Vices and Virtues of Wood
Used in Shipbuilding and Lutherie
June 11, 2025 - 7pm
Bath Freight Shed and Zoom
Fred Gosbee
By the beginning of the 16th century, much of Europe’s primordial forests were gone. Wood was the “gasoline” of the age; needed for ships, wagons, gun carriages, and fuel for smelting. The search for quality lumber was one of the driving forces for exploration and colonization. Many of the species discovered in the Americas, Asia, and Africa were superior to native European trees for a variety of uses. I will discuss some examples of what they found and how it was used.
This is the fourth of the 2025 Summer Lecture Series. The lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Bath Freight Shed (27 Commercial St, Bath Maine). Recordings will be available here a couple of days later. You can also join by Zoom:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82691603464?pwd=thJSrwZb5OFZwcVuHBBS2n65wrmvar.1
Meeting ID: 826 9160 3464
Passcode: 728621
Phone: 309-205-3325
The lectures are free, but if you consider them valuable, please donate to Maine’s First Ship in person or online.
Fred Gosbee, singer, songwriter, and storyteller, plays classic and 12-string guitar, violin, viola and Irish flute. He learned many traditional songs from his family, who worked as lumbermen in the forests of New Brunswick and Maine. His original songs have been sung and recorded by other artists. Together with Julia Lane, he formed Castlebay, a musical duo which has been weaving together Maine’s nautical and British Isles legacies. Julia and Fred have loved and researched traditional music for most of their lives and blend history, legend and experience into their personable performances. Their renditions of traditional and original songs are supported with Celtic harp, 12-string guitar, fiddle & woodwinds. Fred has engineered most of Castlebay’s recordings and has also built Julia’s harps and many other instruments.
Fred has also been instrumental in the reconstruction of the pinnace Virginia with Maine’s First Ship. He created many of the wooden pieces of the rigging (spars, blocks, windlass, etc). As a sculptor, he created the three knightheads on Virginia.