Page 5 - MARCH2022

March 2022
NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM
Page 5
Community
ing around Newfound Lake.” It was during one of these difficult conversations that she reminded Russell that there were four young boys to raise, and his being a “gypsy” didn’t help. He told me then that the boat was in some ways a namesake and added that aboard the Gipsy, he always felt free, that it satisfied his wander- lust.
Shortly after our brief visit, Russell Mattice freed the Gipsy from its mooring and piloted the launch to the strait between Mayhew Island and Brown’s Beach. As he passed through the strait, he could see, far to the north, clouds gathering over the hills of Groton and Hebron. Unlike the excursions of earlier years, he was traveling alone. The solitude gave him time to reminisce about the joy of past voyages, but in darker moments during this lake journey, he was given to reflecting on a recent development that threatened to bring an abrupt end to his time on Newfound Lake.
Part Two in the April edi- tion of Newfound Lake Life.
for a closer look at the would-be shipwright and his work. The man appeared to be in his early sixties. He was hammering a long-handled mallet against an iron wedge that appeared to be driving white material between the boat’s draught planking. He was a short, brawny man. He wore glasses and a hat that cov- ered a bald head, as I would later learn. He was friendly and in- vited me to come closer for a bet- ter look at his work. He explained that he was inserting cotton be- tween the boat’s sideboards as he
hammered. He called what he was doing “caulking,” and as he explained the process; he spoke more than once that “she” was a “beauty.” As he spoke, I watched his mallet strikes carefully. His forearms were muscular. His hands and fingers were beefy. His left-hand fingers were adorned with two rings, a wedding band, and on his middle finger, a gold ring inscribed with the letter “G.” He stopped caulking when he reached the stern of the launch, and he set his tools down. It was time for introductions, which
went something like this:
“Are you Mr. Mattice?
Yes, I am, and I imagine you
are the Billy Mrs. Rand calls to sometimes during the day.
Yes, I’m Billy.”
The ensuing conversation was brief, mostly an interrogation of me by Mr. Mattice. Finally, after a few minutes, I left the shed impressed by my new acquain- tance’s interest in a young boy’s activities and happy that he had known my name.
I had another visit with Rus- sell Mattice before taking the lake launch on one of his summer voy- ages. It was 1955. I was 13 years old. The skipper had moored the Gipsy about thirty yards from shore in water deep enough to facilitate some fine-tuning of the two-cycle engine. On this Au- gust day, he was busy with that task. The mooring location was today’s roped-off swimming area of Cummings Beach. It was a popular spot to swim long be- fore Bristol took possession of what was to become one of the town’s two public bathing venues. I swam there often.
It was a warm day. I swam out
to the Gipsy, stood shoulder-deep in the water near the bow of the boat, and asked Mr. Mattice a question I had thought of often since first seeing the launch in the grey lakeside shed. How did this “beauty” of a lake launch get its name? So, I asked its skipper that burning question. He seemed gratified to be asked about the name and eager to answer. His response revealed how closely akin he felt to his boat and some insights into his personal life. I can remember the gist of his rev- elation. Russell admitted that, like gypsies, he was fond of being on the move. He said that was why he had become a long-haul truck driver instead of becoming the carpenter his folks wanted him to be. Apparently, he had passed by Newfound Lake on one of his milk trips from Concord to Bradford, Vermont. It was then that he got the idea of running a boat rental livery and piloting excursion launches. He shared his idea with his wife, Florence. She wasn’t happy that now he would add to his frequent ab- sences on the road, as he would be away even more often “cruis-
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