So, Indian didn't break her suction. That's what sank her. The pride of Capt. Ted Moulinier's Anglers Fishing Center fleet. The tide came up, but not the Indian.
Deny Howeth wrote a nice piece about Capt. Ted's loss in the Friday, Jan. 12 edition of the Cape Gazette. Great photography, too. It captured his sadness.
What does it mean that Indian never broke suction? Well, as Capt. Ted said, the blizzard that dumped almost a foot of snow along the coast was also accompanied by a supermoon that made tides extreme. In addition, the way that storm worked, as it headed up along the coast, it sucked water out of coastal estuaries and eventually used that extra water to slam into New England. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. While they were having record high tides up north, we were having record low tides here. "The tides in the canal were four feet lower than any I've seen," said Capt Ted. "It was a freak of nature."
He's been running party boats here for several decades and has seen plenty of storms and their accompanying tides come and go.
Lots of boats tied up in the canal settled into the soft mud of their slips. The longer they sat there, with the strong winds rocking them back and forth the way you put an umbrella stake into beach sand, the harder the mud gripped their hulls.
When the storm finally eased and the tide started to approach normal levels, the upward pull of the rising water on Indian wasn't enough to counteract the downward pull of the mud. That was the suction that did her in. "I bet she had 2,000 pounds of snow in her cockpit," said Capt. Ted. "I was snowed in my house at Swanendael for two days and couldn't get out to check her. When the tide came in, it came through her scuppers first, then filled her engine room, and then the whole boat was under water."
The engine was flooded with saltwater; all the wiring was ruined.
Capt. Ted said the Indian has a great hull. "Somebody can probably pick her up from the insurance company for $1,000 or $2,000. But she's going to need a lot of work. I just don't have it in me. And the insurance wouldn't cover what it would take to get her back into certifiable condition."
A real sweetheart
A Dorchester County, Maryland boat builder named Bronza Parks built Indian in 1953. "He built a helluva boat there. She was real seaworthy. A real deadrise. Flat bottom across the stern and then a slow, steady rise to a V in the bow. Longleaf yellow pine planks on white oak frames. And those planks are full-length. Forty-foot planks, ten-inches wide. They don't make them like that anymore."
Indian was powered by a 653 Detroit Diesel.
"Steve Knox had her built and kept her at Indian River," said Capt Ted. "She was the Cadillac of the fleet there for years and years. Many people have come by the dock to say how much they loved her, how sad they are for my loss."
Capt Ted said Knox owned Indian for many years before Marvin Schmick bought her and eventually moved her to Lewes.
"I bought her from Marvin 28 years ago. And now this. She was my little sweetheart. She built this whole company for me. It's a real sad chapter."
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. He blogs at www.capegazette.com/blogs/dennisforney. Contact Dennis at dennisforney@capegazette.com.
