Boston’s wooden rite of spring
Spring sneaks upon Bostonians in three stages. First, it’s opening day at Fenway Park, then, the unveiling of the swan boats, and finally the Boston Marathon.
Fenway’s been renovated. The marathon’s distance and path have been altered. But the swan boats, a 134-year-old Boston institution, are an experience that remains unchanged.
The cruise is a serene 15-minute sail on a boat adorned with a large white swan. Workers take turns paddling through the Public Garden’s lagoon, which is dotted with weeping willows and blossoming dogwoods.
“There’s so few things that you did as a child that you can replicate completely,” said Lyn Paget, the freckled great-granddaughter of Robert Paget, who launched the boats in 1877. Lyn is the fourth generation to run the boats.
The affair is simple enough, but the boats are complicated. More than 25 non-interchangeable parts compose each of the six vessels, one of which dates back to 1910. The pieces, all custom-made, are assembled each spring and dismantled each fall.
The swan was inspired by the opera “Lohengrin,” in which a knight comes to the aid of a princess after crossing a river in a boat pulled by the bird.
Around 8:30 each morning, workers (usually college or high school students) sweep the dock, polish the boats’ golden brass and tie American flags atop each pole. At 10 a.m., from April to September, the first ride commences, except in rain or intense wind.
Boat worker Lindsay McSweeney, 18, ran the Boston Marathon on April 19. The next day, she pedaled people around the lagoon 20 times. McSweeney, whose hair was tucked in an embroidered blue hat, calls her part-time job “paid exercise.”
The ride is old-fashioned: there’s no tour guide, nothing to touch. It’s quite a deviation from modern Disneyland-like attractions. On a recent ride, there was a slight breeze, causing the green weeping willow branches to sway as ducks skimmed the water close to the boat.
Observers were quiet, inhaling the scenery of the Public Garden (the nation’s oldest botanical garden), which is dotted with plots of purple, yellow and pink tulips.
For many, the boat rides are a family tradition.
Rosanna Moakley, 69, remembers finishing family outings in the garden with a boat ride. She’s done the same with her four children, and on a recent afternoon she was taking her 3-year-old granddaughter for her first ride.
Paget, 50, said she remembered elementary school field trips to the garden.
“It made me feel kind of cool,” she said with a chuckle. “It was neat to come to my dad’s work with all my friends.”
The swan boats can make you fall in love with Boston, or just fall in love. Six to 10 proposals occur on the lagoon each season.
“It’s a memory-builder for people,” Paget said.
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