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COMPASS ROSE OFF BATTERY PARKThis Genteel Lady' Hides A Lurid PastBy BILL BARRY Register Staff WriterShe sits there quiet—not sleek, but comfortable and serenq now, after her purple past.She's been mixed up in a lot of things: rum running, gambling, prostitution. At least one man almost went to prison for her. but her alabaster features don’t show it.SHEILA J. is respectable now. It cost $5,000 to make her so.Eight years ago. she was falling apart like any woman who has been mis-used. maltreated.Now her name is changed.Her 60 tons have been worked over inside and out. Every inch of her 75 feet has been renovatedShe's beautiful again and her name is Compass RoseJUST PAST DAWN. 11-year-old Allene James creeps out on deck and looks over the deserted docks at Battery Park.She carries a fishing pole. After bailing the hook she drops the line over the side and then sits down patiently to wait.Allene yawns and rubs her eyes with a sunburned hand. _Behind her, in the cabin, are the sleeping figures of Mamma and Poppa James and 12-year-old Beryl.“I WAS A SEAMAN once, says Harry James. The boat was all tied up in-litigation and the price was good. I bought her because itwas the biggest I could find and it look me closest to the sea again.“Every year we did a little more work on her, Ruby James says. All new paneling, mahogany. We put formica tops on all the tables and replaced the old crew quarters with a dining area. The engines, electricity, everything got a working over. Now it's our summer home.Last year we had her docked at Put-In-Bay and the kids went to school by airplane. They love it and so do wc.EVERYTHING CAME big in the '20s-bank accounts, houses, boats. An east coast industrialist built the Compass Rose at Annapolis, Md., in those flush, plush days, no expense spared. Christened the Frances III. she sailed head-on into the '29 crash.A gambler salvaged the Frances III from financial straits. Indulging an exotic quirk, he named her Phween II and introduced her to rum-running.WHEN THE GAMBLER died his successor brought the old gal to Sandusky as Shicla J.This owner had a quirk, too. The law caught him with several women aboard, plying an ancient trade. ’The owner got a five-year suspended sentence and a one way ticket out of town. Shiela J. stayed—paint chipping, beams sagging, a listless waterfront relic.THEN HARRY JAMES got his call to the sea. and Compass Rosc-nec Frances III, Phween II and Sheila J—set her course for another life.Local Girls Get A Li I. D_ :__
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Fri, Jul 13, 1962
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Elyria P.
OH, USA 31 Oct 2016
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