No one is too sure how salacious this story really is but it all started in 1936 with an older woman — described as a swinger — in San Francisco, a police boat captain, the woman's 10 year-old grandson and a long lost ship bell.
"The story goes in order to keep this boy quiet the captain gives this 10 year-old boy a bell. We don't know exactly how (the captain) got it, maybe it got dredged up during prohibition days," said Joshua Berger, captain of the Adventuress sailing schooner, which was moored at Britannia Shipyards the past three days for the Ships to Shore event.
"The boy was never allowed to call his grandma, 'grandma.' He had to call her Laura and he described her as a swinger. So we don't know what this means but this captain was hanging out with Laura," he said.
What we do know is that the 15-pound bell originally came from the Adventuress, built in 1913. It was lost in a fire in 1914 in San Francisco Bay and turned up again, in 1936, to be used as a bribe by the police captain, according to the boy, Alfred Lemos, a now-retired 88 year-old businessman.
"He said, 'You want this bell, kid?' I was 10 years old then, and I think it was a bribe to keep me quiet," Lemos told SFGate.com last month, after he returned the bell to the executive director of Sound Experience, the non-profit company that operates Adventuress in Washington State.
The bell still has the 1913 Adventuress insignia clearly marked on it and Lemos had asked his adult sons to search the Internet for the whereabouts of the tall ship. To his surprise he learned the ship still operates as an educational tool on environmental sustainability for thousands of curious mariners each year.
While the bell was a family heirloom for close to 80 years (used during cocktail parties) Lemos decided to hand it back.
"It's a great story and we're so pleased to have the bell back," said Berger.
Adventuress was one of two tall ships moored in Steveston for Ships to Shore.
"We sail the ship just as we would in 1913 but we have some of the highest technology below for navigation, refrigeration and all that sort of thing," said Berger, sitting on the deck at the helm of the ship's wheel, noting the original steering mechanisms.
Berger hopes to secure the proper paperwork from the Canadian Coast Guard and other regulatory bodies to offer the same programming here that is offered in the U.S.
"We're working real hard to offer educational programs up here. We have a little ways to go to get through the regulatory hoops here to carry passengers," said Berger.
If that happens Adventuress could soon carry Stevestonites away on short excursions at the next Ships to Shore.
One of the biggest goals of Adventuress staff is to educate others on the Salish Sea's unique ecosystem.
To learn more visit www.soundexp.org.
@WestcoastWood
gwood@richmond-news.com
