Friday, November 7, 2025 Issue #195

From Dubois County

Hey Reader,

For about six months, I lived on a boat my friend, James, raised from the muck of Lake Union in Seattle.

She was a 43-foot, wooden-hulled Matthews Boat Company motor yacht.

We scrubbed and scraped and cleaned and painted her wooden structure in our off time. We dined, showered, slept, debated, and reminisced of our times in the Navy together in a constant blue-hued light from the tarp tied down across her flybridge to keep the perpetual Seattle mist out.

For years afterward, I would fall asleep to the memories of the gentle rocking of my berth and the music of the rigging on the boats in the slips around me as the waves from the passing shipping traffic gently slapped against her hull.

The boat's name had long been scraped from the hull, and we always referred to her simply as The Matthews. One day, I was using the minuscule shower on the boat and opened a wooden closet door. I think I was looking for a water heater to adjust the tepid water.

There, on a brass plate attached to the bulkhead was her name. The Rose and Thistle.

Scraping and painting and refinishing her decks, shedding bloody knuckles in her engines, and laughing in the galley over grilled sandwiches had brought an intimacy between us all and the boat. But, despite the plate’s etched declaration, she was no Rose and Thistle, and besides, what a horrible name.

Sailors believe a ship will suffer from horrible luck -be cursed- if its christened name is ever changed unless the boat has sunk and been salvaged.

A boat reborn from the watery depths can be given a new name.

Though a few mild attempts were made with some tongue-in-cheek ideas — “For Sale”, “Sunk Once, Twice Shy”, she remained The Matthews for as long as I lived in Seattle.

After I left Seattle, my friend continued working on her, and when she was cleaned up enough and had served her purpose for his life, he traded her for a tugboat for his dive company.

The tugboat is named Alisha Ann.

Have a great weekend.

From Dubois County with love.

Matthew and Amy Crane

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We have a community calendar full of great activities and events happening in Dubois County.

If you have an upcoming event you'd like the public to know about, please add it to our calendar.

​See it here.​

​Dane Tyler Campbell, 40​

​Streicher Construction offering Sign-on Bonus for Working Foreman​

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