ESSEX, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts shipbuilder has won recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts for his mission to keep a local maritime tradition alive.
Harold Burnham builds wooden schooners with a modern twist on techniques that builders used on the same waterfront land in Colonial times.
He is among nine artists across the United States to win a $25,000 heritage fellowship, which the federal arts agency awards annually.
The 45-year-old shipwright has built six schooners in all. Burnham says his goal is to keep traditional boatbuilding methods alive so he can pass them on to the next generation.
His hometown of Essex is known for building more two-masted wooden fishing schooners than anywhere else in the world.
