A Walk on the Water

A Walk ON THEWater

Walstrom Dock & Dredge today, operated by Andy Stillings and Zak Jones

By Ward Walstrom, Jr.

Unless you’re divine, walking on water requires a dock. That involves piling, timbers, and decking. Someone has to figure out how to drive pilings that support the dock. There are few blokes cut out to be pile drivers. Harbor Springs had a few, Fenton Roe and Fred Walstrom were two. They had the passion and desire to build docks so others could walk on water.

The evolution of pile driving started with the horse and then transitioned to steam. Next were air hammers on leaders held by cranes. The diesel hammer came later. Presently, vibration hammers are used. The advantage is that if dock materials are not straight, they can be easily vibrated back out and re-driven. Cranes have evolved to joysticks and hydraulics. Battery-powered hand tools have replaced electric cords around water for safety.

Any serious conversation about pile driving and dock building around Harbor Springs should include the name Roe. A 1905 abstract shows the Roe brothers owning the commercial dock extending from the Depot. Robert Roe owned the dock and building called, “The Boathouse” – later owned by Henry Melching and sold to Walstrom Marine. Robert’s son, Old Jim Roe lived on Main Street. He smoked a cigar and hung out in Earl’s Barbershop. Young Jim (Jimmy), his son, worked for Walstrom Marine doing dock work. Edward Fenton (Fent) Roe was Old Jim’s other son. The Roes began to build docks for large boats carrying freight and passengers. Docks were also needed for the saw mills at the Little Harbor Club site and off Zoll Street. The harbor was busy with commerce because it was very deep and naturally protected.

According to Fent Roe, the first barge was wooden and had a set of 20-foot fixed vertical leaders on the end with a drop hammer. On the barge, a horse walked around in a circle turning a wheel that pulled the hammer to the top of the leaders. Piling was floated to the job. A mechanism tripped the hammer from the top which dropped on the piling.

Ward Walstrom, Sr (Third from Left) Old Jim Roe (Far Right) approx. 1950

Walstrom Pile Driver, 1965

Buhl Dock, 1965

Around 1920, the next major improvement that replaced horse power was a coal-fired boiler and a steam engine that ran a winch to pull up the hammer.

Fent Roe had a steam driven pile driver and built many of the docks in the harbor from early 1900s to the mid-1960s. As residential cottages began to appear around the shore, Fent built private docks for tourists. He docked his equipment next to the city beach for easy access during this busy time. At this time, he also had his own property with a dock, which is now the current Sales Center at Walstrom Marine. Developments continued in the 1950s as Fred drove the wood wall in front of Zorn Park and the steel bulkhead for the city in front of the old tennis courts.

In 1960, Ward Walstrom, Sr. bought a small, 3/4-yard Insley crane and hired Roger Kieser to dig the boat basin that once was the Carey Saw Mill. Neither he nor Roger had ever operated a crane, so Ward’s story was they “got in the crane and started pulling levers.”

Fent Roe became friends with Fred Walstrom when he was looking for someone to take over his business. Fent was a good mentor to Fred. Fred recalls, “He was a crusty character who didn’t mince his words. When asked a simple question, he would answer either ‘hail yes’ or ‘hail no.’ He was a chain smoker, an acceptable vice around his smoky pile driver. Fent told me ‘You don’t have to buy new piling. Just pull out an old pile and turn it upside down and drive it again and charge for a new pile,’ a practice I would never agree to. There was a lot of spitting, sweat, and cussing on the job. One of the final jobs he held was driving the wood piling and wall around the Walstrom basin around 1961. The piling were local hardwoods cut outside of town.”

According to Fred, “My first dock job was with Mick Phillips in 1958. Wearing Aqua Lungs, we cut off six pilings with a crosscut saw under water at Sudler’s dock Fred Walstrom, 1979

for $20 apiece.” Building was in Fred’s blood from an early age, starting with a steel erector set in his childhood home which eventually advanced to a two-story tree fort in his backyard.

Walstrom Marine bought Frank Sears Dock & Dredge in 1965, naming it Walstrom Dock & Dredge. It included a barge with crane and a pile driver with coal boiler and steam engine. Both barges had spuds to hold them in place. It was a huge advantage that they didn’t have to be tied. Also the historically known tug “Ottawa” was included, along with its foreman, Lloyd Spears. In the summer of that year, Fred built his first steel dock for Larry Buhl.

Around 1967, with a barge, crane and air hammer, Fred drove 60-foot piling for the Pier Pointer Room and a steel sheet wall around its south perimeter. One challenge during this job was a large flowing spring that had to be diverted out the wall.

By the 1970s, Fred had replaced the wood wall around the basin with steel H-piles and precast concrete. As a civil engineer, he designed all the parts and re-rod. By then, pile driving had advanced to the diesel-driven hammer. It was easily recognized by its smoke and sound, ‘kachunk, ka-chunk.’ He designed all the buildings and docks for Walstrom Marine. With his gift for building and keen eye, he designed the new west building using laminated wood beams that were more attractive and environmentally friendly.

