From collection National Fisherman Collection
BALMY DAYS
Unidentified cabin cruiser tied up at an unidentified dock. On the other side of the dock the tour boat BALMY DAYS, Swan Island, Maine is tied up. The 60-foot Balmy Days was built in 1932 and launched on the Kennebec River’s Swan Island. Builder/owner/captain Charlie Wade immediately started the boat on a Boothbay Harbor-Monhegan run, which continued the boat’s whole career here. Most of our Balmy views show the boat docked at Simpson’s, later Ned’s Garage/wharf, at the passenger boat landing on Wharf Street. 1930s looks included a long, low cabin forward with room for three rows of seats at the bow. A canopy in back sheltered the aft open cockpit. Later the aft cockpit and helm were protected with a cabin, and both aft and forward cabin tops had seats on them. The trips ran from late June to early September and normally took an hour and 45 minutes with the twin engines. According to Wade’s son Charles “Chuck” Wade Jr., Wade was a hard, constant worker. In the summer he’d sleep aboard the Balmy as night watchman. If he came home after the Monhegan run, and later the Indian Island run, he’d hop right on a tractor at the Adams Pond Road house and keep working in the fields – still in his captain’s outfit.
