Author Description

Excerpt from Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr., 1885-1951 He was, first of all, a skillful sailor with a competence in seamanship that would have enabled him to be spectacular, if it had not always been repugnant to' him to act solely for the sake of making an effect. As a boy at Prides Crossing, where his great-grandfather and grandfather had been among the earliest summer residents, he had mastered the ways of boats. In fact, before he was in his teens, Gus, with a boy of similar age, had put to sea one day and - with out having warned their families of any such intention cruised to the eastward until they reached Pemaquid! This was the beginning of a life-long pleasure. For over forty years he regularly ranged the Maine coast, and in the month spent aoat each summer renewed his strength for the varied and onerous occupations that filled every wak ing hour of the remainder of the year. He chose his boats rather as he chose his clothes, for quality, serviceabilityand comfort. He cruised comfortably, too, and non-com petitively, without preconceived ideas of course or speed, planning from day to day as wind and weather indicated. By the end of the afternoon he would be in a sheltered an chorage, happily at work preparing a monumental dinner that would be preceded by a swizzle and accompanied by a bottle of wine. The very magnitude of his person sug gested the pleasures of the table, although anyone who saw him rowing an overloaded boat in a rough sea knew that much of it was muscle. Not only did he know and like good food; he could cook it also. His knack with pressure cookers allowed him to produce in a tiny galley, with neat and rapid dexterity, a dinner that would have done credit to a French cook. He rarely went ashore, except for we and provisions or to see an old friend, but when he did he knew how to behave in Maine. His father had owned much of Bartlett' 5 Island ln Blue Hill Bay and the Lorings under stood Maine people. About the Publisher Forgotten Boo