The late Willis Wilson was born in 1921 near Kilmarnock, where he started out as a boy working with his father in the pound net and haul seine fisheries.
He later moved to Deltaville and in the 1950s Wilson and George Montgomery opened a small railway on Broad Creek, primarily to work on their own commercial fishing boats.
Over time Wilson was the sole owner and ran the yard until he retired in the early 2000s. Wilson probably built a boat or two, but was known primarily for his boat repair work. He once said that there was more money in repairing wooden boats than there was in building boats. Willis did a lot of repair work on old boats.
Jay Henley, former owner of Henley Building Supply in Hartfield, who sold boat lumber to the boatbuilders of Deltaville in the 1980s and 90s, recently emailed this writer a story about Willis.
“Some of the local boatbuilders would buy some lumber from me,” wrote Jay. “Grover Lee (Owens) always bought his fir tongue and groove boards for his cabins from me. When he finished, a piece of furniture couldn’t have been better.
“I did learn that when these builders came for lumber, I just left them alone, as they were looking for particular pieces of wood with just the right grain and tight knots and they always neatly replaced the stack.
“One funny story was about when Willis Wilson came by and went out back to pick out a piece of lumber. When he drove back around front, the board was sticking out the back of his truck and had a crown to it about six inches.
“I asked Willis just what he was going to with it, as it must have been way back in the shed. He laughed and said, ‘Jay, I’m fixing a stem and it has such a crown to ’er. I’m thinking I won’t even have to take a bandsaw to her.’”
Willis’ name recently came up again in a conversation with Tuna Norris, whose late father Willard was a Deltaville boatbuilder. “My father often bought a boat and would fix it up and sell it to make extra money,” said Tuna. “One year he bought a boat owned jointly by two brothers from Tangier Island.
“On the day, the deal was going to be made at Willis’ boatyard, one brother came from Tangier with the boat and wanted his half of the money but wanted Willard to hold on to the other half and told him his brother would come get his money next week.
“Over the week, Willard got a call from the other brother who had changed his mind and did not want to sell his half of the boat. By then the boat was up on the railway. Willard said ‘that’s fine, I don’t want to sell my half of the boat but I’m willing to give your half back. We’ve got a chain saw here and I can cut her in half for ya.’
“The Tangier waterman called Willis and asked if he thought Willard was serious about cutting the boat in half. Willis said, ‘well, if I were you, I’d get over here as soon as possible to pick up your money for your half of the boat or figure out how you are going to get your half of the boat back to Tangier.’”
The waterman showed up the next day to get his money for his half of the boat.
It Happened Here in Rivah Country!
