Frank Prothero’s Glory

When Frank Prothero began building wooden boats, Woodrow Wilson was in the White House, the electric range was touted as the latest kitchen miracle and pot roast sold for a nickel a pound.

Today Prothero is 88. And though his joints are stiffened by arthritis, he still rises by 4 a.m. six days a week, drives from his Lake City home to a Lake Union dock, and toils away on his latest wooden boat.

"I don't know any different," he said. "My father was a boat builder, my grandfather was a boat builder and my great-grandfather opened his (boat) shop here in 1870."

In the course of his career, Prothero has built or repaired literally hundreds of boats: tiny rowboats, graceful yachts, brawny tugboats and full-size fishing boats built to withstand Alaska's stormy seas.

But it's Prothero's current project that continues to amaze people: the 65-foot schooner Glory of the Seas, taking shape alongside a dock off Fairview Avenue East.

Read about Frank’s story in this 1993 Seattle Times article.

Our friends at Salt Water People Historical Society have written more here.