MAINE LOBSTERBOATS: BUILDERS AND LOBSTERMEN SPEAK OF THEIR CRAFT by Virginia L. Thorndike, Downeast Books, Camden, 1998, 168 pages, $15.95.

“It’s a common belief among fishermen that if you whistle aboard a boat the wind will start to blow.”

I have heard of that old maritime superstition Virginia L. Thorndike mentions in her newly published book “Maine Lobsterboats: Builders and Lobstermen Speak of Their Craft.”

Years ago, when I used to go on overseas voyages, I once shipped with an old sea captain who had sailed on the last of the square riggers. I was whistling on watch and he stopped me, saying: “Enough of that, young man. The only time you whistle aboard ship is when [you] whistle for a wind, and we don’t need that now … we’re on a steamship.”

Lloyd’s of London, ’tis said, for many years would not insure a ship that was launched on Friday the 13th. I have heard that blue is an unlucky color for boats and engines, too.

I enjoyed “Maine Lobsterboats.” It explains things clearly, and the pictures and sketches are good. I also liked the author’s preface about her family’s pleasure boat (built on a lobster boat hull) and her trip, years later, to Islesboro to see the vessel — renamed Owl — under the care and operation of Went Durkee. Went’s tales of boats and lobster fishing are also a treat.

There are fine sketches of the “planked-down” type of wooden hull, of “skeg construction” and an illustration of a working lobster boat, its parts and how it got that way.

The boat Wandabob on the book’s cover was built by Ralph Stanley for Shirley Phippen of Southwest Harbor. Stanley is a top-notch builder of wooden boats who has built vessels of all kinds, including a schooner for Roger Duncan of Boothbay and a Friendship sloop for Richard Dudman of Ellsworth and Little Cranberry Island. But mostly, he has built lobster boats.

Will Frost of Beals Island is also given good mention. He was the first to construct a skeg-built boat — a very fast model. My son, Ted Jr., has one named Pandora, built at Beals Island. It was originally a plug for a glass mold.

“Maine Lobsterboats” has fine pictures of the torpedo-stern boats I used to see occasionally during the days of rum-running. One was for sale here in 1948. Dave Mills at the Oceanarium on Mount Desert Island has a large working model of this uniquely shaped craft.

There’s a nice bit of text on Beal & Bunker Boating Co. The company provides year-round ferry service to the Cranberry Isles. The Sea Queen, our most often used island ferry, was built by the late Raymond Bunker. Another of the Beal & Bunker boats is the Double B, built by “Chummy” Rich of Bass Harbor.

Spencer Lincoln, a lobster boat designer in Brooklin, is also singled out. Two of his models, both very successful, are the BHM-31 and the Duffy. Mac Pettegrow, a Southwest Harbor boat builder, calls the BHM-31, which has the same amount of cargo space as the Duffy, a “seagoing pickup truck” and an excellent work boat.

The chapter on the Holland family’s fast lobster boats was most interesting. Glen Holland based his design on the Jonesport-Beals boats he had always admired. The Hollands’ 32-foot Red Baron won many races and went to San Diego. A photo shows the boat at the marina there among the local yachts. It reminds me of my charter boat on sport-fishing winters in Florida, 40 years ago. There, our Maine-built boats were recognized for their efficiency and beauty.

I liked reading of Glenn’s dad, Corliss, and his fun in California with the Red Baron at the Sailboat Cup Races, and of “Gweeka” Williams of Vinalhaven, a lobsterman who also loves racing. I enjoyed his quips and quotes, one being: “I’ve seen times on a real foggy day in summer, when you couldn’t run aground if you wanted to because all of the ledges here was used up … there was a sailboat on everyone of them!”

“Maine Lobsterboats” brought back pleasant memories of my childhood on Little Cranberry Island off Mount Desert Island. I was born there in the 1920s. It’s a place of boats and boatmen and where I lobster fished for many years.

The book reminded me of my old friend, Arthur Spurling, known as “Chummy,” who lived nearby. He built rowboats in his upper boat shop and motor launches in his lower, larger one.

My first toy sailboat, as a small boy, was made up of two of his double-ended boat models that he took down from a shelf one day. He nailed them together and handed them to me with a smile. Dad rigged it up later as a sloop-rigged lobster smack. I still have it, but not in its original condition.

The double-ended, or “pick-ed” (peaked), stern boat was the first lobster boat, to my knowledge, that succeeded the Friendship sloop in Maine waters. Dad has an early double-ender. After a few years, he had it rebuilt to a square stern.

I asked Arthur Spurling once what the advantages of the “square sterner” were. He replied, “Roomier and steadier, but no more `able.”‘

Dad said his boat, after it was altered, wasn’t half the sea boat it had been. But then, it wasn’t built to be a square-sterned boat. I had a double-ender once, complete with a Model A Ford engine. It sure would roll at times, but was an able craft, especially in a following sea.

“Maine Lobsterboats” is a valuable book for anyone’s nautical library and I especially recommend reading Mac Pettegrow’s piece, “Reconciling the Lobster Boat’s Past and Future,” the next-to-last chapter.