A replica, handmade wooden boat that pays homage to the early 19th century fishery on Martha’s Vineyard is headed to Mystic Seaport as part of the Connecticut museum’s permanent collection.
The so-called “Nomans Land” boat — typically a 20-foot-long, double-ended wooden sail boat — was used by Island fishermen to get into shallower waters around Nomans Island.
This particular replica of the Nomans was built by Giancarlo (“Carlo”) D’Antonio, a North Tisbury resident and avid sailor and builder who died last summer at the age of 81. His replica is called the Sfogliatelle, which he built with only hand tools.
“These boats are such a significant part of the history of Vineyard fishing in the early 19th century,” said Nat Benjamin, co-founder of Gannon & Benjamin, Vineyard Haven wooden boat builders. “They were widely used, sea worthy boats.”
D’Antonio’s family provided the Sfogliatelle to Gannon & Benjamin after he died in August. The local boat builders made the connection with Mystic to preserve the boat into perpetuity.
On Monday morning, a crew at the Vineyard Haven boat-building shop was loading the Sfogliatelle onto a trailer, where it was expected to take off to Connecticut in the afternoon.
Officials at Mystic were excited to retrieve what they consider a piece of history. The boats more than just popular on the Vineyard at the time but for lobster fishermen in Maine and elsewhere in New England.
“We liked to have a range of watercraft, and this is such a regionally important vessel,” said Shannon McKenzie, vice president of watercraft preservation and programs at Mystic. “We wanted to add to our collection.”
McKenzie said that the Sfogliatelle could be highlighted inside a new, 35,000-square-foot indoor exhibit space at Mystic called the Wells Boat Hall, which is expected to open next fall. Mystic began collecting boats in 1931, and the collection has grown to 560 vessels. But the majority, or 75 percent, remain in storage for private viewing. The new boat hall will offer an opportunity for the public to get a better view of the collection.
D’Antonio’s actual construction of the boat, completed at Tiah’s Cove in West Tisbury, was captured by the Martha’s Vineyard Museum as part of its oral history channel streaming on YouTube. The video was pieced together with interviews from 1980, 1999 and 2023 with oral history curator, Linsey Lee.
D’Antonio said that he built the Nomans Land boat using only traditional materials and tools for the entire project, including sawing and ripping boards. In the 1980s, they were popular in New England and D’Antonio said that he would never be able to afford to buy one, so he built one himself in a shed on Tiah’s Cove in West Tisbury.
Aside from the Nomans, he had also helped Gannon & Benjamin with some builds, and he worked on the Alabama tall ship, according to Benjamin. In the interview recorded by the museum, D’Antonio said that when he works on boats with hand tools, he finds joy.
“I spend most of my time working on homes to make a living,” D’Antonio said in the interview. “But when I work on a boat, I really feel like I’m doing something that satisfies me deep down in my soul.”
Giving context to its history, D’Antonio said that there were no natural harbors on Nomans; fishermen needed boats that could pull right up to shore and then easily cast off. The fisherman would often spend the nights on the island before returning with their catch. D’Antonio told the museum that he liked the idea of being able to pull right up onto a beach for a picnic or an evening, and then be able to cast off easily.
In the interview, D’Antonio said he named the Nomans Sfogliatelle after the Italian pastry because of the pronounced ridges visible along the side of the boat.
