If we all could manage to live to the ripe old age of the Charles T, what stories we could tell. The 54-foot longliner/tender turns 101 this year, and the boat has received generations of love from myriad owners since it come to Alaska as a cannery shrimper back in the early 1920s.
James and Gayle Eastwood bought the boat in 1989, the year their daughter, Roberta, was born. The boat served them well as a family longliner during the halibut and blackcod fisheries, and they kept the boat busy with salmon tendering contracts by summer.
By winter, the boat receives a lot of love from the family in its upkeep. To date, the wheelhouse and foredeck have been replaced with aluminum yet with lines close to the original wooden house. The boat has been replanked almost in its entirety, and new beams of purple heart.
In keeping with the boat’s and family’s tradition, Roberta has been running the Charles T for tendering since 2017.
HOME PORT: Petersburg, Alaska OWNERS: James and Gayle Eastwood YEAR BUILT: 1919 FISHERIES: Halibut and blackcod longlining, salmon tendering HULL CONSTRUCTION: Wood, including fir, oak, sapele, sipo, greenheart, purpleheart, ironbark, ipe and mahogany LENGTH: 53.7 feet BEAM: 14.3 feet DRAFT: 6.2 feet TONNAGE: 31 tons gross, 26 tons net DECK CONSTRUCTION: Aluminum foredeck and wheelhouse DECK EQUIPMENT: Single boom with topping winch and picking winch CREW CAPACITY: Five MAIN PROPULSION: 1964 Cummins, 220 hp GEARBOX: Twin Disc 3.1:1 GENSET: Northern Lights 10.5 kW, 3 phase PROPELLER: Bronze three-blade 4” x 29” SHAFT: Monel tailshaft, steel main shaft 3-inch SPEED: 8 to 8.5 knots FUEL CONSUMPTION: 5 gallons per hour FUEL CAPACITY: 800 gallons FRESHWATER CAPACITY: 200 gallons HOLD CAPACITY: 27,000 pounds fish ELECTRONICS: Garmin radar and GPS map 1040xs and Furuno GaAs FET Front End; four-tone daylight display; Nobeltec navigational charts on Acer laptop; ComNav Autopilot 1101; IC-M59 and Furuno FM-2510 VHF marine radios; Furuno SSB transceiver FS-1501; Simrad Color Sounder EC-205; Standard MP5100012 intercom; EM camera system for longlining observer program
