- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- maritimefishingshippingheritageeconomy
- Within
- Saint James Harbor
Summary
The Gallagher Dock was a Saint James harbor fishing and yacht dock built at the turn of the twentieth century, according to a February 1965 Beaver Beacon retrospective. The account says the Roe Brothers built it on more than 250 pilings; Booth Fisheries later bought it and rebuilt it on the original pilings in 1917; and “Young” James Gallagher bought it from Booth in 1933.
The source says the dock was demolished on February 8, 1965, when Jewell Gillespie’s truck winch pulled down the shed to make room for expansion of the Yacht Dock. The article remembers the dock as a center for large commercial fishing-tug landings, while preserving the source’s retrospective and incomplete character.
Fishing and boating history
The account says fish were once measured in tons rather than pounds and remembers catches of lake trout, whitefish, and perch. It identifies the Shamrock as the steam tug associated with the largest remembered catch, more than eight tons of lake trout, brought in by James “Shing” Martinson. It also lists many other tugs that called the dock home, but supplies no registries, dimensions, ownership records, or individual service dates for them.
Evidence and limits
This article treats the dock’s dates and ownership sequence as a local retrospective attestation, not a deed history. The plan printed with the story shows areas to be dredged, an existing dock to be removed, and new construction for the Seaker Island Boat Company, but it does not provide a surveyed location or establish the legal relationship among every dock label.
Open questions
- Can deeds, harbor plans, or photographs establish the dock’s exact footprint and the Roe Brothers’ identity?
- What records reconcile the “Allen’s (Gallagher) Dock” label with the later Gallagher ownership description?
- Which of the named fishing tugs can be matched to vessel registries or other local records?
See also
- Demolition of the Gallagher Dock (1965)
- Saint James Harbor
- James Gallagher ("Young James," 1965 dock owner)
- Jewell Gillespie (1965 Gallagher Dock demolition)
- James “Shing” Martinson (1965 Gallagher Dock reference)
- Shamrock (Gallagher Dock fishing tug, 1965 reference)
- Commercial fishing
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, February 1965, “Beaver Tales” (Gallagher Dock retrospective).Says the dock was built at the turn of the century by the Roe Brothers on more than 250 pilings, rebuilt on the original pilings in 1917 after Booth Fisheries bought it, bought by “Young” James Gallagher in 1933, and demolished on February 8, 1965 to make room for Yacht Dock expansion. It preserves a retrospective list of fishing tugs but gives no survey, deed, coordinates, or complete ownership chronology.