Defender: A 1939 Navy Whaleboat Returns to the Water

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:41:39 GMT

A 1939 Navy Whaleboat Returns to the Water

After nearly 40 years out of the water, Defender is floating again. Built in 1939, Defender is a 26-foot Navy whaleboat that has been part of Scott Wenger’s life since he bought her from a ferry captain on Long Island in 1987. Scott believes she may have served aboard a minesweeper during World War II, adding another layer of history to a boat that has accumulated many stories of her own.

When Scott first bought Defender, she quickly became part of family life. He took her crabbing and spent time on the water with his young family. After several years, he pulled her from the water and began working on her himself, approaching the restoration carefully and learning as he went.

Eventually, Defender came to Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op. What began as a restoration project would become a long-term undertaking—and, for Scott, an education in traditional boatbuilding.

Learning Traditional Boatbuilding Techniques

Scott describes Defender as his “boat school.” At the Co-Op, he had the opportunity to participate in the restoration and learn traditional boatbuilding techniques alongside Pete Rust and other shipwrights.

One of the biggest impressions for him at Port Townsend Shipwrights was simply seeing how quickly they could accomplish work that had once taken him weeks. At home, Scott might manage to complete two bent-oak frames over a weekend. At the Co-Op, he found himself putting in a dozen or more frames in a day. There was plenty to learn in the process.

Scott and his son worked together at the bandsaw, shaping planks and learning how to create the tapering bevels needed for a precise fit. The lumber was expensive, so there was little room for error. Scott remembers cutting a plank, putting it in place, and seeing just enough light through the joint to know it wasn't right—about the width of half a credit card. “Pull it out. Do it over.”

Getting it right became one of the most satisfying accomplishments of the entire restoration. When asked what piece of the restoration he was most proud of, Scott didn’t hesitate. “The planks. Getting planks to fit perfectly. That’s the story I tell people.”

Preserving the Shape of an Old Boat

For Pete, one of the greatest challenges of Defender's restoration was not simply replacing damaged wood. It was figuring out how to take apart a boat with so much deterioration while preserving the shape of the original vessel.

“There’s very little original boat there,” Pete said. That made the sequence of the work critical. When a stem is deteriorated and needs to be replaced, for example, other structural and planking repairs have to be carefully coordinated to preserve the boat’s shape. “With so much of the original structure gone, there is a real risk of changing the shape of the boat in the process of rebuilding it. You have to start putting stuff in, but you have to maintain that original shape,” Pete explained. “Without just accidentally distorting the original bow shape when there’s not a lot of structure left.”

For Scott, watching that process was an education in itself. He was struck by the way shipwrights used measurements, scaling, templates, and other techniques to recreate pieces that no longer existed. As a civil and electrical engineer, he found himself thinking about how those methods could apply to other kinds of construction. There was also the realization that restoration often means creating something that is not available off the shelf. A new stem, for example, was sculpted from purpleheart after the original oak stem had deteriorated and separated over time. Custom bronze fasteners were also made in the shop when necessary.

For Scott, those details revealed the depth of the craft involved. “You’re not buying parts off a shelf,” he said. “You get an idea of the kind of depth of the skill that you’re working with—all the skilled trades.”

A Family Project

Defender also became a family project. Scott's son joined him in the restoration, even though, as Scott tells it, he initially came to the project with a strong dislike of woodworking. That changed once he became involved. He learned to plank and took on increasingly complicated work as his skills developed. For Scott, having his son participate was one of the particularly meaningful parts of the restoration.

The project also connected Scott with another generation of the Co-Op. Pete's father was involved in making the pattern for Defender's rudder shoe, giving Scott the opportunity to see traditional patternmaking firsthand before the piece went to the foundry. It was a reminder that restoring an old boat can involve a remarkable chain of specialized skills: shipwrights, mechanics, patternmakers, foundry workers, and others, each contributing something to the finished vessel.

A Project Measured in Years

Defender's restoration has not been a straight line. After the initial period of intensive work at the Co-Op, there was a roughly 12-year break while Scott and his family saved money and made plans to return to the project. They now live on Cape Cod, but Defender has become one of the reasons they continue to return to Port Townsend.

Over the years, the project also became a friendship. Scott and Pete have known each other for more than a decade. Their families have evolved alongside the restoration, and returning to the Co-Op has become something like coming home.

Scott joked that the strange part now is seeing photographs of the people who started the project and realizing how much time has passed by young everyone was in the photos.

Back in the Water

Getting Defender back into the water was only possible after years of work and countless smaller steps.

The original three-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse engine that Scott brought with the boat was no longer practical to maintain because parts were unavailable. With plans to actually use Defender—including the possibility of one day circumnavigating Vancouver Island—the decision was made to repower her.

The replacement is a Norwegian Sabb, a single-cylinder, 10-horsepower engine. It may be a novelty in its own right, but parts are still available, making it a more practical choice for the boat's next chapter. And that next chapter is already beginning.

For Scott, Defender is more than a restored boat. She has become an anchor—a reason to keep coming back to Port Townsend, to visit friends and family, and to continue working toward whatever comes next. After nearly four decades ashore, Defender finally returned to the water. For everyone who helped bring her there, it was a long-awaited moment.

Defender’s return to the water is another chapter in a relationship that began for Scott in 1987 and has stretched across decades of family memories, learning, friendships, and restoration.

And, fittingly, the journey isn't over.

Welcome back, Defender.