, and the real meaning of community.
AMAZING, and “Peel” Rogers shared with us some of the images. They are hard to see stuff since a small Kodak camera was used, and well. No iphones like today.
Soooo. When are you gonna tell the Boatress about your other woman?
Great story. I’m sure the Reedville folks really rallied to help and saved Glenna Fay, but I think there is also something in boater’s DNA about helping when needed. I have read several other stories like this and love the video of the spontaneous sea evacuation of people off Long Island during the 911 attack. That one still gives me goose bumps!
Thanks for sharing.
Just a little confused.
As I started reading this I thought this was a recent event, but in the end you mention that the pics were taken with a Kodak. Did I miss something about when this happened? I am guessing sometime in the ’70’s or ’80’s?
See you in a few days!
Interesting story but I don’t remember hearing about the 911 evacuation.
Mike, I don’t know how to attach it here, but do a search on the internet and you should find the video. Well worth watching.
Wow, check out the write up in the Saturday Evening Post. It is estimated that 500,000 people were evacuated by boat on 9/11.
You might want to run a story about this some day Matt. Not many people know about this act of courage.
Great story! I have seen Glenna and Dudley around for decades, proof that with care a well built wooden boat can last forever. Built by Butler helps.
Come on Troy…we will be there.
John in Va
Glenna Fay. What a boat!
Here is a link in regards to the 9/11 boat lift.
She looks rather small compared to the other boats helping rescue her. Which is understandable when you need to counter all the weight of the water in the boat to get the high enough up to pump out seawater.
we need more Bay Boats ( Chesapeake Bay Deadrise) featured on WoodyBoater.. RMR was the birthplace of many…. More white paint than varnish…. but thats what I like.. Many fond memories and stories from days on my fathers Skipjack back in the day.
🙏❤️
Great story, neat to see her still in use! Any explanation as to the tires on the madt in the old photos?