This is Bert Frost

by Scott Peterson

A boatbuilder, son of Will Frost, who escaped debtors prison in Canada by moving to Maine, where he built some very fast boats during the Prohibition. Bert started the lobsterboat (informal) races in Northern Maine in the 1950's. He used car engines, bored and stroked with devil's brew fuels!; the Jonesport type lobsterboat perfected by Will Frost who installed up to 3 - Liberty AC engines with wet exhausts in bootleggers' boats.

Bert was a friend of my family's. A gifted storyteller, he could tell stories for hours about genetic freaks (caused by intense inbreeding in Washington County, Maine and blasters from the quarries that dotted the Maine coast.)

My father worked for Crowell & Thrlow on schooners picking up granite first in the hold, then going up rivers to pick up sawn lumber to load on top. Schooners had steam donkey engines to raise sail/steam to heat foc'sl and to pump bilges (a constant chore on tired old hulls hogged by age, overloading and neglect.)

I got a glimpse of this life through my dad's stories (mostly untrue!).

My maternal grandfather was truly a saintly man who left bags of food at doors during the Depression. He was not an "exciting" guy...Lona, his wife, left him for a good dancer named Charles Allen, leaving two girls for Grandpa Barton to raise.

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