The construction around the bay didn’t stop there. Fred removed the Coast Guard dock at the end of Harbor Point. This made many of the cottage owners there recognize his talent and then contract him to build their docks. He removed the Pointer Dock at the hotel site. He drove all the steel sheeting on the Point. The Little Harbor Club dock and the January 1993, celebrating the last sheet for new wall. (L-R) Chuck Morrow, Tom Wiseman, Doug Pressler, Fred Walstrom, Randy Lauer, Ward Walstrom, Jr. docks and bulkheads in Boathouse row were rebuilt by him. The floating breakwater for the city and the steel wall for Irish Boat Shop was installed by Fred. He rebuilt the timber dock for Roaring Brook and the circular steel cell on the end. Other accomplishments included a steel cell dock on Lake Charlevoix and the docks around Harbor West in Traverse City.

“My crew worked summer and winter,” Fred explains. “We allowed the barge to freeze in at a location and used the ice as a work platform. We also cut ice from around docks in the winter before bubblers. Some of the tools essential for dock building were timber tongs, pike poles, come-a-longs, spuds, jet pumps, winches, air hammers, and underwater chainsaws.”

Fred remembers his most challenging and rewarding project, “Building the main dock and covered roof over the slips at the Boat House in 1977. We drove steel pipe and used precast concrete. I had to design a special roof frame to be high on one side to shed water to other side. The challenge was to design for wind load because it was similar to an airplane wing with more wind up than down. I had to design the connections for the wind load

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Boathouse New Roof, 1977

A Walk On The Water

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too. Then I had to use 60 foot piling because the first 47 feet of lake bottom was nonbearing silt. I drove the piling with only a 45 foot boom on the crane. The piling had to be floated and 10 feet had to be in the water. The top had to be in the exact location using a transit. My training in civil engineering was another tool.” Sometimes things didn’t go according to plan, recalls Fred. “Around 1967, the boom up lever was left in gear when the crane was turned off. The next day, the operator started it from the back and by the time he got to the front, the crane tipped over. Another time, we were picking up a spud with the crane when the chain broke and the boom toppled over the crane. At the time, we were a subcontractor building steel cells for Penn Dixie Cement Plant. At another subcontractor job building a runway on Mackinac Island, we got caught in a storm and had to cut the barge loose. It ended up on the beach at Brevort.”

Fred continually engineered everything to be stronger than normal. I knew that whatever he built would be better and last longer. He is a visionary. For example, he understood floating docks would eventually replace fixed docks. Fred built the first boathouse at Bay Harbor. “It was challenging to drive piling and sheeting through shot rock that had to be very precise,” he describes.

For most of his life, Fred Walstrom built or rebuilt the majority of the docks in and around Harbor Springs. Because of his engineering skills, determination, and eye for perfection, these docks are still standing – some even built 40-50 years ago. When you walk on the water, you will see them.

Introducing, MJM Yachts

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bonds these elements into high-strength unitized parts. The last step is to post cure (or bake) the hull, deck, and pilothouse structure, in a proprietary process requiring exact temperature controls and timing. The post-cure process increases the overall laminate strength by 30%.

With the new facility up and running, the first boats off the assembly line provided a bit of a surprise. While expecting improvements, the new decks were 35% lighter and the hulls 20%. This helped to lower the already impressive vertical center of gravity (VCG), resulting in increased stability.

Then it was time to shake things up with a new model, unlike anyone had seen from MJM before. The 3z was a departure from the standard line of thinking for MJM, but not for boaters. With boating habits changing with the times, many boaters had less time to enjoy on the water. Many day boaters wanted to have the same luxuries of stability, comfort, and performance that an MJM provided, but they weren’t looking for cruising yachts. The 3z is a very special Dual Console. She has the same DNA as all MJMs but offers a new boating experience for day yachting; incredible ride comfort, big water smoothness not found in any boats in this class, and a layout that connects three social zones for all aboard to enjoy. The 3z can best be described as “changing day boating,” the way luxury performance car manufacturers Porsche and Bentley changed the sport utility market.

Always looking to give boaters the very best, Peter turned his eye to the next model, the 4z. This is an open bow design like the 3z, but larger. She provides the entertaining and day boating capabilities of the 3z, but now adds the cruising comfort of the famous 40z with liveaboard accommodations. Able to sleep four in a large V-berth and amidships berth, the 4z also has a yacht size head with glass-enclosed shower. Unique for an MJM to date, the 4z is a galley up design, keeping everyone in the center of the action and making the most of the indoor/outdoor pilothouse design.

There are many more innovations on the horizon for MJM, but one thing will never change: MJM remains the most prestigious brand in its class and will always exemplify the very best that yacht building can be.