From the early part of the Twentieth Century scenes like this became more and more frequent along the Texas Coastal Bend as boards warped, holes were punched and propeller shafts bent. Someone referred to a scene like this as a “Coastal Bend Still Life” and the people who lived in bluebonnet country laughed at those of us who painted them. We only smiled and considered the source, a “bluebonnet painter”.

Most of these derelicts have been shoved aside to make room for construction now, but in and around 1968 when I sketched this boat they abounded. This was a classic shrimp boat and I used the sketch in many watercolors. Manuel Hernandez contacted me to tell me he owned a watercolor of mine and sent me photo images of it. From the photo images I changed the coloring and added the low bright sun and the moisture rings.

The memories of hot humid mornings on the Texas Coast can have a surreal effect on a person. Long forgotten are the fishermen who laid the planks, attached the cables and hired a man with a tractor to drag these injured warriors out of the sea for much needed repairs. Repairs never completed for lack of funds and so our ancient mariner would trudge into town and get a job loading ice at the local ice company.

Life was hard during The Great Depression and for the aging fishermen it didn’t get much better during World War II because they couldn’t get parts and supplies to keep their proud bows slicing through the waves of the coastal waters.

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