WILLOW CREEK — William Thorne, the third-generation shipwright who presided over the final decades of Thorne & Sons Shipworks and made the painful decision to close the yard when the railroad rendered river shipping obsolete, died of pneumonia at his home on River Road on Tuesday. He was sixty-eight years old.
His death marks the passing of the last living link to Willow Creek’s founding industry. Born in 1833, he entered the family trade at age fourteen and worked every position in the yard, from apprentice to master shipwright overseeing the construction of the final vessel, the sloop Lydia Barnes, launched in 1882.
His obituary runs nearly two full columns and includes an engraving of the Thorne yard at its peak, showing the launching ways, the sawpit roof, and the ropewalk. The engraving is the only known image of the yard in operation.
“William Thorne was the last of his kind,” writes Harold Finch. “He belonged to an era when a man could build a vessel with his own hands, from the felling of the tree to the caulking of the final seam. That era is over. The railroad has brought a new kind of industry to Willow Creek. Mr. Thorne understood this. He accepted it. But he did not have to like it.”
The yard employed over 130 men at its peak. When it closed in 1891, only six remained. The railroad that killed the yard now carries the products of the Willow Creek Hardwood Flooring Company to markets across New England.
A private funeral will be held at the family home.
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