For years, “Gloria” was a glorious sight.
Alan Sterling built the wooden oyster boat himself. He named it after an old girlfriend, and took it oystering on 150 acres of beds, between Compo Beach and Cockenoe Island. It was a tough job, but Alan — a Staples grad — loved it from the day he began, in 1964.
Alan moored Gloria in Gray’s Creek, between Compo Beach Road and the Longshore exit. Some winters, he lived on the boat. It was cold — but it was home.
On July 4, 2014, Alan died of a massive heart attack.
Since then, Gloria has just kind of drifted. She was Alan’s baby, and now he’s gone.
The other day, “06880” reader Bruce McFadden spotted Gloria abandoned, on the Gray’s Creek shore.
Gloria, on the Gray’s Creek shore. (Photo/Bruce McFadden)
He wonders if anyone has plans for the boat. The Honda outboard has value. Perhaps, he says, funds from its sale could be used to place a plaque or bench at Longshore’s E.R. Strait Marina, honoring one of Westport’s last commercial fishermen.