Luther Little And Hesper

As the story goes, B.B. Crowninshield, former owner of the property where Fortier Boats now stands, bought the site from a shipbuilder working on a four-masted schooner named Luther Little, destined to carry freight along the coast. But a fire destroyed the yard and the boat in 1917. Crowninshield rebuilt Luther Little (left), as well as a sister ship, Hesper, completing both in about 10 months. “If you think about it, they had to pull together and start from scratch in a place that had burned down, with the lack of equipment that we have today,” says Somerset Historical Society curator Diane Goodwin. After Luther Little splashed, the launch of Hesper was scheduled for Fourth of July 1918 as part of the community’s festivities. But the next day’s headline in the Fall River Evening News read: “Keen Disappointment for Spectators of Expected Launching.” With thousands of people watching from both shores of the Taunton River and yachts thronging the bay, “the handsome vessel, after a thrilling start, stopped suddenly just as her rudder entered the water,” the newspaper reported. Under the schooner’s enormous weight, the ways settled into the soft mud at water’s edge. Despite almost daily efforts to get her off, Hesper remained stuck until Aug. 22, when an extreme high tide under a full moon floated her free. “So these are great old stories and a long history,” Goodwin says. “And the folks at Gladding-Hearn and Fortier are going on with it.”